Pembuka kata:

Hairan juga kita, pandangan Ku Li terpancar di benua Singapura tetapi tidak pula tercetak di tanah melayu walaupun ia terkenal satu waktu dulu dengan pendekar sejarah purba. Dunia persilatan tanah-air kini sudah tercemar, mereka bersilat untuk membuka dan menutup muka sahaja, alih-alih tolak dan tarik kekata sehingga kalah semua sandiwara teragung di dunia.

Kekalahan BN di lunas menyaksikan munculnya pelbagai penulis yang masih cuba hendak menyalahkan pihak pembangkang lagi tidak sudah-sudah, seolah-olah pihak BN betul belaka dalam semua perkara. Akhirnya wadah dan cerita yang dipaparkan hanya layak menjadikertas pembungkus cuma, itupun kalau tidak dikitar menjadi tisu kertas dibilik yang busuk baunya. Yang selebihnya pula akan melahirkan pendekar meloya sahaja.....

Saya ingin menterjemahkan beberapa hujah yang agak penting dalam rencana STS kali ini dengan ringkas sambil tokok tambah:

Budak Tua Kuat Degilnya

Menurut Ku Li, umno memerlukan idea-dea baru, orang yang muda yang berbakat dan dapat membimbing generasi muda. Perubahan perlu untuk mengadaptasikan pemikiran muda hari ini.

Selagi budak-budak tua yang dah lapuk itu menerajui negara umno hanya mengundang kegelapan di penghujung perjalanan. Rakyat sudah berubah, tetapi pemimpin yang ada masih tidak ingin merubah sikap. Sebaliknya mereka menyalahkan pokok yang muda tetapi lebih tinggi dan subur dari mereka. Padahal hasilnya nanti untuk rakyat juga.

"Kami dengar banyak rintihan ramai golongan muda mahu memasukki umno, tapi pemimpin umno nampaknya macam tidak berupaya menemui mereka walaupun diperingkat bahagian.", kata Ku Li.

"Saya percaya kepada reformasi. Jika orang menyokong anda, anda akan kekal berjawatan. Pertarungan dan perbalahan tidak semestinya menyebabkan perpecahan jika anda menjaga dekorum dan melakukan sesuatu dengan jujur, saling menghormati serta mengikut batas-batas tertentu.", tambah Ku Li lagi.

Dalam temuramah dengan STS, Ku Li sengaja tidak mahu membidas Mahathir terang-terangan. Dia menguis ketepi sahaja.

"Saya tidak kata Dr Mahathir patut kekal selamanya..."

"Saya fikir Dollah tidak akan menngambil tempat presiden dari Mahathir sekarang kerana Mahathir tidak kelihatan mahu melepaskan jawatan itu. Itu adalah fakta"

Inilah yang berlaku dalam umno. Mereka sanggup menunggu orang lama biarkan kalah di Lunas sehingga termalu olehnya. Lama-lama umno akan menjadi bahan ketawa dan berkubur tidak bertanda, Bila itu berlaku menangis satu tempayan pun sudah tidak berguna. Walaupun ianya mungkin satu sandiwara......

Ku Li dan Kuku Tumpulnya

Kepimpinan umno nampaknya tidak selesa dengan pertandingan jawatan tertinggi parti sejak 1987 - thuan dimana Ku Li mencabar Mahathir untuk jawatan presiden parti. Akhirnya parti itu berpecah dan diistiharkan haram oleh mahkamah. Ku Li menubuhkan S46, tetapi dia kembali semula ke dalam umno (1997) tanpa mendapat apa-apa pulangan yang kelihatan. Ku Li juga tidak dapat menyumbangkan apa-apa yang berkesan kepada umno khususnya semasa pemilu yang lepas. Dia juga tidak diberikan sebarang jawatan kerana jawatan itu akan menyebabkan dia dikelilingi oleh ramai orang... bukankah Mahathir sudah lama merancang? Kini Ku Li nampaknya sudah pupus timbul tenggelam dihantui seribu bayangan kerana gambar beliau yang bertengkolok itu sudah lama menikam perasaan. Maka beliau menjadi gurka moga-moga ada yang kasihan. Malangnya kasihan tidak ada dalam umno - yang ada cuma wang!

Ku Li dan Sayap Patahnya

Kita perhatikan Ku Li kini amat jarang mendapat liputan media tempatan. Itulah yang berlaku bila sayap sudah dipatahkan.... ayam Kelantan ini sudah tidak bisa terbang. Dia perlu menunggu sayap yang baru untuk tumbuh tetapi dia tidak pula mengamalkan pemakanan yang sihat berterusan. Sayang umno tinggal-tinggalkan.... itulah perubahan yang sepatutnya dilakukan jika Ku li memang anak jantan.

Rencana Rujukan:

From The Singapore Straits Times
9th December 2000

Umno 'needs new ideas, leaders for vibrant future'

Party veteran Razaleigh says it needs young leaders and a new policy to fire the imagination of people if it is to survive beyond the 2004 polls

By Joceline Tan
IN KUALA LUMPUR

YOUNG leaders who can inspire the young generation, a new policy to fire the imagination of the nation, and a brand of genuinely committed and diligent politicians.

These were some of the ingredients that the Kelantan prince and Umno politician Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah identified as crucial for the revival of Umno and even its survival beyond Malaysia's next general election due in 2004.

He said: 'What is needed now are new ideas, a young man to lead the country and inspire the young generation. We need changes in line with the thinking of the young.

'Until and unless the Umno boys get their act together and start behaving like politicians with a cause, Umno has no future.'

He said Umno had engineered tremendous change for the Malays in the last 20 years.

'The people changed but we failed to manage the change. We did not adjust to the change.'

Tengku Razaleigh is Member of Parliament for Gua Musang, a far-flung constituency in Kelantan.

The younger set in Umno, he added, had grown stereotyped.

'We hear of complaints that not many young people want to join Umno and the Youth wing has problems assembling even a small crowd at branch levels.'

He said the recent by-election loss in Kedah boiled down to the fact that Umno members and even its leaders were no longer interested in party work.

Like many Umno politicians, Tengku Razaleigh was deeply concerned over the election outcome in Kedah.

The loss, coming so soon after a lacklustre performance in last year's general election, has been characterised by some as the beginning of the end for Umno.

Tengku Razaleigh said the opposition took the seat because the component parties in the Barisan Nasional were not committed to winning.

He said Umno could groom young leaders by taking a positive attitude towards contest in the party.

'I believe in renewal. If people support you, they will keep you. Fights and contests do not always lead to splits if you maintain the decorum and do things honourably and within the limits.'

The Umno leadership has been uncomfortable about contests for top party posts since 1987, the year Tengku Razaleigh challenged Dr Mahathir Mohamad for the leadership of Umno.

The party was split down the middle and eventually declared unlawful by the courts.

Tengku Razaleigh has come a long way since his days as one of the most influential men in Umno.

Back then he was widely seen as prime ministerial material.

But his political star began to fade in the 1980s and after the 1987 defeat at the hands of Dr Mahathir, he and his supporters were barred from the new Umno.

They formed their own political party and together with Parti Islam Se-Malaysia, took control of the state of Kelantan in the 1990 election.

But his party fell out with PAS several years later, and in 1997, he led his supporters back to Umno.
===============================
Q&A
Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah speaks to Straits Times correspondent JOCELINE TAN about Malaysia's politics

Q: Your political plans?

A: I have none (but laughs loudly).

Q: How are things between you and Dr Mahathir?

A: I'm always comfortable with him. In fact, he was at my house on Tuesday night to break fast.

Q: Some people in Umno blame Dr Mahathir for Umno's problems?

A: That's what everybody is saying, but is it true? That's the big question. But if Dr Mahathir leaves the scene, will it solve the problem?

I'm not saying Dr Mahathir should stay forever and I'm not saying Dollah (deputy Umno president Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi) cannot take over. I'm just asking: Can anybody take over?

Q: Your views on the three vice-presidents.

A:Shall I say they are going to be vice-presidents for sometime yet (laughs). I think Dollah is not about to take over from Dr Mahathir just yet because Dr Mahathir does not even pretend he wants to leave. That's a fact.

Q: Non-Malays are concerned about the growing force of PAS.

A: Not only non-Malays but Malays.

PAS in power means a change in the way things are now done.

But I don't think that will happen.

I think there will be a deep sense of realisation among the Malays and they will come back to Umno. But not before drastic changes are made.

http://straitstimes.asia1.com.sg/