The Prime Minister brilliantly provided the soporofic UMNO delegates wanted to confront the ghost of Dato' Seri Anwar Ibrahim that hovered over the three-day general assembly, which ended last night, like a labyrinthal nightmare.  He got the footsoldiers back on the straight and narrow to battle the two political parties which he insists is tearing the country asunder.  But he could not wish away the internal
contradictions within which had nothing to do with either Parti Keadilan Nasional or PAS.  What this assembly revealed -- if revelation was indeed necessary -- is that the Prime Minister has lost none of his strategic or tactical brilliance.  This however comes with one condition:  that he should hold general elections sooner than later if that superficial UMNO unity he patched over the weekend is to be maintained.  Clearly, the Anwar affair grates.  His ghost was the unseen delegate, with everyone
-- from the Prime Minister to the most humble delegate -- framing every response with a conscious look towards Sungei Buloh.

     But this assembly also saw the re-emergence of the Hermit of Langgak Golf in UMNO affairs.  Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah was the UMNO member almost every one talked about.  The deputy prime minister, Dato' Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi would be discomfited by this development. The Prime Minister, after threatening to spring a surprise at this assembly, eventually did not.  Tengku Razaleigh's return to central politics now is a surprise only in that the Prime Minister brought him back to confront only when the barbarian hordes of the UMNO Genghiz Khan were at his gates.  Suddenly, UMNO politics is complicated by Tengku Razaleigh's clear signal that he is not one to be ignored in the leadership stakes. The Prime Minister would not allow him to join the reorganised UMNO, formed after the original UMNO was made illegal by the High Court;  he formed Semengat '46 and seeming marginalisation; returned to UMNO but
not in its affairs, remaining out of the limelight but keeping his options open.  The Prime Minister kept him out of the inner circle until the Anwar affair, but his first attempt to bring him into the government as deputy prime minister last December was stalled by the UMNO Supreme Council;  he holds no elective office but that of division chief of Gua Musang, his parliamentary constituency. The Prime Minister now gives him the poisoned chalice by appointing him liaison chief for Kelantan, virtually challenging him to work his royal magic in the state where his nephew is Sultan and the Sultanah the daughter of his sister.  In 1978, it was he who destroyed the PAS hold on the state after 19 years in office;  it was he, aligned with PAS after the UMNO split in 1987, and routed UMNO on to the opposition benches there.  There is no love lost now between the Tengku and PAS.

     The Prime Minister needs him, but fearful of him at the same time. The two men are personable to each other, but politically at odds.  The intriguing question is if he would challenge the Prime Minister for the UMNO presidency next year.  He professes no such intent, but his aides say he looks to the divisional nominations as an indication of his support within the party.  He would not challenge Dato' Seri Abdullah
for the deputy presidency, but could well if by the time of the UMNO elections there is a new Prime Minister.  The uncomfortable support for him within UMNO is as concentrated as, if not more, than possibly even Dato' Seri Anwar Ibrahim's was in his heyday.  His strength -- and this becomes crucial amidst the convulsions within UMNO -- is that he is not tarred with the scandals and miscalculations of the present leadership.  He becomes one who could be pressed upon to take over the reins in the Mahathir aftermath.  Within this view, Dato' Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi is seen as Malaysia's Habibie to Mahathir's Suharto. This is not as farfetched as it would seem. 

     Tengku Razaleigh's re-emergence in national UMNO affairs now makes him do double duty.  Few believe UMNO could unseat PAS in Kelantan, especially since the party is divided so badly there, with the Anwar camp in UMNO strong and disgruntled, with the local chieftains cocking a snook at Kuala Lumpur.  But that was so in 1978.  He does not have time on his side, but his undoubtedly political instincts should not be rubbed out.  Besides, his refusal to immerse himself in UMNO party politics on his return -- this is still seen by some as his superflousness in UMNO -- while maintaining his links with his supporters makes him an eminse grise within the party whose greatest role could still be down the road.  There is a belief -- I heard it again from some highranking UMNO stalwarts over the weekend -- that the political bracketing of the education minister, Dato' Seri Najib Tun Razak, came after he appeared to have moved towards the Hermit after the deputy prime minister was appointed last December.  On the principle that my enemy's enemy is my friend, the Anwar crowd in UMNO instinctively look upon the Tengku with more than sympathy.  I have not met Tengku Razaleigh for a chat for more than six months, so I do not know how he makes of all this.  I have never written him off from Malaysian politics, believing he is the joker in the UMNO pack.  The UMNO general assembly just concluded confirms this view. 

M.G.G. Pillai
pillai@mgg.pc.my