“My candidacy not up to Umno president” - Ku Li

KUALA LUMPUR - Gua Musang MP Tan Sri Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah emphasises that his candidacy in the 15th General Election (GE15) will only be determined by the Umno grassroots in his parliamentary constituency, not by the party’s president Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi.

This, the former Umno Advisory Board chairman said was because there was nowhere in the party’s constitution which stated that only the party’s president has the right and power to determine who was the most qualified to be an election candidate for each constituency.

He said although the president of the party was considered as having the authority to sign the letter of appointment of election candidates, it was just a tradition in Umno since the late first Umno president Tunku Abdul Rahman Putra Al-Haj’s time.

He said under Tunku Abdul Rahman's leadership, the president was given the honour of determining who the eligible candidates were.

“Tunku Abdul Rahman was someone who did not practice favouritism and would evaluate a candidate in accordance with suitability in each of the proposed constituencies. The same goes to Tun Abdul Razak Hussein (the second Umno President).

"Despite having power, they had not abused it and would still listen to the views voiced out by their subordinates. That is true leadership, they must be sensitive with the opinions and concerns of the grassroots, " he said in an exclusive interview with Sinar Premium on Tuesday.

He said this when commenting on whether he will remain to contest in GE15.

This follows the announcements by many veteran leaders such as former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad and former DAP adviser Lim Kit Siang who stated their decision to bid adieu to politics and would not be contesting in the coming general election.

For the record, Tengku Razaleigh, 85, or better known as Ku Li was the longest serving MP in Malaysia since 48 years ago when he became Hulu Kelantan MP in 1974.

Commenting further, Ku Li revealed that he should have decided to retire from politics after the last two government administration terms.

However, the former Finance Minister said the Umno grassroots in the Gua Musang division did not want to let him go and were determined not to support other candidates if he did not offer himself to contest.

“That is the problem and I just have to agree to contest because I was afraid the party at the division level would fall apart.

"They will discuss with each other and I will finally abide by whatever decision that is made later," he said.