RPK revising history, says PKR man

PKR strategy director Rafizi Ramli denied today a claim by Raja Petra Kamarudin that a 2007 meeting in Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah’s house was meant to block Datuk Seri Najib Razak from becoming prime minister in favour of the veteran Gua Musang MP.

Rafizi said the meeting, which took place in October 2007, did not touch on Najib at all and was organised by bloggers loyal to former Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad who wanted to see an end to then-Prime Minister Tun Abdullah Ahadm Badawi’s administration.

“Raja Petra is revising the story to suit him,” said Rafizi (picture), who was then a senior manager with state oil company Petronas.


Dr Mahathir had stepped up attacks on Abdullah from 2007 until the latter stepped down in April 2009.

It was widely seen to be due to his unhappiness that Abdullah had dismantled his legacy from his 22 years as prime minister, including cancelling the “crooked bridge” project to replace the Causeway linking Johor and Singapore.

Raja Petra said today that a conspiracy that linked Najib to the Altantuya Shariibuu murder was so that Tengku Razaleigh, popularly known as Ku Li, could become prime minister.

His claim came a day after an interview with him appeared on the pro-government TV3 channel where he denied accusing Najib’s wife Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor of being at the scene where Mongolian model Altantuya was killed.

“The whole objective of this exercise was to block Najib Tun Razak from taking over as prime minister. If (Tun) Abdullah Ahmad Badawi can be forced to resign, and if Najib can be blocked from taking over, then Tengku Razaleigh could become the next prime minister,” he wrote in the Malaysia Today news portal which he edits.

Raja Petra, popularly known as RPK, said that a meeting attended by about 30 people was held in the former finance minister’s office where an aide of his, Nik Azmi Nik Daud, was the main speaker.

“The purpose of this meeting was to explore how it can be engineered so that Tengku Razaleigh can take over as prime minister,” said Raja Petra, who is currently self-exiled in the United Kingdom.

He named several people who attended the meeting including Umno bloggers and Rafizi.

However, Rafizi said that there was “nothing said about Najib, Rosmah or Altantuya at the event.”

“Those who spoke just expressed their disgust with Abdullah and said that only Ku Li could save the country.

“Najib was not even a factor because the view was that he was too spineless to challenge Abdullah,” he said.

He added that this was before the landmark March 2008 general election which saw Barisan Nasional (BN) ceding five states and its customary two-thirds majority in Parliament.

“So everyone thought BN was invincible and that Abdullah could only be replaced by someone else from Umno. Ku Li was seen as the only one who would mount a challenge since he’s done it before,” referring to when the Kelantan prince nearly unseated Dr Mahathir in the Umno polls of 1987.

“But Ku Li did not take the bait. He said he wanted to see the support first otherwise if no one from Umno backed him, he would be screwed,” Rafizi said.

He said that he had attended the event in a personal capacity as Raja Petra had invited the late Adlan Benan Omar who was a mutual friend.

Rafizi said he agreed to go as he had not seen Raja Petra, who he first met in 2003, for some time.

He said that Raja Petra’s interview on TV3 was an attempt to discredit both Tengku Razaleigh and Opposition Leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim as both are the clearest threats to Najib.

However, Rafizi said he did not know why Raja Petra, who has previously been widely celebrated by the opposition, was making this claim now as he has not spoken to the controversial blogger since May 2009.

By Shannon Teoh