Musa Hitam has been described, not infrequently in recent years, as the "best prime minister Malaysia never had".

The suggestion of tantalising potential rendered unfulfilled for lack of opportunity, or by quirk of fate, places this description firmly in the category of topics that can be counted on to work up a head of steam should the after-dinner conversation droop in political saloons, febrile now with talk of how things have come to be the way they deplorably are.

The question of whether former deputy premier Musa would have made it to prime minister and whether that would have been a good thing for the country meaning, it would not have conduced to the present state of affairs - has returned with some piquancy.

This follows revelations in a biography of Dr Ismail Abdul Rahman, released earlier this year, that show the redoubtable former Umno No 2 as having commended Musa over Dr Mahathir Mohamad to Abdul Razak Hussein as replacement for the party's top-tier of leadership, then rapidly depleting in its ranks through superannuation, illness and incapability. This was the early 1970s.

Speculation about the what-might-have-been had Musa's once promising trajectory not gone off course in the mid-1980s is certain to strengthen with the publication of The Unmaking of Malaysia by Ahmad Mustapha Hassan.

Truer bearer of Razak's legacy

A nephew and sometime aide of Mahathir's, Ahmad purports to argue that Mahathir is not a true heir of Razak's though Malaysia's second prime minister evinced a higher regard for the medical practitioner than for Musa. Ahmad implies that Musa was the truer bearer of Razak's legacy.

Ahmad Mustapha, in remarks made before Musa launched his book in Kuala Lumpur yesterday, said enough to up-end the belief that Razak had preferred Mahathir over Musa though, in Razak's presidential policy address to the elective 1975 Umno annual assembly, he mentioned Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah, Ghafar Baba and Mahathir as capable leaders. That had the effect of influencing the vote and all three were duly elected at the assembly as Umno veeps.

The unmentioned Harun Idris, then powerful Umno Youth chief and vice-presidential candidate, ran short of Mahathir for the third veep slot by 40-something votes. Razaleigh and Ghafar topped the tally.

Ahmad Mustapha said he had a hand in drafting Razak's policy address. The non-mention of Musa, he said, was due to Musa himself interposing to avoid a citation. He suggested that the notebook-and-recorder crowd, who were in unusually large attendance at the book launch, search Musa for the reason.

But the press, laying siege to Musa after his fairly interesting remarks at the launch, were ravening for his opinions on current affairs and not missed opportunities. However, the former deputy PM resolutely declined to be drawn on the contagion of controversies currently roiling national affairs.

Musa said he has retired from politics and that while he may have an opinion in private, it was not proper for him to air his views on a public occasion. He had not the facts, he said, as those in power presumably had, and that he was content to allow them to do as they saw fit.

Of course, Musa's non-committal stance proved a dismal disappointment to the press. A master of the elliptical comment, Musa had earlier said quite a lot in his remarks at the launch of the book. Mainly, he offered that in Razak's time the main criterion of assessment of a potential leader was "Can he work?, Can he deliver?, Can he perform?"

'Can we trust him?'

Musa lamented that the criterion had mutated over time to "Can we trust him?" He said this change was decisive in setting the tone that presently prevails. In other words, a meritocratic criterion had metamorphosed into a loyalty test.

As to whether this was the prevailing ethic of the Abdullah Ahmad Badawi administration, Musa, a friend, well wisher and - candid enough to avow it - a beneficiary of Abdullah's patronage, declined to be drawn.

It has been said of Musa that he is too subtle for Malaysian politics. But why all his past immersion in multifarious Malaysian culture, an immersion he lauded as both good and necessary for the training of aspiring Malaysian leaders, did not tell him so is a mystery.

But he seems untroubled by it, not least by the fact that he came so close the top of the greasy pole but did not conquer, like the hapless RAB Butler - the British Conservative Party leader who twice missed out on being prime minister of Britain - after Anthony Eden resigned in 1956, forced out by the Suez crisis, and when Harold MacMillian quit in 1964, succeeded by Alec Douglas Home.

Musa, an upbeat Butler, sounds like a disappointing coda to a once bright career.

2-min video of book launch by Musa