Zaid outlines blueprint for Pakatan government

By Leslie Lau, The Malaysian Insider

Datuk Zaid Ibrahim has offered the public a glimpse of a Pakatan Rakyat (PR) federal government by outlining a common platform that includes an anti-discrimination law, abolishing the ISA and relaxing of legislation like the Sedition Act and press laws.

Zaid, who has been given the job of casting in stone common ground for the disparate alliance criticised for having no shared ideology, said a PR administration would also introduce an economic policy with safety nets and a new education strategy to produce more competitive graduates.

“Pakatan Rakyat must firstly unite all Malaysians. We must revive the dreams of Tunku Abdul Rahman and other independence leaders,” he wrote in a posting on his blog yesterday.

The PR alliance has come under heavy attacks from Umno in particular over its lack of a common platform.

Barisan Nasional’s (BN) lynchpin has taken full advantage of open squabbles between PR partners PKR, PAS and DAP to drive a wedge among the opposition parties.

Umno has also stepped up the rhetoric to paint Malay leaders in PR as traitors in well-worn attacks underscoring the right-wing appeal of the ruling party.

With some PAS leaders beginning to blow hot and cold in their commitment to PR, Zaid appears to be also in a hurry now to set down the opposition’s common platform.

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