PKR faces new challenges
Controversy is raging in Sabah PKR while Datuk Zaid Ibrahim is taking leave from the party
Zaid was completing the all-important “common platform” initiative that hardcore Pakatan supporters had hoped would finally end the enmity among coalition allies DAP and PAS and allow them to show a single, united face to the people.
COMMENT By BARADAN KUPPUSAMY, The Star
IT is a moot point whether former Umno minister Datuk Zaid Ibrahim is on leave or eventually leaving the PKR, the party he joined with great fanfare just five months ago.
What seems apparent is that Zaid, who is popular among Pakatan Rakyat supporters, has suffered a fallout with the PKR leadership, especially with its powerful vice-president Azmin Ali and his backers.
He is taking six months’ leave from PKR — a sure sign that he is unhappy and prepared to walk out if things do not go his way.
Zaid, a lawyer by profession and former Umno division chief, was widely seen as prime ministerial material and was even fingered as a possible successor to Pakatan supremo Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim in the event Anwar is jailed again over sodomy charges.
In fact, it was talked that he was brought into PKR on the premise that he would keep the prime minister’s post, if it ever falls to the Pakatan, within the PKR fold and hold it for Anwar.
On entering PKR, Zaid was tasked by Anwar to come up with a common platform scheme for the fractious Pakatan coalition that is in a cloud over numerous public squabbles.
Zaid was completing the all-important “common platform” initiative that hardcore Pakatan supporters had hoped would finally end the enmity among coalition allies DAP and PAS and allow them to show a single, united face to the people.
Nevertheless, with Zaid’s sudden walkout, everything — his work for Pakatan, exalted status and political potential — have all come into question.
Pakatan supporters across the country are upset over the sudden turn of events. From Perlis to Kota Kinabalu and Kuching, the Internet and pro-Pakatan blogs are buzzing with rumours over the Azmin-Zaid clash, who is really leading the PKR — Anwar or Azmin — and what the fallout portends for the Pakatan.
The general theme of most of the comments is that the potential “loss” of Zaid would be a major blow for the Opposition alliance and its ambitions to capture federal power from the Barisan Nasional.
Officially, Zaid has written to PKR to say that he will not attend meetings of the political bureau, which is headed by Anwar and of which Azmin is a leading member.
Zaid, who is best remembered for going around the country handing over million-ringgit cheques to sacked former Supreme Court judges, never had a chance to take root in the faction-ridden PKR.
Zaid, who won hero-status after he resigned as minister over the ISA use, is a heavyweight outsider in a party dominated by another heavyweight, Anwar.
PKR has always operated as a party created to protect and advance Anwar’s career and his vision which has evolved over the years from a nation propelled by Islam to a secular, multicultural society based on justice and the rule of law.
The rigours of opposition politics, shared miseries and constant assaults and arrests have all given PKR leaders a rare esprit de corps, a shared experience and their own unique pecking order that saw Zaid as an outsider.
Not only is Zaid unable to fit in but is seen as someone from the enemy camp who has unexpectedly walked into the PKR ramparts. Zaid cannot show the scars of long years of sacrifice in PKR as Azmin and others can show.
Neither is Zaid able to compromise, horse trade and gather support to advance his cause as seen in his short stint as a minister and the defeats he suffered trying to abolish the ISA.
Azmin might not be loved by the rank and file, as the PKR revolt against him in Sabah shows, but Anwar trusts Azmin without question and often defers to his views. Sometimes, maddeningly so, PKR insiders said. “There is no logic … who is the leader – Anwar or Azmin?” a PKR leader questioned.
A year ago, in another battle with Azmin for control of the inner sanctum, former PKR Youth leader Ezam Mohd Nor was ousted.
A popular and talented leader, Ezam was sidelined and eventually left PKR and rejoined Umno. Unlike Ezam, Zaid is a political heavyweight in his own right — with or without PKR — and cannot be easily written off.
