Zaid: Ambiguity about PKR leadership must be resolved
By Patrick Sennyah and Alang Bendahara, NST
KUALA LUMPUR: Datuk Zaid Ibrahim, a candidate for the post of deputy president of Parti Keadilan Rakyat, has expressed his incredulity at Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim’s reluctance to contest the presidency.
“Everyone knows Anwar is the leader.
I don’t see why he should be referred to as the de facto leader …why he does not want to contest, even I don’t know,” Zaid told the New Straits Times yesterday.
Zaid was elaborating on his thoughts expressed in an interview with Mingguan Malaysia.
In the interview, Zaid spoke of an ambiguity concerning the party leadership.
He argued that real power would have to be wielded by party president Datuk Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail if Anwar chose not to contest the presidency since power must come with responsibility.
Zaid told Mingguan Malaysia that while the party should appreciate Anwar’s contribution as party founder, and as a well known person, he “must not be above the president”.
This came after Zaid had in a Sept 6 blog posting written that he had been warned that his political career would be buried like that of the late Tun Ghafar Baba’s.
“I support a genuine and smart leader and I will oppose the pretentious one. If this means that I am not loyal, then I accept punishment by the members later,” Zaid had said in his blog.
Elaborating on the Ghafar episode in the Mingguan interview, Zaid said: “It is just a reminder not to abuse order and power to humiliate me as what happened to Ghafar then.”
Ghafar resigned as deputy prime minister on Oct 14, 1993 after receiving seven nominations to defend his post as deputy president of Umno against Anwar’s 143.
Zaid is trailing Anwar’s former private secretary, Mohamed Azmin Ali, in the nomination count for the No. 2 post in PKR — 25 to 58; vice-president and Perak party chief Mustaffa Kamil Ayub has received 13 nominations so far.
And last week, Zaid was nominated by the Keningau division in Sabah to contestthe presidency.
Anwar has been nominated by eight divisions for the No. 1 post. PKR divisions will vote for national leaders over several weekends from Oct 29 to Nov 21.
Yesterday, the NST highlighted to Zaid the issue of his political consistency, having joined PKR in mid-2009 after serving as a cabinet minister representing Umno-BN.
He said: “No matter what happens, I will continue with my political reforms. I am happy here in PKR and have no intention of leaving.
“I acknowledge that there have been some hard-hitting statements against me which are not very reassuring, but the fact is that we are in the middle of a contest and I take it all in my stride.”
Asked about Anwar’s tacit backing for Azmin, Zaid said: “I have no issues with that. As a leader, you are bound to prefer one over the other and if Anwar throws his support behind Azmin, then let it be … that’s his choice.”
He brushed aside suggestions that his relationship with Anwar had soured.
“Rumours will be rumours. I never said I had any issues with him. He is the backbone of PKR and I respect that.
“We may have different views about certain things, but that does not mean we should regard anyone as our enemy.
“In fact, I do not even regard Utusan Malaysia as an enemy … if I did, why did I give them an interview?”
Asked if he felt certain leaders in the party were distancing themselves from him, Zaid said: “Definitely yes … I know there are those who are distancing themselves from me. However, I have my reasons for wanting to contest and am certainly not doing it for fun.
“If these leaders feel they do not like it and do not understand the reasons I’m offering myself for the post, then there is nothing I can do about it.”
