Zaid, Pakatan and the Rhetoric of Change
Change and reform? This will remain a joke until and unless PR component parties really reformed themselves!
By Tohkong Mosjid
Change is something which Pakatan Rakyat has constantly talked about. We constantly talk about reforms. We trying very hard to send the message that we are different, and better, than Barisan Nasional.
We aspire to change the Federal government, and we aspire to reform the way the present government handles things.
So many aspirations with so many hopes, yet somehow we forget that the most important thing before these things can take place is to first reform ourselves.
Do we realise what is seriously wrong in Barisan Nasional?
I know. The answer will be the usual things: corruption, abuse of power, stupidity, racist leaders and so forth.
But heck, those are just the repercussions or the aftermath of what I call the “failure of a system that could not check and balance itself’.
In Barisan Nasional, there is an absence of self regulation and no check and balances.
No one would dare to say anything to the prime minister and the UMNO president even if he were wrong. No one dares to ask the Attorney General to come clean on numerous allegations against him. And nobody dares to hit out at the Inspector General of Police or call for his suspension pending investigations into his wrongdoings.
Get the picture? Can you sense that somehow these things are being re-enacted in Pakatan Rakyat?
The practise of self-criticism and speaking out against one’s own parties and leaders has been missing in both these coalitions.
Zaid Ibrahim’s recent blog entry which generated a series of fireworks, confirmed once again that Pakatan Rakyat, or specifically Parti Keadilan Rakyat, could not appreciate some dissent against their leaders for their own good, just like their nemesis in Barisan Nasional.
If we care to remind ourselves, why was Zaid kicked out from UMNO?
Zaid was kicked out because UMNO could not stand his criticism, his honesty and his truthfulness on how certain things should be done and managed when he was the de facto Law Minister.
Remember how Zaid flayed the government over its arrest of a reporter, blogger Raja Petra Kamaruddin and MP Teresa Kok under the Internal Security Act by the order of then Home Minister Syed Hamid Albar?
That sense of justice in telling the government to its face that it was wrong to invoke ISA on opposition or anyone was too much for UMNO to stomach. What happened after that is history.
This time around, Zaid is being viewed a ‘traitor’ to bring PKR down once and for all just because he dared to tell PKR leaders how things should be, right at its face.
Is it wrong of him to opine that de facto leader Anwar Ibrahim wielded more power than PKR president, Dr Wan Azizah Ismail?
Or for him to say that he was contesting the Deputy President’s post and to pledge his loyalty to the president despite knowing the real leader of party was Anwar?
It is wrong of him to rebuke Syed Husin Ali, the PKR deputy president, for belittling his efforts (in which he took six months’ sabbatical to lay off from active politics), to focus on getting PR’s Common Policy Framework done?
If Zaid was considered a ‘reformist’ when he was in UMNO for daring to speak out against the cabinet, shouldn’t now he be seen in the same light as someone valuable in PKR and PR?
Why do PKR leaders not see it? Anwar invited Zaid into PKR as he was seen as well accepted by the public for his views and principles on reform. True or not, this question should be left to all PKR members to find out its answer.
As for PAS and DAP, they should not be too happy to receive a person like Zaid into the party. That same reaction in PKR and Barisan Nasional will be seen Zaid opens his mouth.
Perhaps, we should look at these scenarios:
Zaid in DAP: “The party should reform as the leaders are too chauvinistic over certain issues. They must react faster when it comes to issues involving other races.”
Zaid in PAS: “Some PAS leaders just do not understand the boundary of constitution by keep harping on the issue of Hudud. They should go and learn up the constitution before they decide to discuss on this subject again. If they don’t, the party should disallow them from contesting in the next general election.”
Hurt? That’s Zaid for you and he represents something seriously lacking in PR.
Change and reform? This will remain a joke until and unless PR component parties really reformed themselves!
Li Fook Gao, although he wants Zaid to win, thinks that the way Zaid is campaigning will likely bite him in the end, just like how Husam Musa of PAS was bitten.
