Zaid: I was naive to run for number two
By Stephanie Sta Maria, Free Malaysia Today
PETALING JAYA: PKR supreme council member Zaid Ibrahim said he was naïve to run for the party’s deputy president post. [Also read: Zaid to step aside if Nurul takes on Azmin]
Zaid said he had consulted PKR secretary-general Saifuddin Nasution Ismail on the suitability of his candidacy considering that he had only joined the party last June.
He recalled that Saifuddin had assured him that PKR, being a democratic party, would allow even a new member to contest.
“I took this to mean that Saifuddin had cleared this probability with the top leadership,” he said.
“In my naivety, I accepted his word and announced my candidacy. I never expected my loyalty to be questioned,” he told a packed press conference at his residence here.
Zaid, who is also PKR’s new Federal Territories chief, went on to list the accusations against him which included being called a “traitor” and a “Trojan Horse”.
He was also linked to Rahimi Osman, an ex-aide of PKR supremo Anwar Ibrahim, who claimed that he was forced to lie in two statutory declarations implicating Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak and his wife Rosmah Mansor in the ongoing Anwar sodomy trial.
However, Zaid dismissed the claim. “I haven’t even met this Rahimi person. He had already left by the time I joined the party and the only time I saw his face was in the media yesterday. I have nothing to do with him,” he said.
“I’m disappointed that a party which wants to bring about political change is dabbling in dirty politics for the sole reason of destroying me. I didn’t join PKR to champion such politics. I thought this was a clean party.
“They have challenged my integrity as a leader and as a politician. This is not the sign of a healthy party. If you resort to such tactics, how are you going to defeat BN? I now find it difficult to respect these leaders because they fail to see the need for camaraderie in this fight,” he added.
