Is Zaid a Friend or Foe of PKR?

If what Raja Petra said is true then Zaid is the kind of man that PKR needed. The ‘Azmin cartel’ is hinting that Zaid might be the Trojan horse Anwar was referring to in his statement. It doesn’t help when Zaid on October 5 in a press statement had chosen to ignore Anwar’s warning to bypass Umno-owned media. 

Malaysian Digest

In the wake of PKR party election this month, Opposition leader Dato’ Seri Anwar Ibrahim in a press statement in September said, “… the criticism that there is an emergence of “Umno culture” in the campaign for party positions is unfounded. At the same time, we cannot rule out entirely the possibility of Trojan horses having found their way in.” In the same month, PKR Supreme Council member, Datuk Zaid Ibrahim made an announcement on his decision to contest for the deputy president’s post in the coming party elections. Several days later, in a press conference, a group of PKR MPs announced their endorsement for Azmin Ali on his candidacy for the number two post.

Considering the timing of the press conference, I wonder if Azmin’s camp was rattled by the prospect of supreme council member Zaid Ibrahim entering the race for the coveted number 2 post left vacant by Syed Husin Ali. Azmin, who is a close associate of PKR advisor Anwar Ibrahim, was always said to be uncomfortable with Zaid’s presence and meteoric rise. Meanwhile, Zaid himself indicated in his blog that certain forces were at work to undermine him. Zaid said when he joined the opposition party a year ago, he was hailed as a hero, but now he was being branded as an Umno agent on a mission to destroy PKR. He also revealed that his rivals had paid a popular blogger to tarnish his name.

“The blogger was asked to write that I will pay RM20,000 to the branch that nominates me, and that I was tasked by (former finance minister) Daim Zainuddin to destroy PKR,” Zaid said.

“My loyalty has been questioned, but loyalty to whom? Perhaps, I am not loyal to the party’s cause or to the highest leadership, I don’t know. Perhaps these MPs will come forward and explain why my nomination will not be supported at their press conferences to show support for the great Anwar-Azmin combination,” he added.

But the puzzling fact is that on October 7, Zaid dropped a bombshell by making an announcement that he will back out of the deputy president’s race if Nurul Izzah Anwar contests for the post. The big question is how ambitious is Zaid really and why did he made such announcement?

Zaid resigned from his minister’s post in September 2008, in protest against the use of the controversial Internal Security Act (ISA) to detain blogger Raja Petra Kamarudin, Seputeh MP Teresa Kok and Sin Chew Daily reporter Tan Hoon Cheng. He was sacked from Umno in December 2008 after he was spotted with opposition members on more than one occasion and joined PKR in June 2009. Raja Petra in his blog stated that he once told Zaid a long time ago not to join PKR. This was when he was still in Umno and not yet made into a cabinet minister.

According to Raja Petra, PKR is not suitable for a person like Zaid. He is too ‘independent’ and does not have the ‘discipline to kowtow’ to what he does not believe in. The former fugitive had also said that Zaid will not be able to tolerate the nonsense in PKR and even described the latter as a “loose cannon” that will always shoot at anything that moves regardless to whether he is a friend or foe.

If what Raja Petra said is true then Zaid is the kind of man that PKR needed. The ‘Azmin cartel’ is hinting that Zaid might be the Trojan horse Anwar was referring to in his statement. It doesn’t help when Zaid on October 5 in a press statement had chosen to ignore Anwar’s warning to bypass Umno-owned media. He reportedly said that he would not “boycott” any media seen to be attacking the party or its coalition Pakatan Rakyat’s (PR) leadership. This is the second time Anwar has chastised Zaid’s campaign indirectly after refuting Zaid’s claim that an “Umno culture” was emerging in the party and warning PKR members of possible “Trojan horses” within the party.

Recently, two PKR leaders have defended Zaid’s right to speak up. They are Padang Serai MP N. Gobalakrishnan and former party vice president Datuk Dr Jeffrey Kitingan. Datuk Dr Jeffry Kitingan in a press conference was criticizing vice president Lee Boon Chye’s statement accusing Zaid of playing the victim to gain sympathy. According to Jeffrey, he has read the various interviews which Zaid had given to the media and found them to contain Zaid’s aspirations for the party and nothing else. In the interview Zaid also denied that he had undermined the party’s struggle, pointing out that the move to topple Selangor Mentri Besar Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim was a bigger sin, in an apparent reference to the attack against Khalid’s leadership last June that was said to have been mounted by supporters of Azmin.

Is it true that Zaid might be the Trojan Horse Anwar claimed to exist in PKR or is he really trying to improve PKR to become a better and a more transparent political party? As far as I’m concerned, from Raja Petra’s statement Zaid sounds like a breath of fresh air for the opposition movement. But we will only know after PKR members made their decision by the end of this month.