Zaid Ibrahim, Who Art Thou in PKR?

Friday, 12 November 2010 11:23
Zaid Ibrahim, Who Art Thou in PKR? | Print |
by YL Chong

To dictate that you and your ilks – like froggies Jeffrey Kitingan and single-issue (Hinrdaf) MPs Gobalakrishnan and Manickavasagam – are the most suitable to lead Parti Keadilan Rakyat to new heights. That de factor leader Anwar Ibrahim, and PKR deputy president-to-be Azmin Ali, should step aside to make way for you and your henchmen?



You appear to lean towards greater dictatorship than former premier Dr Mahathir Mohamad, but the latter at least made his way up through Umno ranks as MP, Minister, then Deputy Prime Minister and finally 22 years as Prime Minister, which to me was over-the-shelf-life. But Zaid, all I know of your record is that you made your pile as a lawyer, and your legal firm became the largest law company in the country through mainly Umno patronage. Then you were rewarded with a senatorship and became de facto Law Minister in Pak Lah's Cabinet, and then made a BIG hoo-ha by resigning from that post to show thou art a man-of-principle. Art Thou One?

Coming into PKR in less than two years, you made an attempt to destabilize the Opposition alliance led by Anwar's PKR by making a bid for PKR deputy president post. But half-way through, you opted out like a coward because the signs are all there – you will lose to Azmin finally.

Now you continue to use the BN-controlled mainstream media like Utusan Malaysia, New Straits Times and The Star to wreak maximum damage by resigning all your posts in PKR plus pulling out from the deputy presidential contest, crying "Wolf! Wolf!", chorused by impending loser-matey Mustaffa Kamil Ayub. The last mentioned I would consider "collateral damage" to Zaid's scheme, perhaps an innocent victim who follows the dictum "My enemy's rival becomes my friend", especially in politics, an extension to that well known "There are no permanent friends or foes in politics, only permanent interests."

(However, a day later it was wise of Mustaffa to 'distance" himself from Zaid's call on Anwar and Azmin to give up leadership in PKR; in fact, Mustaffa swore loyalty to Anwar, expressing support of Anwar as de facto leader)

From The Star front page dated 10 Nov 2010, I quote:


Fallout: Rift in PKR worsens with Zaid saying Anwar and Azmin must go

KUALA LUMPUR: The rift between Datuk Zaid Ibrahim and PKR top guns Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim and Azmin Ali hit a new low as Zaid singled out the pair as the source of problems and that they “must go” for the good of the party.

The former Umno minister, who pulled out of the deputy presidency race claiming voting irregularities, kept reporters guessing at a press conference yesterday as to whether he had the support of other party heavyweights. The only notable PKR figures at the event were PKR vice-president cum deputy president candidate Mustaffa Kamil Ayub and vice-president candidate N. Gobala¬krishnan.

Offering himself as an alternative choice, Zaid said PKR needed new leadership and direction.


I have written a few articles questioning whether the likes of Zaid and Kitingan, who fought so hard to capture PKR Sabah chieftaincy – but had no choice but to give way to another, then settled for a "new" role as overall chief overseeing PKR Sabah/Sarawak via Anwar's diplomacy – had indeed come on board the PKR vehicle to create sabotage. I used the word "mole" in an article I had written on Oct 14; a few days later Anwar talked about some "Trojan horses" having penetrated the 12-year-old PKR, now part of Pakatan Rakyat which is the second viable coalition to form the alternative federal government clearly and firmly marching towards wresting Putrajaya from BN-Umno.

Now we know who are putting the spanners in the wheel that's turning towards a new government cometh the next General Election (GE-13).




Who Are These "Spoilers"?



I have mentioned the emergence of The Third Force as flagged off by prominent civil rights lawyer-cum-blogger Haris Ibrahim. My question to Haris Ibrahim: Who art thou in politics?

You are NOT even a member of PKR, yet you seem to be very well informed about internal PKR politics up to the upper echelon levels – enabling you to write with insider accounts going on especially in the run-up to the party elections, and more so now while it is still in progress. But your writings reflect that you are doing a hatchet job for the ilks of Zaid and Jeffrey, and maybe behind-the-scene ex MCA tycoon John Soh Chee Wen. I believe you and a few People's Parliament bloggers will become "collateral damage" of the ambitions of the Zaid-Jeffrey-Soh triumvirate.

I may soon follow up with a next episode about The Third Force, and how they are going to ruin the Rakyat's hopes for that "Ultimate Victory" with the fall of the BN government in Putrajaya – aspirations spelt out so clearly by their votes in March 2008, but now facing an imminent danger on the near horizon what will prominently feature Zaid and his cronies. Haris has identified some 20 so-called men of integrity committed to "reforms" including a bunch of bloggers as potential candidates for GE-13. These men of integrity, in Haris' mind, may be well intentioned; they do have eyes, but do they not see clearly that The Third Force will now create another wall to the Rakyat's hopes for a two-party system and a change of the federal government at Putrajaya?

DESIDERATA: Note the above was first published in The Malaysian Digest where I recently started contributing articles to as a Freelance Writer.