Zaid Ibrahim: If truth be told, Anwar too can’t be PM

This is an extract of Zaid Ibrahim’s speech at the Rotary Club on 18 March 2009:
18. A prime minister must have the confidence of the majority of the rakyat. In order for this to be the case, his integrity must be beyond question; not only must he be such a person character, he must be seen to be such a person. The office of prime minister is one of great trust, he who holds that office cradles the nation in his palms.

Going by Zaid’s arguments, Brother Anwar Bin Ibrahim will definitely be out of Zaid’s equation as a person suitable to be the Prime Minister of Malaysia.

Firstly, Brother Anwar Bin Ibrahim does not command the confidence of the majority of the people in Malaysia. In fact, I would consider his party as a junior partner in the loose DAP-PKR-PAS coalition called Pakatan Rakyat. He may have a lot of vocal supporters on the internet and through the influence of internet. He also enjoys the support of the hooligans on the street. But most of them are anti-establishment and actually have common dislike on the current state of UMNO and Barisan Nasional, and unfortunately choose PKR as an alternative.

Secondly, Brother Anwar Bin Ibrahim’s is NOT a person of integrity, and I do not see him to be a person with integrity.

Zaid’s speech contains a lot of innuendoes and allegations ala Raja Petra Kamaruddin. I actually get a feeling that he sourced most of his information through reading Malaysia Today and believing whatever were written there (including the commentaries), as the gospel truths.

Yes, Zaid is just another accuser.

Najib was never an accused person in the murder of Altantuya Shaaribu. But he has been already considered guilty in the murder case by Petra, Anwar, Gobind, others, and now, Zaid.

I can also implicate Brother Anwar Bin Ibrahim on some other things, and stamp a guilty verdict on Anwar.

Brother Anwar Bin Ibrahim has been cpnvicted of power abuse and corruption. And that is an undeniable fact. Anwar, the ex-convict, will certainly abuse his power again if he is back in the government.

During the UMNO election in 1993, when the late Tun Ghaffar Baba was the UMNO Deputy President, Anwar abused his power as the then Finance Minister to gather enough financial resources for bribery to defeat the incumbent for the post. It was especially apparent with the sudden change in support from the Sabah delegates from Ghaffar to Anwar during the fateful UMNO election.

Anwar continued his abuse of power when he was Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister to accumulate wealth and financial resources through his nominees and cronies. He had accumulated enough wealth and financial influence to challenge Mahathir for the UMNO Presidency and Prime Ministership when the Asian financial crisis struck, and some of his financial holdings through his cronies cracked. When Anwar was sacked and jailed, many of his cronies managed to flee overseas, and some still remain there with their ill-gotten wealth. I was even related to the common phrase among Anwar’s cronies: that they were holding the wealth on behalf of Pak Sheikh (a codename for Anwar).

I was also related to stories that whenever Anwar touched down into United States during his tenure as Deputy Prime Minister, he will be AWOL for a few hours without his ADCs, and will re-appear at the hotel hours later. Conspiracy theorists related to me of Anwar’s sexual tendencies and the supply of the same by the Americans.

When his alleged sexual romps were under investigation, Anwar abused his powers to pressure the police to stop the investigation. I am therefore not surprise if he is currently pressuring the police and the AG office to stop the Sodomy II from going further. Based on the accounts of the Judges, Anwar’s conviction in respect of Sodomy I was overturned just because of technicality of the charge, not because it never happened.

Karpal Singh has a lot of dark secrets on Anwar. That’s why Karpal dared to say that Anwar is indeed an immoral person. Anwar never vilified Karpal for that statement, because there must be truth to it. Anwar would never vilify Karpal for anything, because Anwar is afraid that Karpal will spill more beans.

Even Raja Petra Kamaruddin has a lot of dark secrets on Anwar. Petra once wrote about the mystery of the missing coffers for Free Anwar Campaign. The story was never followed-up by Petra, presumably because he had been given his fair share of the bargain.

Anwar does have the oratory skill and charm to gather support. I am not sure whether he is in fact formally a member of PKR, a party in which he is the Advisor a.k.a. Ketua Umum. Some say that Anwar is actually not a PKR party member. But this non-member is the most powerful person in the party, and more powerful compared to the PKR party President. That’s why PKR can afford to limit the term for the President post. Anwar will never become their President, and as Ketua Umum, he will not be subjected to any term limit.

So, Anwar the party-less individual now has another party-less individual by the name of Zaid Ibrahim, as his friend. Both were from UMNO. And by remaining party-less, they can claim their place back in the UMNO rank if opportunity arises in the future. They will claim to the UMNO people that they had never turn their back against UMNO, by not joining the rival parties during their period outside UMNO.

Zaid Ibrahim himself has been found guilty of money politics in the last UMNO elections, when he won the Kota Bharu divisional head post. In fact, Zaid failed to receive enough nomination for the Kota Bharu divisional post during the current UMNO election process, possibly because he did not resort to any money politics. The truth is that, Zaid has no grassroot support in Kota Bharu. Without any financial incentive, nobody will consider and vote for Zaid to represent them for the Kota Bharu divisional post.

After his apparent failure to get support for the Kota Bharu divisional post, Zaid maneuvered himself out of the Cabinet. And once he was out of the Cabinet, Zaid started his vilification against UMNO and the current government ministers.

By openly speaking against the appointment of Najib as Malaysia’s next Prime Minister, Zaid has done a great disservice to the nation. His speech has been widely quoted initially through the alternative media, and picked up by the international media to discredit Malaysia and the incoming Prime Minister.

Brother Anwar Bin Ibrahim would be smiling with a glee by having another goon on his side. He may not of course realise that Zaid Ibrahim is also implying, in the same speech, that if truth be told, Anwar too can’t be PM.

A face-saving exit maneuvre by Zaid Ibrahim?

Zaid Ibrahim was once found guilty by UMNO disciplinary council and suspended from UMNO due to alleged money politics (read “corruption”) in his quest to become Kota Bharu UMNO division chief. Pak Lah saved him and selected him to contest the Kota Bharu seat in 2004 general election.

Zaid Ibrahim was not selected to defend the Kota Bharu Parliamentary seat in 8 March 2008 general election. He would surely have lost, should he be selected to defend the seat. Again, Pak Lah (probably upon advice by Khairy) saved Zaid, and appointed him as Senator and the de facto Law Minister. As I said before, one of Pak Lah’s mistakes was to appoint people who stayed at home during the battle (or rather, in the case of Zaid, he was allegedly abroad during the general election), and left the battling soldiers without meaningful portfolios in the cabinet.

As payback, Zaid has been defending Pak Lah at every opportunity, and he has also been vocal in attacking Pak Lah’s detractors. He suggested to Pak Lah to openly apologise for the government’s handling of 1988 Judicial Crisis; aimed at faulting Mahathir.

Zaid was also quick in asking for disciplinary actions to be taken against other UMNO politicians who attacked Pah Lah’s leadership. When Mukhriz rebuked Zaid in Parliament a few months ago, Zaid promptly asked for disciplinary action to be taken against Mukhriz. Nothing happened. When Muhyiddin called for a quicker transition plan, Zaid was even quicker in asking for Muhyiddin to quit or be sacked from the cabinet.

Zaid has gone relatively quite since the Bar Council’s forum on conversion to Islam. May be he is one of the “liberal” Muslims who supported the forum. Never mind that the forum served to undermine the position of Islam and Muslims, and the words uttered during the forum really tested the patience of the Muslims.

Zaid’s position in the government largely depended on Pak Lah’s support. His own UMNO division in Kota Bharu look set to snub him from the division chief post. Sadly, he cannot even secure the post without resorting to money politics.

On the other hand, Pak Lah's position as PM also looks untenable. He is facing growing calls from senior ranking party officials for him to quit earlier. Now, a few ministers have been questioning various government's decisions. Pak Lah is unable to control his own party. He is also not able to control his own cabinet members. He cannot stop his cabinet members from criticising each other's decisions, because Pak Lah himself is not able to articulate and defend the decisions.

Knowing that his position is rather perilous, I think Zaid will start to engineer his own exit. Today, he openly criticised the goverment's decision to invoke ISA on Raja Petra, Teresa Kok and Tan Hoon Cheng.

Will Pak Lah take Zaid out of his cabinet (together with Muhyiddin)? Or will Zaid quit cabinet on his own accord?

But I do not think that Zaid would want to follow the footsteps of Tunku Aziz, by defecting to DAP. Perhaps he can go up the DAP rank much faster, and still remains a minister should Pakatan rule Malaysia.

[Post-script 17 September 2008: Zaid has quit cabinet citing disagreement on the usage of ISA, and by doing so, left smelling like roses. Next step: Wait for Anwar to woo him. After all, Anwar needs the number, and Zaid is still a Senator]