Zaid, The Hurricane Hattie Of PR

A Kadir Jasin

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[UPDATE, Oct. 22]

PHEW, so much for political maturity, liberalism, openness, freedom of expression and healthy debate. You touched Zaid Ibrahim you’re dead.

To Sdr/Sdri Anon, I’ll investigate the information on the Bank Pembangunan loan and the steel fabrication yard.

I also published a number of anonymous comments to show how mature Zaid’s supporters are.

[Original Post]

NO malice intended, but the Parti Keadilan Rakyat’s new wunder kinder, Senator Zaid Ibrahim reminds me of the cartoon character Hurricane Hattie.

In the comic strip The Born Loser, by Art Sansom, which started in 1965, Hurricane Hattie was the mischievous girl next door, who delighted in menacing pretty much any adult she encountered, especially the main character, Brutus Thornapple.

Wherever she went in Thornapple’s household, she created havoc. So is the Umno-nominated Kelantan Senator. Wherever he goes, controversy is not far behind.

I won’t dare say I know him intimately. But I think I know him enough. I was first introduced to him when he was actively representing Umno’s corporate interest in the aftermath of the party’s 1987/88 leadership crisis.

Being a young, brash and confident-looking Malay lawyer, he was noticed by the power behind Umno’s corporate empire. Not the least because he hails from Kelantan.

He was among the intermediaries used by Umno to reacquire and appropriate its vast assets taken over by the Public Trustee when the party was deregistered in 1988.

That association, I believe, made him very wealthy and, in due course, satiated his appetite for politics. He soon became an active Umno activist whose knowledge of law and expertise in corporate conveyance activities were highly valued.

But he disappointed the Umno higher-ups very early in his career when he failed to deliver his party-endorsed speech on the Ruler and the Constitution during the 1992 Umno General Assembly at the height of the 2nd Constitutional crisis. He chickened out less than 10 minutes into his speech.

I would not cast aspersion on his new high-powered position in PKR and the Pakatan Rakyat. Suffice to say that wherever he goes and with whomever he associates with, Zaid is bound to ruffle some feathers.

When he was in Abdullah Ahmad Badawi’s cabinet, his mission to reform Umno and the Judiciary put him at odds with fellow ministers and Umno leaders.

Seeing that Abdullah’s days were numbered and his chances of remaining in the government in the post-Abdullah era miniscule, he beat a hasty retreat. On Sept. 15, 2008 resigned from the cabinet.

Having publicly urged the Yang di-Pertuan Agong not to appoint Mohd Najib Abdul Razak as Prime Minister, the only honorable thing for him to do was leave Umno when the former was made PM and became Umno President.

Given Zaid’s type of liberalism and lifestyle, he is certainly better suited being a PKR linchpin than an Umno reformer. In the PKR, liberalism and unconventional lifestyles is commonplace.

But there’s one problem though. The ex-Umno elements in PKR like deputy president Mohd Azmin Ali and the Selangor Menteri Besar, Abdul Khalid Ibrahim, know well who Zaid is.

Not surprisingly, Mold Azmin, a loyal aide to PKR’s supreme leader Anwar Ibrahim saw the threat and danger is allowing Zaid to roam free in the party and the country.

Zaid’s shoot from the hip’s style could endanger further the party’s uncertain position in Sarawak and Sabah. Both Anwar and Mohd Azmin have done much to nurture the two Borneo states from the days they were in Umno.

When he was Deputy Prime Minister and Umno Deputy President, Anwar ruled supreme in Sabah. But the state failed him last year when hardly a single Member of Parliament crossed over to his side in his so-called Sept. 16 parliamentary coup.

Still Sabah and Sawarak are key states in Anwar’s quest to become the future PM, thus the objection to Zaid running wild in the two states is understandable.

But for Mohd Azmin to stop Zaid is as futile as Brutus Thornapple trying to stop Hurricane Hattie from running amuck in his house.

Zaid may find support among the PKR people who do not know him well and are willing to try their luck with him instead of Mohd Azmin. He may prove to be popular with the non-Umno and the non-Malay elements of the party.

Although Anwar is appreciative of Mohd Azmin’s loyalty and sacrifices as his number one aide, he could not say no to Zaid either. The Kelantan-born lawyer brought with him legal and financial wealth.

Zaid is a wealthy lawyer who boasted the largest Bumiputera-owned legal firm in the country, thanks to his long association with Umno.

But knowing Zaid, he is not going to be satisfied with being just a PKR reformer or with contending with the likes of Mohd Azmin in a mud-slinging contest. He’s already positioning himself as a key player in the PR.

In a recent interview with Malaysiakini, he spoke confidently about the alliance’s so-called Common Policy Framework (CPF) as if he was the spokesman.

Like Hurricane Hattie, Zaid either has his way or, to use the street jargon, he’ll split. There’s no way that anybody, including Anwar, can shut him up.

He is supposed to be on a six-month hiatus from politics yet he gave a lengthy interview to talk about a very important development in the PR in the very state that he was forbidden from going -- Sabah.

Maybe is he more astute than most people in the PKR. He can turn around and argue that there’s no such a thing leave or holiday in politics. A politician works all the time and the cigar chomping lawyer is always in the overdrive mode.