COMMENTARY: Zaid on new political journey

It has been an uphill task for the Opposition Leader to regain the political momentum ever since Najib Tun Razak took over from Abdullah as Umno president and Prime Minister in April 2009 and launched his 1Malaysia initiative as well as his economic and social transformation plans.

Yahoo News

Former United Malays National Organisation (Umno) rebel Zaid Ibrahim is ending his 16-month sojourn with Malaysia's opposition Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) and Anwar Ibrahim and setting off on a new political journey with an uncertain future.

He leaves bitter, unfulfilled and disillusioned with both the PKR and its de facto leader and their alleged failure to carry out their stated dogma - reformation.

Zaid, 59, believes reformation is both necessary and inevitable but thinks neither Anwar nor the party could be agents of change for the country.

"I can lead the change better because I understand the country and its aspirations better," claims Zaid, who was sacked from Malaysia's ruling and largest party, Umno, in December 2009.

Coming into the PKR as a reformasi hero, he was chosen to carry the opposition Pakatan Rakyat coalition banner in April in the battle for the Hulu Selangor parliamentary seat.

The Barisan won despite Anwar's superhuman effort in campaigning for Zaid.

Pakatan leaders who had defended Zaid tooth and nail were hard pressed now to explain his criticism of the PKR and Anwar.

Zaid is expected to gather followers who are unhappy with Anwar and the coalition and form what his supporters say is "a third political force that is independent of both the Pakatan and the Barisan Nasional."

This force, they say, would speak for the people and for democracy in an open and forthright manner and without the political expediency and double-talk that is plaguing the PKR and Pakatan.

Only time can tell how this political experiment would measure up.

Zaid leaves Anwar nursing a badly-mauled PKR and an angry and upset Pakatan alliance that is counting the damage his (Zaid's) statements and decisions have done to their movement.

An Umno non-conformist, the former de facto law minister made a name for himself during the 2004-2008 perestroika when Abdullah Ahmad Badawi (the then premier) presided over a society that was eager and willing to discuss and debate.

Ironically, he was one of the first Umno leaders to say that Anwar should be released from prison.

However, he lasted less than six months after being made senator in 2008 and brought into the Cabinet as a minister in the Prime Minister's Department overseeing legal matters.

His colleagues said he ran into a brick wall with his uncompromising approach to sensitive and contested issues, like apologising and making payments to former Federal Court judges.

"He does not know the art of diplomacy or compromise... how to be happy with half the loaf," said a lawyer who knows Zaid well.

He was later welcomed as a hero into PKR and given key tasks like formulating a common policy platform to tie the Pakatan components of PKR, PAS and DAP.

He was never accepted and treated as a stranger and neither was he considered a potential usurper by the close-knit world that Anwar had built around him.

Supporters saw his dramatic entry into PKR and his alliance with Anwar, 65, as the precise combination to propel the Pakatan grouping into Putrajaya.

However, the once promising alliance has since turned out to be damaging and destructive for Anwar who, against rising odds, is trying to revive the fortunes from his sterling performance in 2008.

It has been an uphill task for the Opposition Leader to regain the political momentum ever since Najib Tun Razak took over from Abdullah as Umno president and Prime Minister in April 2009 and launched his 1Malaysia initiative as well as his economic and social transformation plans.

Anwar's coalition had also suffered defeats in by-elections that were held after Najib began his reforms, except in Manik Urai and Sibu, where PAS and DAP won with narrow margins.

On the other hand, the Barisan chalked up handsome victories in other polls, including the just-concluded Galas and Batu Sapi by-elections.

Zaid's departure could compound the woes for PKR, which is already blighted by serious internal dissensions and defections and members, unhappy over numerous issues, drifting away.

Besides that, his accusations -- that Anwar is irrelevant and incapable of leading the party's reformasi charge and should step down -- will have deep a psychological impact on the minds of voters.

Zaid's exit has kicked up a fierce firestorm in Pakatan. Supporters have lashed out at him accusing him of many things including being a Trojan horse sent to break up PKR, criticism Zaid says he does not deserve.

After such open mudslinging, it is too late for both Pakatan and Zaid for remorse.

In retrospect, the Anwar-Zaid marriage was doomed from the start not only because of the personality differences but also because of ideological divergence.

For Anwar, reformation is probably a lifelong political struggle, but for Zaid it is only an intellectual construct.