Kita revived to be used as Umno's 'toilet'? Zaid confirms contesting Kota Bharu seat

As expected, Kita president Zaid Ibrahim has made another major U-turn, this time reversing previous plans to de-register his fledgling party and confirming speculation that he would stand for the Kota Bharu parliamentary seat in Kelantan.

This will pit him against PAS senior leader Wan Rahim Wan Abdullah, who wrested the seat from Umno n 2008 with a 12,000-vote majority. Zaid had held the seat during 2004 to 2008, but was dropped by Umno when his term expired .

“The candidates of Pakatan and BN don’t have much experience, and I am the veteran there, so I think I am better compared to the two,” Zaid told a press conference on Wednesday.

He also said Kita will be announcing its candidates for the 13th general election later this month. GE-13 is widely expected to be held later this year.

Zaid's rationale for changing his mind about dissolving Kita was because the party had managed to resolve its internal crises in Kedah and Penang, laying the blame on former Kedah chief Zamil Ibrahim and former Penang chief Tan Tee Beng.

“It was a mistake for taking them in, but since we have removed them, no more mistakes now," said Zaid.

Money finally came in?

However, few pundits swallowed his pat explanation. Speculation had buzzed that Zaid was not prepared to invest his own money in Kita, which he had admitted was among reasons for his intention to dissolve the party.

According to the grapevine, top Umno guns including former Finance minister Daim Zainuddin, ex-premier Mahathir Mohamad and even Prime Minister Najib Razak had failed to cough up the financial support that they had promised for Kita.

"Nothing Zaid does will surprise anyone much anymore. He cannot be relied on. After criticizing PKR so much, look at the way he himself was almost chased out of his own party. What a joke. And now, this mother of all U-turns. But we are confident PAS will trounce him in KB," PKR vice president Tian Chua told Malaysia Chronicle.

Once a Trojan horse...

After being sacked from Umno in 2008, Zaid had joined PKR. In 2010, when PKR was carrying out its historic one-member one-vote election - the first ever political party in Southeast Asia to do so - Zaid was accused of being a Trojan horse sent by Umno to roil the PKR and its de-facto head, Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim.

At that time, Zaid was very close to fallen tycoon John Soh Chee Wen, who was formerly linked to MCA. They also supported a third force movement led by fugitive blogger Raja Petra Kamaruddin and Haris Ibrahim.

Indeed, Zaid did his best to create internal chaos for PKR by confronting deputy president Azmin Ali. He even went so far as to insinuate he had the support of Anwar's daughter Nurul Izzah to take over the helm of the PKR leadership.

However, PKR members showed him the door and he left in disgrace and under a bitter cloud to wage a year-long war of revenge against Anwar and PKR.

The latest fiasco and Zaid's U-turn is unlikely to help Kita regain any credibility, and whoever is now providing the financial backing for Kita may have just wasted its millions.

"The plan is to house all the Umno rejects, the PKR and Pakatan turncoats under the Kita banner. Perkasa and Jati are the rights group. They will promote racism and religious bigotry. But Umno has not enough seats for its own leaders, how can it take in Ibrahim Ali or even Hasan Ali - what more outright turncoats like Zahrain Hashim, Zul Noordin and so on. All these will have to fight under a certain banner because neither Gerakan or any other BN component would ever accept them. So this is Kita's function - to act as Umno's toilet for all its waste," PKR veteran watcher Eddie Wong told Malaysia Chronicle.

Malaysia Chronicle