Zaid: Umno on last lap, leaders are insane

Zaid Ibrahim holds nothing back in criticising Umno leaders in the wake of the arrest of five media people over an article on hudud.

PETALING JAYA: Former law minister Zaid Ibrahim has lashed out at prime minister Najib Razak and his men, saying that all Umno leaders have lost their marbles.

In an early morning tweet he said: “Umno is definitely on the last lap. Their leaders have gone insane,”. This tweet came in the wake of the arrests of five media people from The Malaysian Insider (TMI) and The Edge over an article on hudud that involved the Conference of Rulers.

Questioning the basis for the arrests, he tweeted: “I said last week the Rulers were not excited about Hudud before MI. I was just giving my opinion. So I was also crying wolf?”

In the March 25 article that led to their arrests, TMI said the Conference of Rulers had rejected a proposal to amend a federal law that would pave the way for the enforcement of hudud in Kelantan.

“Now I have revised my opinion. I think the Rulers are all for Hudud. They cant wait any longer. Is this also like yelling Fire Fire?” he tweeted in reaction to a remark he said one “clever” Barisan Nasional minister made that TMI’s article on the Rulers not agreeing to hudud was akin to “yelling Fire! Fire! in a packed cinema hall”.

He also said: “Najib is unfathomable. Even strongman Suharto had more respect towards the press.

“Najib is indescribable, impossible, and terrible”

Zaid also saved some of his venom for the PAS-lead state government of Kelantan over an sms survey they recently conducted among Muslims regarding their degree of acceptance for hudud law.

Belittling the survey, Zaid said PAS was oversimplifying a complex law. “Kelantan buat survey Hudud guna sms. Itu pun cukop bukti mereka tidak mengambil berat menerangkan isu sabenar.(Kelantan has conducted a survey on Hudud via sms. This is proof enough they do not care to explain the real issue.)

Criticising the sms survey further, Zaid asked if they even bothered to ask the people if PAS’ version of hudud was similar to the one in the Quran or even whether Kelantanese were in agreement about rejecting the existing Penal Code which they were under now.

In his most recent tweet, Zaid said, “Najib dan rakan rakan nya akan lari ka London tak lama lagi. Hidup Dr M (Najib and his buddies will run off to London shortly. Long live Dr M)”.

This tweet followed the latest blog entry of former prime minister Mahathir Mohamad, in which he said it would be cruel to hang Sirul Azhar Umar, the PM’s former bodyguard, for the murder of Altantuya if he was indeed simply following orders. Dr M demanded that Najib answer questions relating to the murder as well as the controversy surrounding 1MDB.