Zaid marvels at how many are ‘desperate’ to be in Cabinet

Zaid Ibrahim says their ambition to be in Najib Razak's Cabinet is so great that they are willing to close their eyes to the sins of their leader.

PETALING JAYA: The great Cabinet shake-up that left Deputy Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin and other outspoken ministers left out, has led Zaid Ibrahim to comment at how many others are so “desperate” to become replacements in Prime Minister Najib Razak’s Cabinet.

Taking to Twitter to voice his discontent, the former law minister tweeted: “Never thought possible so many to be so desperate to be Ministers that they closed their eyes to the sins of their leader.”

He was commenting on those like former Sabah State Speaker Salleh Said Keruak and Public Accounts Committee (PAC) head Nur Jazlan Mohamed, who is also MP for Pulai, who have since become Minister of Communications and Multimedia and Deputy Home Minister respectively.

Nur Jazlan in particular has been accused by certain quarters of selling out, along with three others in the PAC, who have now joined Najib’s Cabinet.

Their departure from the committee that is investigating allegations of corruption at 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB), has now meant that the PAC has been suspended just when former CEO Shahrol Halmi and current chief Arul Kanda Kandasamy were about to testify before them.

“Our Ministers just don’t know the difference between “being in the same page” and being in the same cell,” Zaid further said, now that allegations of USD700 million of 1MDB-linked funds have been deposited into the private bank accounts of Najib. The PM has till now neither denied nor confirmed that the money was in his accounts but has said however that he never used government money for personal gain.

Zaid went on to say, “Maybe they do (know the difference) but they don’t care. Because they know only Najib would take them as Ministers.”