Saifuddin an asset to PKR, says Zaid

He also says Saifuddin is a politician of great experience and so should be able to adapt to PKR better than he did.

PETALING JAYA: Former law minister Zaid Ibrahim has welcomed the news of Saifuddin Abdullah’s defection from Umno to PKR, saying he would be an asset to the opposition party.

Speaking to FMT, Zaid said, “Saifuddin is a politician of great experience and so should be able to adapt to PKR better than I did.”

Zaid resigned from the Cabinet and Umno in 2008 and joined PKR in 2009. But he left PKR in 2010 to form the People’s Welfare Party (Kita). He is currently not affiliated with any political party.

With Saifuddin’s defection, Zaid said, no one was left in Umno to be its voice of reason. He said the “voice of fear overwhelms the party.”

Even if there were moderate voices left in Umno, he added, “they are submerged, like our submarine.”

Asked whether he thought anyone else in Umno would follow Saifuddin, he said people did not stay in Umno for “ideological reasons, but for the assistance they can get, or promotion in their job.”

“They will not follow Saifuddin,” he declared.