'I'm not hard up for positions' - Zuraida on quitting as minister to join PBM

'I'm not hard up for positions' - Zuraida on quitting as minister to join PBM


INTERVIEW l Zuraida Kamaruddin does not mind being a “normal” parliamentarian without any ministerial status as positions are not what she chases for.

Saying this, the former PKR vice-president added that she willingly gave her minister’s position back to (now caretaker) prime minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob when she left Bersatu to join Parti Bangsa Malaysia (PBM).

“When I declared (that I was leaving Bersatu), I met the PM (Ismail Sabri) and surrendered my minister’s position to him because I want to live on a moral high ground.

“I am not hard up for positions... I don’t care about the minister’s post, I only care about my supporters and grassroots,” Zuraida (above) told Malaysiakini in a recent interview. She held the plantation, industries, and commodities portfolio under Ismail Sabri's administration, prior to her resignation.

Zuraida, who is the incumbent Ampang MP, was among 10 MPs who quit PKR to join Bersatu in Feb 2020. Known as the “Sheraton Move”, the party-hopping resulted in the fall of the Pakatan Harapan government that was elected in the 2018 general election.

Last May 26, Zuraida announced that she was leaving Bersatu to join PBM. On June 19, she was reported as saying that she hoped to have her minister’s position retained to enable the ministry to complete the previously lined-up plans.

Zuraida’s move to leave Bersatu prompted the party's president Muhyiddin Yassin to insist Ismail Sabri drop her as a minister too, and hand the position to another MP. However, Ismail Sabri retained her as a minister until Parliament was dissolved.

Not fully utilised

Asked about her move to quit Bersatu to join PBM, Zuraida said the Muhyiddin administration did not fully utilise her strength as a former PKR vice-president.

Aside from that, she was also worried about the political future of the youths who support her, Zuraida said.

She recalled meeting Muhyiddin to express her interest to branch out into a new multiracial party as Bersatu was seen as being very Malay-centric.

“I told Muhyiddin to (look at it) as a company opening up a subsidiary... ‘please look at me like your subsidiary party’,” she recalled.

The former premier, however, asked her to go on with her plans with the “new party” and warned her that her minister's position would be withdrawn as it is under Bersatu’s quota.

“I left it at that and went to meet PM Ismail Sabri to tell him that I want to start the new party (PBM).

“But he (Ismail Sabri) said: ‘Zuraida, don’t do it first, let Larry Sng be the president first, you wait’.”

At this juncture, Ismail Sabri was under pressure from Muhyiddin to drop Zuraida from the cabinet, she claimed.

According to her, Ismail Sabri was also reluctant to remove her as it was difficult to find a replacement.

“He said that taking a new minister is difficult, as it would take time for them to learn (the ropes), and that would affect the administration.”