Zaid Ibrahim: necessary
man in our fraught times
Party-wise you don’t know where he stands but when common sense is abysmally low, he speaks up, causing many to breathe a little easier after.
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From Terence Netto
Zaid Ibrahim is a necessary man. If he didn’t exist you might have to invent him.
He can say things many would like to say but are afraid to, for fear of stirring the Dr Akmal Salehs of the country to high dudgeon.
The circumspect are glad Zaid is around because he can and does say things that are spot-on, causing them to utter under their breath a word of thanks to him.
In recent years Zaid’s bursts of candid skewering of muddled thoughts from ostensible custodians of race and religion in the country has raised him to the status of the
.necessary man
In other words, somebody who can and does say things that must be said, as otherwise observers will think that Malaysians are like cattle that can be led by their noses to the slaughter.
In the latest instance of this caustic truth-telling, Zaid targets arguments deployed against DAP MP Teresa Kok for having the temerity to question the need for restaurants and shops that don’t sell pork or alcohol to take out halal certification.
The reason is that Muslims thus need have no apprehension about the halal-ness of the stuff sold in these places.
Zaid correctly skewered the notion that local Muslims, after decades of Islamic education, would still need guidance in deciding where to eat and to shop.
Zaid said people pushing these guidelines could not have a high view of the intelligence of the people supposedly in need of these instructions.
These sayings, in the circumstances of the specific incidents sparking the ensuing verbal volleys, beg to be said, but only someone like Zaid can say it.
If people of the ilk of Kok were to say it, a furore would result.
That is why Zaid has become a
, a willing vent of the salt and sane that keeps the body politic from going too awry.necessary man
No matter how dizzying his switching of political allegiance over the long years of his career, one has to doff one’s cap to him for his willingness to say what must be said.
Otherwise, illiberal democracies such as ours would be prone to the gyrations that discourage people from persisting with this form of government, however imperfect.
Terence Netto is a veteran journalist and an FMT reader.
***
kt comments:
In this article Terence said it well, blardy spot on matey!
Zaid is seldom appreciated, and I'm glad he is appreciated openly by a journalist like Terence Netto - may well open the eyes and minds of the supercritical but narrow-minded mob.
I have always had a soft spot for Zaid even in his, as Terence put it well, "dizzying switching of political allegiance over the long years of his career" - there was always a reason for it!
I lamented when he left UMNO to join PKR because I thought he was more needed in DAP (then I was a staunch supporter of DAP) - Zaid had then said it really didn't matter whether he joined PKJR or DAP as it would still be the same.
But the Machiavellian atmosphere in PKR disappointed him much too much which was why, contrary to his earlier assertions he won't stand in the party deputy presidential elections, he finally decided to stand against Azmin Ali. The amazing mathematical and electrical "happenings" during the election vote-counting persuaded Zaid to leave the PKR for DAP, wakakaka. I have copy & paste here one of my earlier posts on Zaid (03 May 2017) for your perusal:
~~~~~~~~~
There are Malays and there are Malays (like Zaid Ibrahim)
Aneh Commander (retd) S Thayaparan has written in Malaysiakini a worthwhile-to-read article titled
'Zaid Ibrahim is Malay, too', a play on the title of Zaid Ibrahim's book 'I, too, am Malay', published in October 2009.
Didn't Mahathir once remark on the same but in a different way?
Mashal Rosenberg, an American psychologist remarked that "... there is a problem with rewards and consequences because in the long run, they rarely work in the ways we hope. In fact, they are likely to backfire."
Mind, it has to be said those hegemonic-intended policies, though in strategic terms have harmed the Malays, must have benefited Mahathir's mateys and cronies plus those of his two (wakakaka) successors.
I suppose in the end it has been a case of 'F*** the hoi polloi', wakakaka.
Anyway, in September 2008, Zaid resigned from UMNO as de facto Law Minister to protest against the detention of DAP's Teresa Kok, Sin Chew Daily's Tan Hoon Cheng, and would you believe, wakakaka, Raja Petra Kamarudin, yes, the one and only RPK of Malaysia-Today (either Malaysia's most famous or most notorious blogger, depending on your political affiliation or personal perception).
Such has been the personal standard and integrity of Zaid Ibrahim.
After a while, Zaid joined PKR instead of DAP, much to my personal disappointment. But Zaid had then remarked that he could have done either (that was, joined PKR or DAP), as he saw no difference in those choices, with words to the effect that it was 6 of one, and half a dozen of the other.
He was to later regret joining PKR when he was given the 'Azmin-routine', wakakaka.
See my earlier posts:
(1) The Poison within PKR
(2) The Poison within PKR - Part II
(3) The Poison within PKR - Part III
Let me now write a few words on what I have written before.
Zaid ... was appalled by ... the PKR party polling process, that it was rigged, the polling officials lacked impartiality, and ballot papers were mishandled. He made his complaints, calling for the polls to be aborted and for the polling system to be reviewed. He wasn’t the only candidate to do so.
Despite hundreds of complaints from other PKR candidates and branches, the JPP, PKR election committee remained bizarrely silent.
Yes, in the end, despite being the real victim, Zaid Ibrahim was wrongly maligned, both personally and as a politician.
'Zaid Ibrahim is Malay, too', a play on the title of Zaid Ibrahim's book 'I, too, am Malay', published in October 2009.
Aneh said of Zaid's book: What this book attempts to do is to make a rational argument that he, too, is part of the Malay community and that the policies that supposedly favour the Malays are in reality policies that are there to maintain hegemonic control.
This is where the book shines. Moving beyond race and religion, the book is a narrative about failed policies which supposedly exist to maintain racial and religious supremacy but in reality, constrain the Malay polity which in turn creates a toxic environment where Malaysians are at one another’s throats instead of working together for the betterment of all communities.
In other words, UMNO hegemonic-inclinedintented policies, probably issued since 1981, have backfired on the Malay community.
This is where the book shines. Moving beyond race and religion, the book is a narrative about failed policies which supposedly exist to maintain racial and religious supremacy but in reality, constrain the Malay polity which in turn creates a toxic environment where Malaysians are at one another’s throats instead of working together for the betterment of all communities.
In other words, UMNO hegemonic-
Didn't Mahathir once remark on the same but in a different way?
 |
who set affirmative policies that lulled them into that state? |
Mashal Rosenberg, an American psychologist remarked that "... there is a problem with rewards and consequences because in the long run, they rarely work in the ways we hope. In fact, they are likely to backfire."
I suppose in the end it has been a case of 'F*** the hoi polloi', wakakaka.
Anyway, in September 2008, Zaid resigned from UMNO as de facto Law Minister to protest against the detention of DAP's Teresa Kok, Sin Chew Daily's Tan Hoon Cheng, and would you believe, wakakaka, Raja Petra Kamarudin, yes, the one and only RPK of Malaysia-Today (either Malaysia's most famous or most notorious blogger, depending on your political affiliation or personal perception).
Such has been the personal standard and integrity of Zaid Ibrahim.
After a while, Zaid joined PKR instead of DAP, much to my personal disappointment. But Zaid had then remarked that he could have done either (that was, joined PKR or DAP), as he saw no difference in those choices, with words to the effect that it was 6 of one, and half a dozen of the other.
He was to later regret joining PKR when he was given the 'Azmin-routine', wakakaka.
See my earlier posts:
(1) The Poison within PKR
(2) The Poison within PKR - Part II
(3) The Poison within PKR - Part III
Let me now write a few words on what I have written before.
Zaid ... was appalled by ... the PKR party polling process, that it was rigged, the polling officials lacked impartiality, and ballot papers were mishandled. He made his complaints, calling for the polls to be aborted and for the polling system to be reviewed. He wasn’t the only candidate to do so.
Despite hundreds of complaints from other PKR candidates and branches, the JPP, PKR election committee remained bizarrely silent.
When Haris Ibrahim of the People’s Parliament blog, handed over a PKR ballot paper for the party's deputy presidential contest to Dr Molly Cheah, the chair of PKR JPP, she responded that was the first she knew about. But what has she done about that?
RPK praised Dr Molly Cheah as an honest person. I’m sure everyone agrees with that, but Malaysiakini journalist Terence Netto wrote about Dr Cheah’s cluelessness and lack of know-now in her role as the principal monitor of the PKR party elections. Her personal honesty was not enough. She should have taken a more assertive participation rather than (as we understand from Haris) leave it to the party secretariat to do her job. [...]
Anwar Ibrahim claimed that PKR had answered Haris Ibrahim’s query on the ballot papers. But Haris pointed out that the explanations by the party secretariat (mind you, not the JPP) did not answer how he (Haris) came to be in possession of the PKR ballot paper, regardless whether the ballot was 'old' or not. It was frighteningly available to Haris, a non-PKR member! [...]
Yet PKR continued its blatant disregard for complaints and either dismissed them or claimed to have solved most.
It drove a PKR member, Jonson Chong, to write a personal letter to Dr Wan Azizah, the de jure president of PKR, appealing to her to at least allow an independent audit of a small sampling of the party electoral process, those of the Libaran branch, but alas, to no avail.
The PKR top leadership seemed hell-bent on bulldozing the polls through to its conclusion, as planned, regardless of complaints from candidates (Zaid and Mustaffa Kamil), party members (Jonson Chong and other branch leaders) and independent observer (Haris Ibrahim).
In the face of such stonewalling, Zaid Ibrahim, the type who suffers no fools, had probably become more riled by the nauseatingly noxious noisome jeers from the anwarista praetorian guard. [...]
So Zaid left PKR. What did you expect? To roll over on his back and accept the haram nonsense?
This was a man who resigned his ministerial post in protest against the use of the ISA against Teresa Kok and Raja Petra Kamarudin and a sweetie reporter, not like someone who had to be chucked out of UMNO screeching, screaming and taking to the streets. Zaid does not suffer fools gladly.
When he was in PKR at the time leading to the party polls (before he tossed his hat into the election ring) Zaid was criticised for being erratic because one moment he said he would not challenge the deputy presidential post IF (initially) Nurul Izaah took up the challenge*, then IF (subsequently) Khalid Ibrahim did so, and then only when both (Nurul and Khalid) didn’t, did he take up the challenge.
RPK praised Dr Molly Cheah as an honest person. I’m sure everyone agrees with that, but Malaysiakini journalist Terence Netto wrote about Dr Cheah’s cluelessness and lack of know-now in her role as the principal monitor of the PKR party elections. Her personal honesty was not enough. She should have taken a more assertive participation rather than (as we understand from Haris) leave it to the party secretariat to do her job. [...]
Anwar Ibrahim claimed that PKR had answered Haris Ibrahim’s query on the ballot papers. But Haris pointed out that the explanations by the party secretariat (mind you, not the JPP) did not answer how he (Haris) came to be in possession of the PKR ballot paper, regardless whether the ballot was 'old' or not. It was frighteningly available to Haris, a non-PKR member! [...]
Yet PKR continued its blatant disregard for complaints and either dismissed them or claimed to have solved most.
It drove a PKR member, Jonson Chong, to write a personal letter to Dr Wan Azizah, the de jure president of PKR, appealing to her to at least allow an independent audit of a small sampling of the party electoral process, those of the Libaran branch, but alas, to no avail.
The PKR top leadership seemed hell-bent on bulldozing the polls through to its conclusion, as planned, regardless of complaints from candidates (Zaid and Mustaffa Kamil), party members (Jonson Chong and other branch leaders) and independent observer (Haris Ibrahim).
In the face of such stonewalling, Zaid Ibrahim, the type who suffers no fools, had probably become more riled by the nauseatingly noxious noisome jeers from the anwarista praetorian guard. [...]
So Zaid left PKR. What did you expect? To roll over on his back and accept the haram nonsense?
This was a man who resigned his ministerial post in protest against the use of the ISA against Teresa Kok and Raja Petra Kamarudin and a sweetie reporter, not like someone who had to be chucked out of UMNO screeching, screaming and taking to the streets. Zaid does not suffer fools gladly.
When he was in PKR at the time leading to the party polls (before he tossed his hat into the election ring) Zaid was criticised for being erratic because one moment he said he would not challenge the deputy presidential post IF (initially) Nurul Izaah took up the challenge*, then IF (subsequently) Khalid Ibrahim did so, and then only when both (Nurul and Khalid) didn’t, did he take up the challenge.
* Azmin Ali went into a panicky tizzy when Nurul causally mentioned her interests, and he swiftly ‘advised’ Nurul against it because people would talk.
The standard anwaristas' cries against Zaid were of his inconsistencies (in supporting Nurul, then Khalid, before standing as a candidate himself), and their accusations blindly attacked Zaid for his lust for power.
But I didn’t see any inconsistency in Zaid’s manoeuvrings. In fact there was a very consistent objective in his support for firstly, Nurul, and subsequently for Khalid Ibrahim, before he personally challenged Azmin Ali in the party election.
His consistent objective was to prevent Azmin Ali from coasting home on an Anwar-provided free ticket into the deputy president post. He wanted Azmin Ali stopped!
Yes, Zaid was invincibly against Azmin Ali, the man for whom Anwar Ibrahim instructed Nallakaruppan to stand aside in a party VP contest some years back, and which drove Nalla out of the party in angry frustration. Nalla would have easily won that VP position because of the strength of his Indian supporters in PKR and the clear evidence of his numerous nominations for party VP which were far far more than Azmin's.
Zaid tried his best to stop Azmin from becoming party deputy president, a post which is a mere heartbeat away from party president. Thus he challenged Azmin for the post.
But Zaid was forestalled by the questionable party polling process.
And I could tell you stories about him, Anwar and Azmin in the Hulu Selangor by-election. Perhaps in another post, wakakaka.
The Malaysiakini article by Aneh is much welcome, as has been Zaid Ibrahim's book. They give us the opportunity to review and assess what other big-name Malays won't tell you about the real strategic benefits or consequences of our national politico-ethnic-socio-economic policies.
~~~
Also, feel free to peruse my (30 Jul 2013) post below:
Thus then-a-pissed-off-with-PKR Zaid left that party and joined the DAP which sadly marginalised him as it did my poor (late) Penang Lang Zul Noor. I had a post on that (below):
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