COMMENTARY
DEC 3 – It may sound like a cliché but Umno's decision to expel Datuk Zaid Ibrahim from the party is a win-win solution. For the ruling party, it ends a painful charade which started in March 2008 when the lawyer cum politician was made a senator and appointed to the Cabinet as the de facto Law Minister.
From the word go, it was obvious that he and other Umno politicians did not have much in common.
He spoke the language of a reformer, behaved at times like a social activist and often found himself in the same pack as Pakatan Rakyat politicians and the Bar Council.
In truth, he was tolerated in the early days because the party reeling from the shock results of Election 2008 had more pressing issues at hand.
It was still coming to grips with a stronger Opposition and the vexing question of whether Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi should remain as party president and Prime Minister.
The clarion call at that point was party unity. So everybody put up a facade of getting along with each other.
But privately, the whispering campaign against Zaid among senior Umno officials, including ministers, started in May.
They were uneasy with his battering ram approach in reforming the judiciary and dismantling the Internal Security Act.
Several Umno ministers blamed him for the ex-gratia payment which the government made to the judges who were either sacked or suspended during the judicial crisis in 1988 and the decision to make public the Royal Commission's report on the V K Lingam video clip.
The report implicated a host of prominent individuals including Umno secretary-general Tengku Adnan Mansor and former Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad.
By July, Zaid cut a lonely figure in the Cabinet. He was being attacked in Parliament by Umno MPs, behind closed doors by Umno ministers and publicly by Dr Mahathir. The only protector he had was Abdullah.
But as Abdullah's hold on Umno got weaker and weaker especially after Anwar Ibrahim's win in the Permatang Pauh by-election, so did his ability and willingness to defend Zaid.
Umno politicians began questioning Zaid's ability to be a team player and arguing that he did not carry or represent the aspirations of the Malays.
They rejected the first draft of the Judicial Appointments Commission and Home Affairs Minister Datuk Seri Syed Hamid Albar ticked him off for suggesting in Parliament that the government was reviewing the Internal Security Act.
When the government reached for the ISA against a journalist and DAP MP Teresa Kok in September, Zaid handed in his resignation as a minister. His friends say that instead of being depressed, resigning from the Cabinet was a liberating experience.
After the euphoria of being appointed a minister had died down, it had been a torture for him to be in the government.
He could not stomach the chauvinism and narrow-mindedness of ruling party politicians and realized that he was an outsider.
On at least a couple of occasions, he went to see Abdullah to offer his resignation, saying that he did not fit into this landscape. On both occasions, Zaid was persuaded to be patient and assured that the Administration would back the initiatives to reform the judiciary.
He agreed but it had become a chore for him to wake up daily and go to Putrajaya..
His presence at Cabinet meetings grew more infrequent in August/September and he knew that there was only going to be one conclusion for this political experiment which began when he received a late night telephone call from Abdullah several days after March 8.
His friends said that his few months in Cabinet made him realize that he had a value system that was completely different from Umno's.
He does not believe in the concept of Ketuanan Melayu or in the use of the ISA.
Days after he resigned from government, Anwar reached out to him. He appeared seduced by the idea of joining the Opposition, especially at the time when all the talk in town was about the September 16 crossovers.
But he decided against it and told family and friends that he would like to set up a foundation to foster better race relations among Malaysia's young. The Opposition has not stopped wooing him. He may be tempted to join either the PKR or DAP.
Why?
Unlike Umno, they want him. Also, his ideals are closer to those espoused by Anwar and Lim Kit Siang. He wants the ISA to be abolished, for the separation of powers to be respected, for the country's institutions to be restored to their full glory.
His sacking from Umno will allow him to follow his dreams. His sacking will allow Umno to finally get rid of a politician who was never one of them. -- TMI
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