Zaid ex-candidate for PKR No. 2 post says he's had enough

By SIRA HABIBU
sira@thestar.com.my

PETALING JAYA: Datuk Zaid Ibrahim has decided to quit PKR, saying he has had enough of recent turn of events in the party.

"I knew my days in the party were numbered because the leaders were relentlessly making personal attacks against me.

"I am quitting because I want to dissociate myself from liars and cheats. I do not want to be part of a group that propagates lies and does not have any qualms about cheating for as long as the end justifies the means,'' he told The Star.

Zaid, who joined the party in June 2009 after a fallout with Umno, said he would take a short break to "get away from all the attention".

"I am not sick of the party, I am sick of the sick leaders in the party,'' he said.

The former Cabinet member pulled out of the race for the PKR deputy presidency last week, citing the leadership's failure to address allegations of manipulation and fraud in the party election system.

He dropped a bombshell when he asked party adviser Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim to quit, saying PKR would not be able to implement its reform agenda as long as Anwar and his "preferred" deputy presidency candidate Azmin Ali remained in power.

Zaid said he had been attacked for merely asking for a clean, free and fair party election.

He said that right from the start of polling when he was leading the pack in the race for the No. 2 post, he had been calling on party leaders to seriously look into irregularities in the balloting process.

"How can they blatantly lie that I only made noise after my opponent (Azmin) took the lead on the third day of polling?" he asked.

"They call me a troublemaker, that I am a Trojan horse out to destroy the party. They also accused me of being an Umno agent trying to destroy the party from within.

"I cannot accept all these lies.

"They (PKR leaders) do not take well to criticism. They ‘shoot' the messenger of truth, rather than address the complaints," he added.

According to political observers, Zaid is likely to go on and form his own party.