Zaid wants to topple BN, not PKR top posts

KOTA BHARU: Outspoken Pakatan Rakyat coordinator Zaid Ibrahim has no plans to contest any top posts in the upcoming PKR party elections.

Quashing rumours that he is involved in a rift with PKR vice-president Azmin Ali over which posts to contest when the party holds its congress and elections later this year, Zaid said his only wish is to topple the ruling Barisan Nasional coalition.

Zaid said people like to make all kinds of speculations about his political future, especially after his loss in the recent Hulu Selangor parliamentary by-election.

"I am not interested in posts. I am only keen to topple Barisan," said Zaid after he accompanied Mentri Besar Nik Abdul Aziz Nik Mat on the latter's tour of the Kelantan Disabled Foundation premise in Pengkalan Chepa on Sunday.

Zaid is the founder of the foundation and continues to support it financially.

Zaid also said that Malaysia has signs of slipping into a "facist state" due to the perceived high-handed tactics of the police.

He said his political struggle is to now restore the honor and impartiality of the country's legal foundations including the police.

Containing people's displeasure

It is apparent that the police has come to take sides in the current political discourse and when sides are taken, it usually becomes violent, he added in reference to the shooting case of a teenager in Selangor and the deployment of the police's special action squad (UTK) in the Kelantan royalty dispute.

He said a "facist" state is when the government uses the police to contain the people's displeasure through either violent or any other means possible.

"When we do not know the limit, this is where the country starts to fall apart."

Zaid also said that he would be campaigning at the ongoing Sibu parliamentary by-election in Sarawak from Tuesday.

He added that DAP who is representing Pakatan in the three corner fight for the seat has a tough job as Barisan is the incumbent.

Zaid, a former de facto Umno law minister, quit the federal government before joining PKR last year.

FMT
10/05/10

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