As Zaid shapes to exit, PKR needs to manage fallout
COMMENT So it looks like Zaid Ibrahim is on course to form his own opposition party, even if he does not get the sack from PKR.
COMMENT So it looks like Zaid Ibrahim is on course to form his own opposition party, even if he does not get the sack from PKR.
This is the thrust of interviews he gave over the weekend to two vehicles of the mainstream media, salivating as they are apt to whenever there’s turbulence in the opposition camp.
PKR would not be so myopic as to sack him, lest he lead a mutiny of its internal critics, of which there are a considerable number who think the party is being misgoverned.
PKR would not even be inclined to take Zaid to the woodshed; the party set a record of sorts in forbearance by its toleration of the crapulous behaviour of Kulim Bandar Baru MP Zulkifli Nordin.
But unexpelled or uncensured would matter little to Zaid; he has little patience for the nuanced position.
A Greek tragedy?
The Greeks have a saying - character is destiny, which is taken to mean that the way a person confronts the things that happen to him, a number of which may come about as a consequence of his characteristic behaviour, determines his fate.
Zaid is like the boy from a richer part of the neighborhood come to the common playground with a shiny ball that is better than the tattered one the poorer boys are kicking about.
He lends them his but when the play is not to his liking, he departs, plaything in hand.
Needless to say, PKR would kid itself if they are merely content to call Zaid a spoilsport should he leave the party, or a Trojan Horse, should he go on to form his own vehicle which would split the opposition vote.
This drama is not yet a Greek tragedy but it would be one if the saga of Zaid Ibrahim’s entry and looming exit from PKR eventuates in a PKR-led opposition coalition being edged at the post in the fast approaching 13th general election by a cagey Umno-BN that is merely waiting for the opposition to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.
TERENCE NETTO has been a journalist for close on four decades. He likes the occupation because it puts him in contact with the eminent without being under the necessity to admire them.
