'I didn't know it would get this bad'

There was no question that the deputy president's post would be contested, said outgoing number two Syed Husin Ali, but the severity of the competition came a big surprise.

"I expected some contest but I didn't know that it would be this bad (but) it only became that way because there were parties who criticised and disparaged the party, in cooperation with party enemies, like media and party-owned media... but (hindsight) would not have changed my decision (to not contest), " he said.

He may not have been able to see the impending fallout between Zaid Ibrahim and Azmin Ali, but one thing is clear to the party stalwart - Azmin would have won the race even if Zaid had not dropped out from the race at the last minute.

It is the knowledge that he would lose that led Zaid to accuse the party of vote-rigging, Syed Husin told Malaysiakini in an exclusive interview, hours after Zaid handed in his resignation letter on Friday.

“(Azmin) can win (the post). I believe that even if Zaid stayed in the race, Azmin could have won it, and Zaid knew this. He would have seen it in the trends in the nominations stage.

“But we shouldn’t start blaming the party once we have knowledge that we’re lagging. Why is it always someone else’s fault? He is always right,” said Syed Husin about the former PKR Federal Territory chief.

The soft-spoken and much-respected 74-year-old raised eyebrows when he told Merdeka Review that Zaid (left) had often skipped meetings, hence neglecting his party responsibilities as a supreme council member.  

Zaid responded by claiming that Syed Husin was going nyanyuk (senile), but later claimed that media to have misquoted him as he had actually used the word nyanyu (speaking nonsense).

This led to a hailstorm of criticisms from party leaders.

Zaid brought it on himself

Syed Husin’s response to the ‘nyanyuk-nyanyu’ episode also became an inadvertent endorsement for Azmin—something that the older politician said he had not intended.

“I believe that if he (Zaid) had read the (Merdeka Review) interview, he would have realised that I wasn’t just criticising him. I said that he did not attend meetings, while the other one (Azmin) is seen as arrogant and never replied to text messages, etc.

“I seldom make criticisms (on party members), much less towards him, but look at what he has said about me and other party leaders,” he said.

If anyone was ‘senile’ said the veteran politician, it is Zaid himself who has appeared to have “forgotten the real situation” by continuing to take credit for the Pakatan Rakyat manifesto and to allowing others to refer to him as the coalition coordinator.

“Pakatan has never made a decision to appoint a coordinator. Even if he has never said it himself (that he was holding such a position) it has been widely reported by media and he has never denied it.

“So who is the one who has forgotten the real situation? Who is the senile one?” he asked.

Syed Husin also claimed that the Zaid had only presented an early draft of the Pakatan manifesto Common Policies Framework, which was put together by “someone else” as a representative of PKR in the coalition secretariat.

Zaid was, in fact, overseas when it was discussed and revised and finalised, said Husin.

“He only came back to give the speech at the coalition convention,” he said, arguing that this is evidence of a serious character flaw in Zaid who has declared himself a man of principles.

Rejected by Gerakan?

Like many others, Syed Husin, too, claimed that Zaid was suspected to be a bad apple early on after he kept breaching PKR party discipline by airing the party’s dirty linen in public.

So why then has no disciplinary action been taken against him to date?

“People ask this all the time. We did not want it to seem like we were affecting his chances in the polls,” said Syed.

“But he has breached discipline… He has been like that from early on,” he said.

Ironically, Syed Husin admitted, he was the first party leader that Zaid contacted when the alleged “Trojan horse” first made contact with the opposition party.  

“I have no proof of this, but people claimed that (Zaid) had initially wanted to join (BN component party) Gerakan, (but) was rejected. We had accepted him with open arms.

“Before he joined, he had asked to meet me, and we met at Tropicana Resort where he asked a few questions about the party. I remember this because I made a record of the questions,” said Syed Husin.

Despite this, Syed Husin said he had from the start been reluctant to join the chorus of voices  branding Zaid as an “enemy in the fold” who had ill-intentions against the party.  

To the question as to whether the Zaid episode reflects his and other PKR leaders’ poor judgement of character, he said the intentions of people are difficult to ascertain as to whether they mean well or ill.

“(He has denied that he had ill-intentions) and I am willing to accept this.

“But you can never know someone’s real intentions. One can only judge based on their actions and words, and its effects on the party. This an objective view, and if his actions were detrimental to the party, (only) then you can brand him whatever you want,” he said.

Suggesting that Zaid could still inflict damage on the party, Syed Husin also cited the maverick politician’s parting shot in calling for the resignation of Anwar - one that may have hit a raw nerve among party leaders.  

He also recounted the calls by an “out-dated and out-of-tune orchestra” of persons - including former-Perlis mufti Mohd Asri Zainal Abidin - calling for Anwar to step down as the reason the party cannot just ignore Zaid and move on.

Syed Husin said further Zaid’s resignation on Friday appears to have left little relief for the party, as it only takes effective on Dec 16.  

“You never know what will happen before then.”

‘Azmin will be a good deputy president’

On Azmin, Syed Husin said while the party vice-president is not perfect, his strength is his willingness to work on his weaknesses.

“I cannot say (what these weaknesses are) with the camera in my face, (but) I have already advised him.

“Some he has taken on board, and some, not. At times I even forward (to Azmin) messages I receive about him, and this sometimes angers him. My job is to convince him of the changes that need to happen,” he said.

Despite this, said Syed Husin, Azmin has the potential do well as the party’s No 2.

“I don’t deny that he has traits that qualify him to be the deputy president,” he said.