Zaid Ibrahim

The outgoing de-facto Law Minister Zaid Ibrahim, someone I’d rate alongside Toh Kin Woon, both live up to their reputation as the conscience of their respective party and ex-party, which are Umno and Gerakan.

The only difference is, Toh has quitted Gerakan prior to the recently concluded Permatang Pauh by-election and threw his solidatary support behind Anwar Ibrahim whereas Zaid is still stuck with Umno as of now but keeping his mind open in joining PKR soon.

During the press conference, he said he had attempted to create a better selection process for judges, restore the judicial power, initiate reforms to the police force and limit the executive’s power on the Internal Security Act but admitted he failed to convince those in authority to change.

I believe in the basic principle that this country respects all rights and citizens. This country is for all, there is no room for discrimination, this country is about rule of law and transparency, these are the things that we need to change.

If you don’t subscribe to these principles or just pay lip service to them, it will be difficult to translate (these) into policies. This is my feeling.

Meanwhile, he reiterated his stance of staying put as a senator as he believes he still can contribute his views on public issues.

"I love and care for this country very much like you all, I will do what I can. I believe this country is founded on very simple principles but very strong principles – fairness to all, justice, freedom, all those good things, I will work towards that," he said.

He too emphasized the importance of doing something concrete to bring back the trust of the people and take action against some people who are bent on creating the racial divide to fulfill their own political agendas.

My hats off to Zaid for doing the right thing by quitting his cabinet post. I’m sure it took great guts for him to call it a day to avoid any further political standoff with his cabinet colleagues who are obviously against his stance on many reforms he set out to change while accusing him of not being a true fighter for his own race and religion.

It’s a waste for such a principled man like him to be brought down by racial politics perpetuated by most of the politicians out there for their own political gain, hence the decision to quit is much applauded from the public as well as leaders from opposition parties, with the most staunch support came from no other than the DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng who hailed him as the first leader to quit from the Cabinet on a point of principle and clear conscience.

My hope is that Zaid will decide to join the PR coalition in the near future for I believe that his vision and ideology of a multi-racial and harmonious Malaysia is in line with what’s being perpetuated by the PR. However, in the end of the day, even if he decides not to be tied to any political party, with his vast interest and passion in law arena and the level of respect gained as a result of his principled stance, I believe he can be play a very critical role with existing NGOs in bringing a change of a truly multi-racial society with anak-anak bangsa Malaysia living side-by-side regardless of their ethnicity and faith, which has long plagued this nation.

Meanwhile, Kit reported that Zaid is going to attend the inaugural meeting of the "Free MP Teresa Kok" parliamentary caucus in Parliament tomorrow (Wednesday 17 September 2008) at 3pm.