Saya kesal cabar Azmin untuk timbalan presiden, kata Zahid...

Dalam satu pusingan pilihan raya, Datuk Zaid Ibrahim beranjak daripada seorang menteri Umno untuk menjadi anggota Majlis Pimpinan Tertinggi (MPT) PKR dan kemudiannya menjadi presiden Parti Kesejahteraan Insan Tanah Air (KITA).

Namun begitu, Zaid bangga kerana meletakkan jawatan dalam kerajaan sebagai membantah penahanan Ahli Parlimen Seputeh, Teresa Kok; penulis blog Raja Petra Kamaruddin serta wartawan Sin Chew, Tan Hoon Cheng di bawah Akta Keselamatan Dalam Negeri (ISA).

Apabila ditanya tentang kekesalannya, Zaid dalam satu wawancara dengan Malaysiakini di kediamannya semalam berkata ia satu kesilapan mencabar Timbalan Presiden PKR, Azmin Ali bagi jawatan nombor dua itu sewaktu beliau berada dalam PKR.

"Kekesalan yang saya fikir adalah ... mencabar Azmin bagi jawatan timbalan (presiden) PKR, kerana saya tidak tahu parti itu.

"Parti itu belum bersedia untuk pemilihan secara langsung; ia kucar-kacir... bila direnung semula, ia bukan satu keputusan yang betul (untuk mencabar Azmin).

"Kesilapan saya ialah... saya mempunyai banyak sokongan dalam parti, saya fikir saya boleh melakukan sesuatu yang berbeza untuk menukar PKR.

"Tetapi saya terlepas pandang hakikat bahawa (supremo PKR), Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim memerlukan seseorang yang beliau boleh percaya kerana keadaannya. (Lagi pun) beliau mungkin (ke penjara berhubng kes Liwat II).


"Jadi, mencabar Azmin adalah satu kesilapan dalam erti kata demikian," katanya, sambil menambah bahawa pada masa itu, beliau merupakan pendatang baru dalam parti tersebut.

Selepas meletak jawatan dalam kerajaan dan Umno, Zaid ditarik menyertai PKR pada tahun 2009 sebagai penyelaras dasar Pakatan Rakyat, untuk meletakkan asas bagi rangka kerja bersama polisi pakatan.

Pada tahun 2010, beliau mencabar Azmin bagi jawatan timbalan presiden PKR tetapi kemudiannya menarik diri selepas menuduh lawannya melakukan penipuan semasa pemilihan parti.

Episod tersebut mencetuskan kepada perang mulut, dan berikutan itu Zaid meninggalkan PKR dan membentuk KITA.

'Silap buka KITA seperti pasaraya'

Satu lagi kekesalan, kata Zaid, ialah kerana "secara bebas memberikan" borang keahlian untuk menyertai KITA - parti yang kini mahu dibubarkannya.

"Kesilapan lain adalah apabila saya membentuk KITA, saya sepatutnya lebih berhati-hati," katanya sambil menambah beliau sepatutnya sabar memilih orang yang betul menyertai parti itu.

"Saya sepatutnya interviu mereka dan bukannya membuka (keahlian) seperti sebuah pasaraya," katanya.

Tindakan tersebut, tambahnya, menyebabkan beberapa ahli KITA yang  tidak ada kepercayaan terhadap perjuangan parti itu dan mempunyai agenda mereka sendiri.

Zaid: I regret challenging Azmin for PKR deputy...

In a single election cycle, Zaid Ibrahim has gone from Umno minister to PKR central committee member and then to Parti Kita president.

Despite his political rollercoaster, Zaid takes pride in having resigned from the government to protest the arrests of Seputeh MP Teresa Kok, blogger Raja Petra Kamaruddin and Sin Chew reporter Tan Hoon Cheng under the Internal Security Act.

When asked about his regrets, Zaid in an interview with Malaysiakini at his residence yesterday said it was a mistake to have challenged PKR deputy president Azmin Ali for the number two post when he was in PKR.

"The regret I think was... challenging Azmin for the deputy post in PKR, because I didn't know the party.

“The party was not ready for direct elections; it was a mess... looking back, it was not the right decision (to challenge Azmin).

"My mistake was... I had a lot of support in the party; I thought I could do something different, to change PKR.

“But I overlooked this fact that (PKR supremo) Anwar Ibrahim needed somebody he could trust because of his position. (After all) he might be going in (to jail over Sodomy II).


“So challenging Azmin (left) was a mistake in that sense," he said, adding that he was at that time a newcomer to the party.
 
After Zaid's resignation from the government and Umno, he was roped into PKR in 2009 as Pakatan Rakyat's policy coordinator, to lay the groundwork for the coalition's Common Policy Framework.

In 2010, he challenged Azmin for PKR's deputy president post but later dropped out after accusing his opponent of electoral fraud during the party polls.

The episode led to a war of words, and in the fallout Zaid resigned from PKR and formed Kita.
 
'Mistake to open Kita like supermarket'
 
Another regret, Zaid said, was in "freely giving out" membership forms to join Kita, a party that he is now mulling to dissolve.

"The other mistake was of course when I formed Kita, I should have been more careful. I should have taken the right kind of people slowly.


“I should have interviewed them instead of opening like a supermarket," he said.

This oversight, he said, has led to some Kita members who have no belief in the party's cause and have their own agendas.

While admitting his zigzag history meant his political future isn't looking bright, he acknowledged it has been a lesson.

"Of course it's a learning curve. I'm too old... but well it's never too late to learn from mistakes," said Zaid, who turns 61 in April.

"But there are not that many mistakes in my life," he added, laughing.

Prior to his foray into national politics, Zaid was the founder of Zaid Ibrahim & Co, the largest private law firm in the country, whose shares he relinquished when joining the government.

source:malaysiakini

Nasihat Zaid,jangan dok banyak minum todi...

cheers.