Stop the slander or else, Zaid tells PKR leaders

BY FMT Staff

KUALA LUMPUR: PKR deputy presidential candidate Zaid Ibrahim has accused some party leaders of lying about him and warned that he might retaliate by shaming them.

He said one of these leaders was outgoing deputy president Syed Husin Ali, who in a recent interview with Merdeka Review said Zaid was not a team player and indicated that he backed vice-president Azmin Ali as his replacement.

In an interview with FMT, Zaid also spoke of hypocrites in the party.

However, he tempered his strongly worded reaction to his critics with an assurance that he was loyal to the party. “I’m fully in support of the party’s struggle,” he said.

Zaid and Azmin are the top contenders for the deputy presidency. Zaid initially said he was not taking part in the election, but announced a reversal in a blog posting on Sept 1 following what he said were relentless attacks against him by those who had assumed that he was interested in offering himself as a candidate.

Since that announcement, he told FMT, the attacks had escalated.

“This must stop,” he said. “I wish to warn these leaders that they must stop ridiculing me and spreading lies about me just because I offered myself for a post.”

He said his detractors should not assume that he would not respond by exposing matters that would shame them.

“Syed Husin has now joined other PKR leaders to belittle my contributions to the party,” he said.

“He said my role in the formulation of the Pakatan Common Policy framework was minimal, that I did not attend many meetings and I was not a team player.”
Hypocrisy
Zaid admitted that he had missed some party meetings but said he had valid excuses.

“Sometimes there were other important things to attend to, including being with the rakyat,” he said.

“I am not the only one to have missed party meetings. Others, including Azmin, too have missed meetings.”

He accused some party leaders of hypocrisy, saying they were using the same political tactics they had accused Umno of practising.

Referring to his failed bid in the Hulu Selangor by-election, he said these leaders had complained that Umno used underhanded tactics and personal attacks in the campaign. “Yet, they are doing the same now.”

“They complain that the sodomy charges against Anwar Ibrahim are all slander, but they have no qualms dishing out slander against me,” he added.