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Friday, 12 November 2010

'Be a man Anwar and take on Zaid one-to-one'

By Patrick Lee - Free Malaysia Today

KUALA LUMPUR: Former PKR MP Zulkifli Noordin has challenged Anwar Ibrahim to scrap the PKR polls and take on Zaid Ibrahim in a one-to-one contest.

"Fight lah, fight against Zaid. I challenge Anwar, if he is man enough, fight against Zaid! If you go one-to-one with Zaid, who do you think will win?” he told reporters in the Parliament lobby today.

“Just scrap the elections and fight Zaid, one-to-one, man-to-man. If he really is an 'anak jantan', then he should fight with Zaid,” he added.

The Kulim Bandar Baharu MP, who had been on the offensive against Anwar and PKR since being sacked from the party, also criticised the opposition leader for hiding behind the post of party adviser.

“If he (Anwar) is a man who fights for democracy, fight lah, fight Zaid, that will settle the PKR leadership once and for all.

“But first, you have to clear the list of all those phantom voters. Appoint an independent panel and then test it out, and see what happens,” he added.

Continuing the scathing attack on his former boss, the independent MP said Anwar was more interested in leading the party than allowing democracy to proceed.

“He is always talking about democracy but he wants to be the boss. He doesn't want to fight for the position of party president. Maybe he thinks that it's best to maintain it that way,” he said.

'Zaid, fight till the end'

Zulkifli also stressed that it was hypocritical for Anwar to talk about corruption when it was prevalent in his own party ranks.

“That is what Zaid is trying to reveal. Misuse of power, corruption, cronyism, nepotism. Everything that is said (by Zaid) is done by Anwar,” he said.

Zulkifli also had words of encouragement for Zaid, urging the former law minister to take his fight to the end.

“My advice to Zaid is to fight them. Don't quit, fight them till the end. That's what I did. Just show the people and PKR members what the true colours of these people are,” he said.

Zaid, who was gunning for the deputy presidency, withdrew from the contest this week after accusing his rival Azmin Ali of electoral fraud, a charge which the latter and party leadership had denied.

He also called on Anwar to step down and Azmin to be disqualified, labelling the duo as a hindrance to PKR's progress.

With Zaid out of the race, the battle for number two was now between Azmin and vice-president Mustaffa Kamil Ayub, who also wanted the polls suspended due to alleged discrepancies.

Azmin, who was Anwar's former aide when the latter was deputy prime minister, is widely regarded as the PKR supremo's preferred choice for the number two slot.

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