Zaid to meet RPK again

By FMT Staff

UPDATED 3.40PM KUALA LUMPUR: PKR leader Zaid Ibrahim has announced that he will meet Raja Petra Kamarudin again next week. He is also ready to clarify his relationship with the popular blogger to Home Minister Hishammuddin Hussein.

In his latest posting on myzaidibrahim.com, he writes: “I will be in London next week and, God willing, I will meet Marina and Petra.” Marina is the wife of the exiled blogger.

The article, entitled “Poor Zahrain; so pathetic”, is a reaction to PKR defector Zahrain Mohamad Hashim’s allegation that Zaid was giving Raja Petra financial support.

In a separate development, Zaid also responded through his twitter to Home Minister Hishammuddin who had asked for a clarification on the PKR leader's ties with Raja Petra.

“Will gladly do so. Tell me time and place,” said Zaid in his tweet today.

On Saturday Hishammuddin said if Zaid was a responsible person, he would offer an explanation on his relationship with Raja Petra.

"Raja Petra is criticising the country abroad and making personal attacks on (our) leaders, it’s alright if he has the proof. But he says many things in his blog. When there are top opposition leaders with them, they have to explain the relationship between them and Raja Petra," he had said.

Here is a translation of Zaid's blog entry:

"Representatives of the people should speak up when they have ideas pertinent to national policy, and they must be courageous in criticising government decisions. These are the very duties and responsibilites that a Yang Berhormat must shoulder.

These burdens are especially compelling for a representative of the people who claims to be independent and who is so liked by PM Najib Tun Razak. Come on, surely we must maintain some standard. Or people will say we are mere bootlickers with nothing significant to bring up in the Dewan.

So, was I surprised to hear that my meeting with Raja Petra in Manchester last year has become such an issue to the YB of Bayan Baru! It's as if he has become a Special Branch agent, proud to reveal that I stayed at the Hotel Britannia with Raja Petra last year.

He says the MACC should investigate the meeting. So this is how our pro-BN Wakil Rakyat works these days. Nothing else to raise. If he had only asked me, I would have told him more than he knows. Listen YB, it is not wrong to meet Raja Petra. You too can go to his house Manchester.

Raja Petra and his wife Marina are my friends. I don't abandon friends who are in difficulty. That is why I meet the two every time I am in London. Last year, I took Raja Petra to a football match in Old Trattford; he is a fan of Manchester United. I paid for his ticket. That poor man, forced to flee his homeland because he sought the truth, gets precious litte entertainment. But then, it may be hard for our YB Bayan Baru to understand or appreciate a struggle like Petra's.

It is true that he booked the hotel for me, but he didn't stay there because his house is only 15 minutes away. The hotel was three-star, not like Zahrain's hotel in Washington. After all, I had to pay out of my own pocket.

I'm going to London next week and, insha Allah, I will see Marina and Petra. I'll give more details if YB Zahrain or MACC needs them. I hope to also meet Bala even if MACC doesn't want to."