Zaid a tyrant, says sacked Kita man

Muhammad Firdaus Christopher alleges that the party boss has financial problems and behaves like Saddam Hussein.

KUALA LUMPUR: Former Kita central executive committee member Muhammad Firdaus Christopher today accused Zaid Ibrahim of running the party like a dictator, calling him a “Saddam Hussein”.

Seething over the way he has been sacked from the party, he said the allegations against him were lies.

Kita working secretary Masrum Dayat announced in a press statement yesterday that the party had terminated Firdaus’s membership because he had smeared its name on his personal Facebook and Twitter pages.

Masrum alleged that Firdaus was avenging the recent termination and also insinuated that Firdaus was behind the technical problems that the party’s website faced yesterday.

Firdaus told FMT today that no one informed him of his sacking before Masrum released his statement and alleged that neither the statement nor Masrum’s position in the party was legitimate.

“The person who signed the statement is not a Kita member, but a PAS member,” he told FMT. “And there is no such position as a ‘working secretary’ in the party.”

He said he learnt of his termination only last night, after receiving calls from news reporters.
He added, however, that he had left his position as a paid employee of Zaid three months ago because the Kita president had stopped paying him.

He explained that he was one of three people in the party whom Zaid had been paying out of his own pocket, the other two being treasurer Rashid Azad Khan and Selangor Election director and Zaid campaign manager Pak Malek Baretta.

“Zaid stopped all our salaries three months ago due to personal financial difficulties,” he said. “He told us he didn’t have any more money and that we should look for funds for the party and take part of those funds as our salaries.

“Three months ago, Rashid received a text message from Zaid informing him that he had been removed as treasurer because he was too slow in getting funds. But that’s not a treasurer’s job.”

According to Firdaus, both he and Rashid had tried to look for funds, but that the job proved difficult, with many party members and supporters questioning why they had to fund a rich man’s political party.

“Rashid’s replacement, a Dr Rajaratnam, also left last month because he was under too much pressure to look for funds,” he said. “You can’t put a gun to someone’s head like that.”

Talking to the wall

Firdaus denied allegations that he had been smearing the party’s name, saying that he had only launched a direct attack on Zaid for his “arrogant, tyrannical and dictatorial” behaviour.

“He doesn’t listen to anyone but his own voice,” he said. “He doesn’t have meetings with anyone. He hires and fires alone and he doesn’t adhere to the party constitution. Giving him feedback is like talking to the wall.

“Kita is nine months old and not a single soul has received an appointment letter. When secretary-general Latif Thamby Chik brought up the constitution, Zaid shouted that it wasn’t Latif’s charter and to forget about it because this was the way he ran his party. Isn’t that like Saddam Hussein?”

Zaid has since appointed two party liaison directors, Masrum and Aziz Kadir. According to Firdaus, their task is to spread word about the alleged treachery of the four who used to work for him and to carry out shady operations in Kita’s state branches.

“We had agreed in the inaugral meeting that state branches would have to be registered once the membership hit the 100 mark,” he said. “A meeting would then be called to elect the office bearers.

“But now Masrum and Aziz have been told to go to each branch and create prepared minutes of meetings with 15 names on them to be submitted to the Registrar of Companies as a pro-tem committee.

“What about the other members who want to be part of the committee? We’re talking about malpractice here.”

Firdaus worked closely with Zaid during his candidacy for the Hulu Selangor by-election last April and also during the PKR party elections. But he said he never saw this side of Zaid before.

“The only problem I had with him in Hulu Selangor was that he never kept to the schedule,” he said. “And he was very mellow during the PKR elections. It was only when he became party chief that all hell broke loose.”

When contacted, Zaid said he would comment on the accusations at a later date.