Remove PM of few words, says Zaid

 

 For months, speculation has been rife that the daggers are out for Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak and that certain Umno stalwarts, both past and present, are authoring the plot for his ouster.

And now, former de facto law minister Zaid Ibrahim has also sounded a clarion call for the sixth prime minister's head to roll.
                      
"I know the PM is a man of few words. He seldom says what is expected of national leaders.

"But if this is indeed the way it's going to be then it's the duty of all Malaysians and the Malays who refuse to be doomed to start an active campaign to bring real change.

"That means to bring about change in leadership," he said in a blog posting titled "Malays are doomed", with a photograph of a downcast Najib.

"How much more travesty must we endure from leaders who are destroying the country we love?" he added.

Anwar is no different

Zaid, who has an axe to grind with Anwar Ibrahim as well, also took a swipe at the opposition leader.

"My friend Anwar is no different from Najib; they know when to keep their mouth shut because Putrajaya is everything to them.

"I urge the Malays to come forward. You need to break free from the fear that Najib, Anwar and Jakim (Malaysian Islamic Development Department) all suffer from. We can still be saved if we do not let ourselves be doomed by Malays like them," he added.

Zaid also criticised Najib over his stand regarding PAS' intention to implement hudud law in Kelantan.

"Look at the debates on hudud and you can see why the Malays are doomed. Even the prime minister had to 'play ball' with PAS because (according to his spokesperson and future cabinet minister Liow Tiong Lai) it’s inconceivable for any 'good' Muslim to be seen to oppose the introduction of hudud.

"If a Malay who holds the top post in the country can be overwhelmed by such political trickery, then what hope do we have? Is Liow and the PM telling us that they have no answer to an old political gambit (50 years old to be exact)?" he added.

Malays are doomed to fail

The ex-minister is convinced that the Malays are doomed to fail in their own country.

"This has little to do with their propensity to stab one another in the back while seeking the top positions, or with what the British did to them or to Malaya.

"It's not because the Chinese and Indians have taken the best out of the country, or have denied them their legitimate rights. The Malays are doomed because they do not think! They are afraid to think straight," he added.

As for the hudud issue, Zaid said "now these non-thinking Malays" have formed a committee comprising scholars supposedly steeped in Islamic jurisprudence to find ways to implement hudud in Kelantan.

"We know this is just a political ploy because there are no scholars steeped in hudud. Even in countries where hudud is allegedly used, no one knows the basis of the decisions made by the jurists of that country.

"Do we truly believe that if the person accused of theft is related to the Saudi king or knows Imam Khomeini, he would suffer amputation?

"Or that a member of the royalty who downs gin and tonic cocktails would be prosecuted? Or on what basis do they determine the quality of the witness who complained of the illicit sexual tryst?" he added.

Stating that there are no practical precedents to follow, Zaid, who once owned the country's largest law firm, added that scholars will have no answers to the pressing questions regarding the implementation of hudud.

"The most they can do is ridicule people like me. All this fanfare is going to waste a lot taxpayers’ money, and yet the PM sees no problem with this harebrained scheme just to protect his political image.

"Is the prime minister telling us that we are going to have a different set of shariah-based penal laws for Muslims in Kelantan, while Muslims in other states are spared?

"What is his real intention? This is the worst case of political irresponsibility this country has experienced since its birth," he added.