Men like Zaid finish last

November 16, 2010

Men like Zaid Ibrahim finish last

by Rashid Yusof @www.nst.com.my

DATUK Zaid Ibrahim indicated to the New Sunday Times he had earned disproportionate media coverage. He certainly has not been criss-crossing the nation whipping up sentiment and support. He was at home.The apparent political inertia has not stopped him from gaining a great deal of media space and being in the middle of a raging political storm. The net effect of which is enhanced visibility.

“Not really. It is not what it looks or sounds like,” admitted Zaid when the NST pointed out that he must have been super busy. He was not meditating when the NST entered his home. Neither was he very awake.

As speculation on his intentions mount — and another prominent headline duly generated — the 60-year-old lawyer-cum-politician said he was without a secretary and in the midst of building a home-office.

Zaid makes an absorbing case for profile writers.  He had languished away in the obscure corners of UMNO for 23 years — making unsuccessful attempts for posts for 10 of those years. Throughout, nobody stepped into a press conference claiming to be “I am a Zaid supporter… more shall soon step forward “.

He is no general, hardly the archetypal political operator.  He is not a great orator, looks disinterested — at the very least incredulous — at the outset of the NST interview, and does not seem to be propped up by legions of supporters and structure.

As the interview progressed, the full repertoire and persona of Zaid popped up — he conducts his politics via the media.

He knows he was exposing himself to the conclusion that he has been prolonging the anguish — his tormented existence in the troubled Parti Keadilan Rakyat — for it would churn out more media coverage. Of course, it may not be the case.

Yet, he could have announced his exit in any of the preceding interviews.  Yesterday, he would only allow a feeble blog posting that he would announce — what seems to be his imminent departure — on Friday.

He is exactly the kind of politician destined to be a media darling.  He does not offend the media — largely. He gives good interviews, coherent answers and a range of new angles. In a nutshell, he makes sense.

Still, the realm of politics is about having constituents knocking on your doors at strange hours, of having to douse political fires all the time, of building bridges and alliances, of making concessions, drafting policies and building consensus.

Politics transcends the declaration of lofty ideals, it is also about serving, slogging it out and reaching out, and, yes, giving good interviews.  Perhaps someone somewhere shall proclaim at some point that the greatest fallacy propagated by PKR — hence by its de facto leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim — has been to adopt Zaid unquestioningly.

Politics gets nasty at times, especially when you manage to attract a range of spirited souls as PKR does, and nice men like Zaid would find the strains unbearable. It used to be Dr Chandra Muzaffar, the party’s first deputy president. Did not the former president of Aliran harbour more or less the same set of complaints as Zaid does? PKR is about Anwar, period.

Zaid was candid and it was courageous of him. He has no delusions about his political prospects. He has no leadership aspirations.  “I want to get a seat in Parliament” which is how he has come to frame his political ambition.

He would not have the resources to start a major political party, he said. A smallish organisation would suffice. Perhaps people will listen to him and he will, indeed, make more sense than all those who are bound to win the top posts in PKR. The flaws and the fault-lines in the Zaid-PKR nexus are entirely PKR’s.