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Zaid Ibrahim has had more than his five minutes of fame and many a name has been given to him: an enigma, a traitor, etc. His political career has indeed been a chequered one. He was suspended from Umno, booted himself out of the party and now the same thing from the PKR.  

One thing for sure is, Zaid, although rather misplaced or even naive, is a man of principle. If he doesn't like something he will speak his mind and if he doesn't like it intensely he will let himself out.

Not many people in Umno would dare to do this because they need the money to maintain their expensive but easy lifestyle.

But Zaid is loaded, thus he doesn't owe anybody any favours (except to Umno because let's face he did become rich looking after Umno's interests).

To me when former prime minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi gave him a new lease of (political) life he could have done a few things, perhaps people will remember him as a good de facto law minister, compared to the one we have now.

For instance, he could have nurtured the relationship between the government and the Bar Council.

Zaid could also fine-tune the functions and role of syariah law, not only for Muslims but also in relation to non-Muslims. Even civil family laws need some reforms.  I can go on foreever, like Zaid could have done something to help ordinary people in relation to the consumer credit Act, anti-trust laws, sale and purchase agreements.

In the area of sentencing Zaid could also have done something because what we have now are some overzealous magistrates (who are not even members of the judiciary) who are too keen to send people to prison, thus turning ordinary youths who may have committed minor crimes, into hardened criminals.

And since this countrty remains a blind believer in the English Common Law (not even Scottish Common Law or the European Common Law), let alone the Syariah Law, Zaid should have embarked on a programme to restore the Jury System because the Bench Trial (single judge or even three-judge panel) that we have now is far from satisfactory.

Better still, since Malaysia still loves to remain under the 'colonial' yoke i.e. the Commonwealth where the British Queen is the head, then Zaid should at least work towards the restoration of the appeal to the Privy Council.

Unfortunately Zaid is too eager to be a 'ketua kampung'.

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