Zaid Ibrahim, Pakatan Rakyat’s policy coordinator, described the launch of the coalition’s Common Policy Framework as the vital first stage of a project of national liberation.

“Today we take one decisive, deliberate and historic step to free our country from the consequences of BN misrule,” said Zaid when it came to his turn to speak at the coalition’s historic inaugural convention.

zaid ibrahim book launch nik aziz anwar ibrahim pc 230309 04 “This step is our joint agreement to a Common Policy Framework (CPF). This is our compass. This is our guiding light. This is what distinguishes us from our opponents. We must steer by this compass to arrive at our destination – which is no less and no more than the liberation of Malaysia,” he asserted in ringing tones.

Calling BN rule “a pestilence”, Zaid said the CPF was Pakatan’s path to the hearts and minds of Malaysians.

“We want them to back us so that we can check the downward spiral of this nation. We have not only to check, we have to reverse the slide and restore this nation to the fullness of its promises at its founding in 1957 and at its enlargement in 1963,” he elaborated.

Zaid, who is the CPF's chief architect, said the BN appears to believe that Pakatan’s success at the last general election was temporary, a one-election wonder.

In addition, he said BN seems to believe that if they can clean up their act, change their captain, and rebrand their image, the ruling coalition would be back to its strength of old.

But Zaid, a former Umno minister, held that BN cannot change.

“True, it has changed its captain. He is like a magician come to do conjuring tricks at a children’s party. But the biggest trick that he must do is that of his own disappearance. That he has to do, but he cannot do. And that is the reason why the BN cannot change.

“It has a skipper that must bring about his own disappearance for change to have any meaning. There’s one thing the BN has deeply entrenched in its culture: the art of self-preservation.

“That culture reigns supreme in the BN. Once a BN leader gains the seat of paramount authority, it will take a political tsunami to dislodge him, which occurred to (former premier) Abdullah Badawi,” opined Zaid.

Don’t rely on BN’s failures to win power

Zaid said Pakatan should not depend on the expected failure of BN to convince voters to put them in charge at Putrajaya.

He said the CPF was Pakatan’s reply to BN doubts about the opposition coalition’s staying power.

pakatan convention 191209 crowd “Our second response would be when the CPF is matched with deeds by Pakatan governments in the states we rule,” he claimed.

He said the matching of deed to policy would combine with a unstoppable flow of revelations of BN corruption to convince voters that they must finally rid Malaysia of the plague of BN rule.

1ST PAKATAN CONVENTION

Pakatan pledges sweeping reforms

Policy in place, next stop Putrajaya l VIDEO l 17 mins

Multiracialism reigns in Pakatan confab

Zaid: CPF a project of national liberation l VIDEO l 6 mins

A new consensus for Malaysia

Break out of 'racial cocoon', opposition told

Coalition's show of unity despite differences l VIDEO l 8 mins

DAP: We'll win over PAS on local council polls l VIDEO l 8 mins

PAS wants fixed polls, DAP vows to protect scholarship needs

'Excellent policies, now walk the talk'