Senior PKR leader Zaid Ibrahim’s six months leave to focus on his task in cobbling together a common policy platform for the opposition Pakatan Rakyat has been welcomed by opposition politicians in Sabah and Sarawak.

PKR leaders in Malaysian Borneo note that Zaid will be using his leave to gather input for the Common Policy Framework (CPF) for Pakatan component parties, which also includes DAP and PAS.

zaid ibrahim book launch nik aziz anwar ibrahim pc 230309 04 Zaid’s portfolio in PKR, which he joined four months ago after leaving Umno, is to work on dispute resolution among others. Few of the party leaders in Sabah and Sarawak see Zaid going anywhere after his six months leave is over.

Zaid is locked in a squabble with PKR vice-president Azmin Ali. There have been moves by Sabah PKR leaders to oust Azmin as the state party chief.

Malaysiakini has learnt that Zaid was to be dispatched to Sabah this weekend on a trouble-shooting mission under the guise of attending a hastily-arranged Aidil Fitri function. Azmin, according to sources, objected and claimed that Zaid could not be an honest broker.

Zaid not meddling

Sabah PKR deputy chief Kong Hong Ming has taken pains to stress that “there’s no crisis in the state chapter”.

Meanwhile, PKR vice-president Jeffrey Kitingan, who like Zaid is currently on leave but for three months, sees the former minister’s sabbatical as a time for the party to reflect on where it stands vis-à-vis the Malaysia Agreement.

PKR Tuaran division chief Ansari Abdullah also sought to lay to rest fears that Zaid is meddling in Sabah and Sarawak where the party’s chapters are helmed by Peninsular Malaysians.

“Zaid needs to really take time during the next six months to understand the people in Sabah and Sarawak,” said Ansari. “This must not be seen as him interfering in the two states because so far he has not done any such thing.”

Ansari was perplexed by Zaid’s statement yesterday that he has been accused of meddling too much in Sabah and Sarawak.

“This, I can tell you, he would never do,” said Ansari. “Zaid remains the same person he was when he was Kota Bharu MP. He’s a man with an independent mind. He has always been consistent in his views and his politics.”

Ansari reiterated his take that “no one in Peninsular Malaysia can even begin to imagine that the politics and people of Sabah could be so different from the mainland. Sarawak too although they are less vociferous than us”.

“Zaid should take note of this great difference - vis-à-vis Peninsular Malaysia - and incorporate it in his proposed Common Policy Framework (CPF) for Pakatan Rakyat,” said Ansari.

He sees great promise for Pakatan in Sabah and reckons that despite occasional hiccups, the opposition alliance can easily sweep 40 state seats and 15 parliamentary seats in the state at the next general election. Sabah has 60 state seats and 25 parliamentary seats.

One peculiarity about Sabah that Zaid must understand, pointed out Ansari, is that people seldom use established channels to voice their grievances.

“Even ministers and MPs tend to keep quiet when they have a chance to speak up,” noted Ansari. “However, they are willing to let fly outside the established channels of communication.”

No secrets in Sabah

Kong, in his brief comments for publication although he spoke at considerable length to Malaysiakini , noted that internal party matters in PKR tend to get splashed in the media unlike in other parties.

“Most of what has been reported on PKR in the media also happens in other political parties,” said Kong without specifically touching on Zaid’s leave. “The difference is that they don’t bring in the media. They settle their differences quietly without anyone being in the know.”

PKR members, reiterated Kong, prefer to bring in the media and the people when airing their grievances.

“This is not necessarily a bad thing,” said Kong, who does not see himself as taking over from Azmin Ali as the next Sabah state chief.

“In fact, all healthy democracies practice this and Sabah, which prides itself on being the most democratic state in Malaysia, is no exception. There are no secrets in Sabah.”

Kitingan wants to proceed beyond the generalities sketched by Ansari and will get Zaid to propose that Sabah, Sarawak and Peninsular Malaysia be equal partners under the CPF in Pakatan.

“This will prove to the people in Sabah and Sarawak that Pakatan is really different from BN and a more acceptable and viable alternative,” said Kitingan. “We should not take the people for granted.”

Basically, according to Kitingan, PKR, DAP and PAS in Sabah and Sarawak should all incorporate locally followed by the local incorporation of Pakatan as the umbrella group in both states.

The recent Batang Ai by-election proved conclusively, according to Kitingan, that the people in Sarawak are against the idea of a national party in the state.

This stems from the thinking, as in Sabah, that they are not just another state in Malaysia and that the question of political autonomy needs to be addressed to the satisfaction of the voters.

“Pakatan should not tread the same path taken by BN,” said Kitingan. “We need to tell the people clearly that Sabah and Sarawak matter in Pakatan’s reform agenda.”

‘Instigation’ by Kitingan

Senior PKR activist Richard Jayasuriya, also the president of the deregistered Parti Pasok (Native), has a different take on Zaid’s leave.

He thinks that Kitingan put him up to it since the PKR vice-president is also on leave “for reasons best known to himself”. “This is all Jeff’s work,” said Jayasuriya. “He set out to humiliate Azmin by inviting Zaid to preside at two state PKR functions.”

Jayasuriya described the first state function as the launching of the book, ‘Lest We Forget’, by anti-illegal immigration activist Dr Chong Eng Leong in Kota Kinabalu in late August.

“Now, he has done it again by inviting Zaid to preside at the party’s Aidil Fitri open house at the Tanjung Aru Plaza today in Kota Kinabalu,” complained Jayasuriya. “Both these functions should have been presided over by Azmin.”

Jayasuriya thinks that Zaid decided to go on leave for six months at Kitingan’s instigation “after Anwar told him not to go to Sabah and Sarawak”.