Zaid Ibrahim rejoins Umno – report

Zaid Ibrahim has reportedly returned to Umno, in hopes to reform the party that expelled him in 2008.

This comes after several memberships in various opposition parties over the past 14 years.

TheStar reported today that the lawyer had submitted his membership form during the Umno special briefing on Aug 27.

"My only intention is to help Umno. I have retired and there is not much work for me. I am not too busy and I go back to the party. I can help.

"I wish to see Umno become more reform-minded and open to renewal, and where to do it, it must be from ‘within’," he was quoted as saying.

Zaid (above) added that he was told it would be difficult to make changes in Umno from the outside.

“Finally, I feel that it is better for me to be with Umno even though the reform might take a long time,” he said.

Zaid said this after attending a talk organised by Johor Baru Barisan Nasional at Balairaya Stulang Baru earlier today.

The former minister’s membership in Umno began in 2000. He later won the Kota Bharu MP seat in 2004.

He was subsequently dropped as a candidate in the 2008 general election (GE12).

However, then prime minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi appointed him as minister in the Prime Minister’s Department for legal affairs.

Zaid then resigned from the Cabinet in the same year and was initially suspended from Umno, before the party sacked him.

He briefly joined PKR in 2009 before resigning a year later and formed Parti Kesejahteraan Insan Tanah Air (Kita). He resigned as Kita’s chief in 2012.

In 2017, Zaid joined DAP and held the position of Kelantan state chief before leaving his fourth political party in 2020.

The senior lawyer recently represented former prime minister Najib Abdul Razak in his SRC International Sdn Bhd case at the Federal Court.

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