Zahid on Zaid: Habitual hopper’s return proves BN is best

BN chairperson Ahmad Zahid Hamidi hosted a Deepavali open house in his political stronghold of Bagan Datuk in Perak last night. In attendance was Umno’s prodigal son Zaid Ibrahim.

Speaking to some 500 Indian voters present, Zahid used Zaid’s vacillating political career to lend credence to his claim that “BN is the best”.

“Zaid Ibrahim, all parties. He joined Umno, PKR, joined DAP… and is now back again in Umno.

“This is because he believes in BN and that there is no better party in Malaysia. The best is BN,” he said looking at Zaid, who reciprocated with a nod and smile.

Zaid, who was a former Umno lawmaker, had also served as the de facto law minister in the Abdullah Ahmad Badawi administration.

Apart from joining different parties, he also led his own, called Kita, but left in 2012, two years after he was elected as its president.

Before the last general election, Zaid had been a staunch critic of jailed former prime minister Najib Abdul Razak and the 1MDB scandal but then acted as Najib’s lawyer during the latter’s unsuccessful final appeal to overturn his conviction and sentence.

‘No rooftop, backdoor or window govt’

Meanwhile, Zahid, who served as Najib’s deputy and is himself facing a deluge of corruption charges, said if BN can wrest control of Putrajaya after the Nov 19 general election, the term “backdoor government” would cease to exist.

“When BN becomes the government, we don’t want a government that comes through the roof, back door or window.

“We want a government that is supported by all Malaysians,” the Umno president stressed.

Detractors have accused BN and those who collaborated in the Sheraton Move, which toppled the Pakatan Harapan administration in 2020, of forming a “backdoor government”.

BN subsequently engineered the downfall of the Muhyiddin Yassin-led Perikatan Nasional administration to install another “backdoor government”t headed by Umno vice-president Ismail Sabri Yaakob, who became the third prime minister since the 2018 polls.

Since the dissolution of Parliament on Oct 10, which was attributed to pressure from Zahid and those aligned with him, Ismail has repeatedly said - over speculation that the Umno president might pull the rug out from under his feet - that he would return as prime minister if BN wins the polls.

Zahid, who has been the MP for Bagan Datuk since 1995, is in for a tough contest, unlike in the previous polls.

He would be facing Harapan’s Shamsul Iskandar Md Akin, Bersatu supreme council member Dr Nik Muhammad Faiz Na'aman and Gerak Independent (GI) founder Tawfik Ismail, who is the son of the nation’s second deputy prime minister, the late Dr Ismail Abdul Rahman.

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