The Malaysian Insider

SHAH ALAM, Dec 19 – Datuk Zaid Ibrahim took the floor at the end Pakatan Rakyat’s first ever convention this evening and fired up the party faithful by declaring the pact ready to kick Barisan Nasional (BN) out and wrest federal power.

“The rakyat are tired of racial politics, they are tired of being fooled..I assure you, after this, we will hold our next convention in Putrajaya,” he said, sparking thunderous applause from the crowd who attended today’s convention.

Zaid, the former de facto Umno Law Minister, said today’s convention was testament to PR’s will to put aside their almost irreconcilable differences to serve the voters by replacing what he called a corrupt BN government.

“We were told that we cannot stay together, the supreme leader of Umno, (former premier) Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad said if we are allowed to govern, everything will be destroyed.

“Of course everything will be destroyed, everything about Umno will be destroyed,” he said.

Zaid had engineered the work on PR’s common policies which was tabled and endorsed at today’s convention.

“We must now look at unity differently. We must cooperate better. If PKR is weak in Kelantan then PAS must help them to be stronger. If PAS is weak in Perak then DAP and PKR must help them be stronger,” he said.

The common platform tabled today is meant to cement a stronger bond between the three PR parties and allow it to go to voters as a single political force.

But it has been tainted by criticism that it was watered down following allegations that PAS and some leaders from PKR had backtracked on their promise to restore the local council elections.

This disappointment was expressed by several DAP top leaders during the course of the convention.

Later at a press conference, Zaid gave a cryptic reply when asked if the common platform that he worked on had been watered down.

“I think the right term is, my draft was longer,” he said.

“But, overall, I agree with the common platform. It’s just that on the common platform issue, there was no rejection but we just have to find a mechanism that would not jeopardise the system itself,” he said.

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