Polling the Zaid Position

Technorati tags: Politics, Zaid Ibrahim, Poll Position, Party Politics, PKR

It seems like Zaid Ibrahim once again makes waves in the political arena.

Recently, the former Law Minister decided to quit all his posts within PKR, and withdraw from the ongoing party elections. When something like this happens, you can almost be certain that a myAsylum poll can’t be far behind.

Essentially, Walski wanted to know what you thought Zaid Ibrahim should do next. And the results were not very surprising (although a response higher than 28 would’ve been nice).

64% think Zaid Ibrahim should lead the 3rd Force

It’s a bit of an eye-test, and Walski apologizes for that (he wanted to get this out in a hurry). But essentially, no one thought Zaid Ibrahim should join PAS. And one person thought he should jerk off.

But the overwhelming majority thought that he should lead an independent political 3rd force, while 11% thought he should join DAP, and another 11% felt Zaid should leave politics altogether.

And then the somewhat expected happened today: Zaid Ibrahim (finally) announced that he would quit PKR altogether (via The Malaysian Insider).
(party vs principles, and more, in the full post)

His quitting PKR has evoked mixed reactions, ranging from disappointment to the sort of “I told you so” high-horse rhetoric you usually hear from those opposed to the opposition. Naturally, another poll just had to be done.

But this time, it doesn’t revolve around Zaid Ibrahim per se, but rather which is more important in party politics, personal principles or party interests?

This may seem like an easy question to answer, but in reality, the answer reflects how you view Malaysian politics as a whole.

For the first time, Walski honestly doesn’t have a definite personal view on this, because it’s one of those damned if you do, damned if you don’t type of scenarios. We certainly do not want politicians without personal principles, but to what extent can these principles be upheld before they become detrimental to the political party a particular politician belongs to?

Kee Thuan Chye, in MalaysianDigest.com today, asks a valid question: Is Zaid Ditching the Opposition? He points to the fact that Zaid Ibrahim’s track record has not been very good in terms of being a team player, and that whatever grouses Zaid had should have been channeled internally within PKR.

Valid criticism, in that Zaid had instead gone to the press, stating that the polling discrepancies raised internally had fallen on deaf ears. The fact that Zaid also called for the resignation of Anwar Ibrahim and Azmin Ali has also not gone down too well with many folks watching on the sidelines, who are supportive of PKR and PR as a whole.

Another criticism leveled against Zaid was his immaturity as a politician in dealing with the supposed problems within PKR, and that him ditching the party indirectly means that he’s ditching Pakatan Rakyat as a whole as well.

Perhaps the criticism of immaturity, too, is valid, but within the framework of what Walski calls the Malaysian Politics-as-Usual construct. Which then goes back to the question of party interests vs. personal principles.

Another concern, as raised in Kee’s article: if Zaid is planning on setting up his own party, as reported, is this not congruent to an independent 3rd force, something that has been mooted by members of civil society?

Needless to say, there are many more questions than there are answers at this point.

Walski could expound upon this further, but he will hold off for now. At least until the poll closes at midnight this Friday, November 19, which coincidentally is also when Zaid is expected to issue a written statement (as reported by Malaysiakini earlier today).

In the meantime, we have our poll, which you can find on the sidebar of this blog.

So, what do you think, which of the two is more important? Or if they’re both important, which one is more crucial, party interests or personal principles? The polls are open, and Walski hopes you register your opinion.