Zaid withdraws decision to dissolve Kita

Zaid had said on Thursday, “I realise now that forming Kita was a mistake.” — file pic

KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 5 — Datuk Zaid Ibrahim has withdrawn his decision to dissolve Parti Keadilan Insan Tanah Air (Kita), Sinar Harian reported today.

According to the Malay daily’s online article, the politician has informed several Kita state chapter chiefs of his decision through a senior party officer.

“I received a call around 8am today. The party coordinator officer contacted me to inform me of Datuk Zaid’s new decision to not dissolve the party. An extraordinary general meeting (EGM) will not be held,” Johor Kita chief Dr Mohd Zaid Mohd Yusof was quoted as saying by the website.

Dr Mohd Zaid added that his party welcomes the decision, as there is no reason for the dissolution in the first place.

Attempts by The Malaysian Insider to contact Zaid for confirmation, however, were unsuccessful.

In a surprising announcement on Kita’s website on Thursday, Zaid said an extraordinary general meeting (EGM) would be held soon to dissolve Kita following reports of members in Kedah and Penang openly attacking Pakatan Rakyat (PR), “making it clear they are not interested in real issues and merely want to embarrass and ridicule the opposition”.

“I realise now that forming Kita was a mistake,” the former Umno law minister had said. “I had hoped to provide alternative ideas in politics and to bring a wider diversity of talent to the opposition’s leadership.”

Following his announcement, several Kita state leaders openly rejected their president’s bid to dissolve the party and instead lobbied for his resignation.

Zaid, a former Umno lawmaker, joined PKR in June 2009. He left Umno in protest over the arrests of the DAP’s Teresa Kok, blogger Raja Petra Kamarudin and journalist Tan Hoon Cheng under the Internal Security Act (ISA) in 2008.

Zaid was once in the running for PKR’s deputy presidency against Azmin Ali and Mustapha Kamil Ayub before he pulled out and quit the party last year. He was also PKR’s candidate for the Hulu Selangor by-election in 2010 but lost his bid to MIC’s P. Kamalanathan.

Zaid had alleged gross abuse in PKR’s election process, which eventually led him to form Kita.

But the two-year-old party has been fraught with internal bickering and challenges against Zaid’s leadership by other Kita members, who have disagreed with his pro-opposition stand.

Zaid recently announced that Kita will not be contesting in the coming polls and promised to offer its “unconditional support” to the federal opposition.