THE ABDUL KADIR SHEIKH FADZIR SAGA

I would like to congratulate Tan Sri Abdul Kadir Sheikh Fadzir for resigning from UMNO yesterday. This in itself has cleared UMNO of its parasites and i believe with this, we can be more focused on our task ahead, which is to win in the next General Election. The beauty with UMNO is that it has always allowed dissent in the party, starting from Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah and his Semangat 46 colleagues. 

Quit UMNO by himself, was not sacked like Zulkifli Noordin

However, due to its openness to criticism, members find it difficult to be sacked from the party, and thus creating a "national crisis" out of it. The only high profile UMNO leader that was sacked in the past 10 years or so was Anwar Ibrahim, and that was not because of dissent, it was because of abuse of power and immoral activities. Most of this personalities who quit UMNO would then join another party or even form one, like what Tengku Razaleigh did in the 1980s, and Anwar Ibrahim in the 1990s.

Tan Sri Abdul Kadir Sheikh Fadzir in my opinion, has nothing to lose from quitting UMNO and vice-versa. Tan Sri Abdul Kadir Sheikh Fadzir who was in UMNO for 56 years, has been appointed various positions in the party and government, even being appointed as a Tourism Minister at the height of his political career. He was also the MP for Kulim-Bandar Baru since 1978 and was an MP for 30 years. 

Compared this to PKR, who had sacked Kulim-Bandar Baru MP Datuk Zulkifli Noordin on 6th of March 2011 because of dissent and not towing party line. Anwar Ibrahim talk about freedom of speech, democracy what not, but his own party can't tolerate dissent and even sacked its own MP. Fully aware that by sacking your own party MP would weaken Pakatan Rakyt (PR) in parliament. 

Was sacked from PKR because of dissent 

This in my opinion prove that UMNO is open to criticism and whenever possible, improve its weakness whereas PKR does not accept criticism, where Anwar Ibrahim is always right, and others has to follow his instruction. The big question now is this, what's next for Tan Sri Abdul Kadir Sheikh Fadzir. Would he join PKR and contest in Kulim - Bandar Baru since he was the MP there for 30 years?

I believe he will, and he might run against his very own brother, Datuk Abdul Aziz Syeikh Fadzir for the seat. Most interesting indeed. By the way, let's not discount of a three (3) cornered fight between Tan Sri Abdul Kadir Sheikh Fadzir, Datuk Zulkifli Noordin and Datuk Abdul Aziz Syeikh Fadzir. Well suddenly the 13th General Election has become much more interesting. 

Twitter: @kabir_akram