Agence France-Presse - 9/16/2008 6:12 AM GMT
A Malaysian minister said Tuesday he would consider joining the opposition, after quitting the embattled government which he portrayed as paralysed by internal strife and racial divisions.
Zaid Ibrahim, a maverick reformer tasked with cleaning up the judiciary and police force, said he had met a "brick wall" from the ruling party which has dominated politics for half a century.
Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, who has now been hit with opposition claims it has enough support to seize power, refused to accept his resignation Monday and asked him to spend a fortnight reconsidering.
"Although the prime minister asked me to take a two-week leave, I say thank you to him, I am not tired. I am just disappointed," Zaid told a press conference.
He indicated he could join the opposition, which political observers say is very likely to form a new administration if the ruling coalition continues to defy calls for reform.
"I don't know their leaders, but I have open mind," he said.
Zaid, who was brought into the cabinet in March as the minister responsible for legal affairs, said he was infuriated by a series of arrests last week under the draconian Internal Security Act (ISA).
An opposition politician, the nation's leading blogger and a journalist for a Chinese-language daily were detained, triggering rare criticism from six cabinet ministers.
"The ISA detentions were the last straw for me. I did not expect that the government would consider a journalist as a national threat. How can a member of parliament be a national threat?" he asked.
But he said he was also frustrated after failing to introduce any reforms, and being painted as a traitor to Muslim Malays, who dominate a population that also includes ethnic Chinese and Indian minorities.
"I admit I have failed, the whole time I have faced opposition from within my own party, and colleagues saying that I don't fight for my own race. It is as if I am less of a Malay... by suggesting these transformations," he said.
"I realise I am facing a brick wall. I cannot translate or make them understand that we are the same country for all races, all ethnicities."
The portrayal of the United Malays National Organisation (UMNO) as a bastion of racial chauvinism is a heavy indictment on the ruling party, which leads a multiracial coalition and portrays itself as the bulwark of ethnic harmony.
Zaid said that racial divisions were worsening in Malaysia -- where Malays control government and Chinese are dominant in business -- and that politicians were partly responsible for stoking the tensions.
"We have to take action against some people who are bent on creating these divisions because of their own political agenda," he said.
The outgoing minister said that Abdullah, who came to power in 2003 with promises for reform and to fight corruption which is endemic in Malaysia, had been prevented from governing effectively by internal party brawling.
"I was looking for some signs of change, some development, but I was disappointed," he said.
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