Zaid Ibrahim

Dato' Mohd Zaid bin Ibrahim (Jawi: محمد زيد بن إبراهيم; born 10 April 1951) is a Malaysian politician, lawyer and former Minister in the Prime Minister's Department for Legal Affairs and Judicial Reform (March 2008-September 2008).

He was previously a Senator in the Dewan Negara, the upper chamber of the Parliament of Malaysia.

In 1987 he founded Zaid Ibrahim & Co., which as of 2008 is the largest law firm in Malaysia with over 140 lawyers.

UMNO is part of the ruling Barisan Nasional coalition which he joined in 2000.

In 2000, he joined UMNO, becoming Kota Bharu UMNO division chief a year later.

He was later suspended but became Kelantan Umno deputy lion chief two years later.

He was the Member of Parliament for Kota Bharu from 2004 to 2008.

He is also the founder of Zaid Ibrahim & Co., the largest private law firm in Malaysia.

Presently he is a member of United Malays National Organisation (UMNO), a component of Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition.

He also acted as the defense attorney for former prime minister Najib Razak in the RM42 million SRC money laundering case.

Najib was imprisoned on August 23, 2022, following an unsuccessful appeal.

Born in Kota Bharu, Kelantan, Zaid went to Sultan Ismail College, Kota Bharu before started his law studies in Universiti Teknologi Mara, Shah Alam (or Institut Teknologi Mara as it was known then) by taking his LL.B (Hons.) External Programme which was conducted by the University of London.

Upon graduating from ITM, he went to London and was accepted as a Barrister-at-Law, Inner Temple.

Zaid contested and won the Parliamentary seat of Kota Bharu in the 2004 general election.

He was previously dropped from defending his seat as Member of Parliament for Kota Bharu which he won in 2004.

He was replaced as chairman by Nik Norzul Thani, who said the firm was implementing a succession plan they drew up after Zaid's election in 2004.

He was a member of the United Malays National Organisation (UMNO), before being suspended on 2 December 2008.

However, UMNO dropped him as a candidate in the 2008 general election.

It suffered heavy losses, including the 2/3 majority necessary in the Dewan Rakyat to pass amendments to the Constitution.

Zaid is known for his criticism of the government's handling of legal issues such as the judiciary, human rights and Islamic law.

He supported the establishment of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into the Lingam Video Clip, criticising the government's initial response to the clip.

When the then Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi reshuffled his Cabinet after the just concluded 2008 general election, he appointed Zaid as a Minister in the Prime Minister's Department to oversee legal affairs and judicial reform.

Zaid succeeded Datuk Seri Mohamed Nazri Abdul Aziz, who had previously held the portfolio, but as of 2008 continues to be a Minister in the Prime Minister's Department tasked with parliamentary affairs.

Zaid was also appointed as senator to the Dewan Negara on 18 March so he could take up his Cabinet posting.

His appointment was greeted by The Economist as the "most promising" in the new Cabinet.

His appointment as Minister in the Prime Minister's Department in charge of reforming the judiciary, which has been riddled with scandals, especially following the Royal Commission of Inquiry into the Lingam Video Clip, is seen as an attempt by then Prime Minister Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi to weed out corruption and instill public respect and confidence in the judiciary.

Following his appointment as a Minister, Zaid resigned from all his posts in Zaid Ibrahim & Co., and relinquished his shares in the company.

After criticising the arrests of three prominent individuals—Democratic Action Party MP Teresa Kok, blogger Raja Petra Kamaruddin, and journalist Tan Hoon Cheng—under the Internal Security Act, Zaid resigned from the Cabinet on 15 September 2008.

Zaid Ibrahim urged the Yang di-Pertuan Agong not to appoint Najib Razak as Prime Minister of Malaysia, and instead appoint someone else from UMNO.

He pointed out Najib has been linked on the internet and by political rivals to the brutal murder of Altantuya Shaariibuu.

Zaid also cited the RM400 million in commissions reportedly paid by the Defence Ministry while Najib was minister for the procurement of submarines, and pointed out that Abdul Razak Baginda, Najib's friend, was an agent in the deal.

This was after Mahathir Mohamad, the former Prime Minister also said that Najib did not shine as a deputy prime minister and stated that Najib carried a lot of baggage into the Prime Minister's job.

In June 2009 Zaid joined the opposition Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR).

As part of the Pakatan Rakyat opposition alliance, Zaid was appointed to head the coalition's Common Policy Framework group where he was responsible for formulating a common manifesto and governing policy between the three disparate political parties (PKR, PAS, DAP) that made up the loose opposition alliance.

He also headed efforts, in his role as Pakatan coordinator and pro-tem committee chairman of Pakatan Rakyat Malaysia, to register Pakatan Rakyat as an official political coalition party with Malaysia's Registrar of Societies on 3 November 2009.

During the Hulu Selangor by-election in April 2010, Zaid was also fielded as the PKR candidate, but was narrowly defeated by P. Kamalanathan of the Malaysian Indian Congress.

In the 2010 PKR party elections, Zaid Ibrahim contested for the party post of Deputy President after having received over 30 nominations.

He confirmed his candidacy in a posting on his blog on 16 October 2010.

However, in Nov 2010, Zaid Ibrahim withdrew his candidacy as a sign of protest against serious allegations of fraud and electoral misconduct perpetrated in the PKR party elections by his opponent, the PKR establishment candidate Azmin Ali.

He subsequently resigned from the party, citing his loss of confidence in the PKR party leadership for their involvement in the electoral fraud of the 2010 party elections.