From Terence Netto

Zaid Ibrahim is a necessary man. If he didn’t exist you might have to invent him.

He can say things many would like to say but are afraid to, for fear of stirring the Dr Akmal Salehs of the country to high dudgeon.

The circumspect are glad Zaid is around because he can and does say things that are spot-on, causing them to utter under their breath a word of thanks to him.

In recent years Zaid’s bursts of candid skewering of muddled thoughts from ostensible custodians of race and religion in the country has raised him to the status of the “necessary man”.

In other words, somebody who can and does say things that must be said, as otherwise observers will think that Malaysians are like cattle that can be led by their noses to the slaughter.

In the latest instance of this caustic truth-telling, Zaid targets arguments deployed against DAP MP Teresa Kok for having the temerity to question the need for restaurants and shops that don’t sell pork or alcohol to take out halal certification.

The reason is that Muslims thus need have no apprehension about the halal-ness of the stuff sold in these places.

Zaid correctly skewered the notion that local Muslims, after decades of Islamic education, would still need guidance in deciding where to eat and to shop.

Zaid said people pushing these guidelines could not have a high view of the intelligence of the people supposedly in need of these instructions.

These sayings, in the circumstances of the specific incidents sparking the ensuing verbal volleys, beg to be said, but only someone like Zaid can say it.

If people of the ilk of Kok were to say it, a furore would result.

That is why Zaid has become a ”necessary man”, a willing vent of the salt and sane that keeps the body politic from going too awry.

No matter how dizzying his switching of political allegiance over the long years of his career, one has to doff one’s cap to him for his willingness to say what must be said.

Otherwise, illiberal democracies such as ours would be prone to the gyrations that discourage people from persisting with this form of government, however imperfect.

Terence Netto is a veteran journalist and an FMT reader.

The views expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of FMT.