Who will succeed Anwar Ibrahim as PKR – People’s Justice Party – next president? Two names immediately pop up – the party’s deputy president Rafizi Ramli and Anwar’s eldest daughter, Nurul Izzah. Unfortunately, former PKR deputy president Azmin Ali had become a traitor else he would make a formidable challenger and potentially Malaysia’s youngest prime minister.
Rafizi is a lousy salesman whilst Nurul is an empty vessel. Chameleon Anwar is a snake oil salesman who can sell a refrigerator to an Eskimo. Azmin can click very well with his mentor Anwar because he too was a snake oil salesman. The problem with Azmin is he was too ambitious and too impatient for power. Anwar, on the other hand, has great patience and oratory skills.
But the problem with Anwar is narcissism has overwhelmed his charisma ever since he became the 10th Prime Minister. He is now so obsessed with power that he sees his deputy Rafizi as a threat rather than a trusted successor. It was already bad that he ignored all the promised reforms and behaves like an arrogant and racist UMNO president rather than a humble PKR president.
From trying to become a Palestinian-Hamas Muslim hero to trying to become a power-broker in the recent India-Pakistan conflict, and from pretending to be the main decision-maker of ASEAN to allowing fellow Indian and Chinese minority ethnics to be discriminated and bullied, not only Anwar is fast losing popularity within his own support base, but also mocked and ridiculed by foreigners.
Worse, PM Anwar no longer sees corruption committed by former Prime Minister Najib Razak as a big deal. Not only he told people to suck it up after shamelessly giving a steep discount to Najib’s jail sentence with a (pending) house detention as a bonus, he also tells voters, who had voted for him to fight corruption, to move on and not obsessed with the crook who had stolen tens of billions of dollars.
Rafizi’s lack of salesmanship or diplomacy, translated to his incompetency in apple-polishing was the reason why Mr Anwar has privately endorsed – even approved – his deputy to be toppled. And you can bet your last penny there are truckloads of Anwar-bootlickers such as PKR vice-president candidate Ramanan eager to destroy Rafizi and install a lame Nurul so that the parasites could benefit from the gravy train.
Grassroots loved Rafizi because he doesn’t bring them to a merry-go-round, beats around the bush, dances like Tamil cinema superstar MG Ramachandran and talk cock like Anwar Ibrahim. Thanks to Nurul’s challenge to dislodge Rafizi, the people finally get to see the return of Rafizi’s combative and aggressive – even downright nasty – character which attracted people’s support in the first place.
Get real, the battle for the PKR deputy president isn’t about talents, as some claimed, but all about a succession crisis due to Anwar’s obsession with power to the extent that the party president and his minions don’t mind about nepotism and dynasty politics. In fact, PKR has very few talents compared to ally Democratic Action Party (DAP), which has so many top brains they were left in the wilderness.
But the main reason Rafizi is in attack mode and has gone ballistic is because he had been betrayed. Yes, it was a betrayal because the agreement to not contest the top two positions in the party has been breached. That partly explains why Rafizi has threatened to quit as Economy Minister if he loses his post in a party which he had sacrificed so much, including being jailed for exposing corruption in the previous UMNO-led Barisan Nasional ruling government.
So, it’s not true that only Anwar went to prison as a result of injustice, which was the reason why the reformist political party PKR is called Parti Keadilan Rakyat (People’s Justice Party). Rafizi, as did other PKR leaders, too, had been cruelly imprisoned as part of protest movement against Anwar Ibrahim’s unceremonious sacking by Mahathir Mohamad in 1998.
However, instead of fulfilling his promise to reforms, Anwar conveniently ignores them once he got the power under lame excuse that reforms take time, even though he has been in power for more than 2 years. The party now lectures its support base that they should be grateful and appreciate the current political stability, and not too obsessed with reforms, let alone eradicating corruption.
The best part is Anwar and his band of bootlickers, drunk with power, have no idea that PKR will lose more seats in the next 16th General Election if Nurul is elected as PKR deputy president. Nepotism – Anwar as president and daughter as deputy president – is just one of the problems. The biggest problem is Nurul isn’t cut for the job. In fact, it’s not an exaggeration to suggest she is clueless and incompetent.
It’s one thing to to scream about “Reformasi” as an opposition. It’s another thing altogether to chant the same thing as the ruling government walking in the corridors of power – hoping to hoodwink the people again with fake reforms. Surprisingly, in just a few days since Nurul announced her race for the deputy presidency, she has spoken like a half-past-six UMNO leader.
First, after more than 2 years in silence and jetting in style with his daddy, Nurul suddenly found her voice and said MACC Chief Commissioner Azam Baki’s contract extension was “unwelcome”. But the corrupt Baki’s reappointment a few days ago was not his first, but third extension. He was given a one-year extension on May 10, 2023, and another one-year extension last year (2024).
Exactly where was Nurul when his daddy renewed Azam’s contract not once, but twice previously? Coincidentally, she grows a spine only at a time when she is under pressure to contest against Rafizi. Why was there not a squeak from the “Princess of Reformasi” when his father bypassed the parliamentary committee and renewed the corrupt MACC Chief’s contract?
But that was not the most hilarious part. The funniest part was when she, in her attempt to fish for votes, has promised to raise her disagreement and displeasure with Prime Minister Anwar over Azam Baki’s controversial reappointment if elected as PKR deputy president. So, she will speak out only if she wins, otherwise she will keep quiet? Only UMNO leaders would express such retarded statement.
Second, she dares not debate with Rafizi in their campaign series for the 2025-2028 party election. But Anwar’s daughter was not the only coward who rejected a public debate. Anwar’s favourite Education Minister Fadhlina Sidek also appears to be terrified of a debate with Rodziah Ismail (Ampang Member of Parliament) for the position of PKR Wanita Chief.
In the past, UMNO leaders – mostly useless, clueless, corrupted and incompetent – were known to reject any debates with the opposition. Nurul’s refusal to debate with comrade Rafizi mirrors UMNO’s cowardice. Her silly excuse not to debate – to focus on strengthening engagement with party delegates and continuing her outreach efforts on the ground. Without any portfolio, she should debate as she has nothing to lose, unlike Rafizi.
A debate is the best way for Nurul and Rafizi to demonstrate their leadership skills and ability to articulate issues to both PKR members and Malaysian voters. She might not be interested in the Economy Ministry portfolio. But she will be the next in line to the throne – even the country’s first female prime minister – if elected as PKR deputy president. Therefore, she can’t run and hide when the going gets tough.
If she can’t even handle Rafizi, how could 30-million people trust her to handle corrupt gangsters like UMNO, not to mention religious extremists PAS Islamist party and racist bigots Bersatu? If she can’t stand the heat, she should get out of the kitchen and stop pretending to be a Michelin chef. Perhaps she thought as Anwar’s princess, she deserves special privilege of an easy win.
Third, Nurul, and Rafizi for that matter, finally spoke up about the urgency to re-capture the plunging support of Chinese and Indian vote bank, as well as Malay votes, before the next national polls. But Nurul can’t explain why Malay votes for PKR had dropped from 55% in 1999 to the current 30% despite Anwar’s heroism in Gaza and having burnt billions to appease Malay government servants.
Suddenly, every PKR leader contesting for positions is whining, moaning and warning not to take core voters for granted – only after Rafizi, an outrageously truthful politician, shared data that shows a 32% drop in support among Chinese voters and a 38% drop among Indian voters for the party. Before Rafizi rocks the boat, everyone pretended that the streets were paved with gold.
Some morons argue that Rafizi should not defend his No. 2 post in PKR if he wanted to see Nurul wins the election, which was actually his reverse psychology warfare. But even if he wanted to give her a walkover, he can’t because his reputation is currently at stake after the despicable betrayal of not honouring an earlier agreement not to contest the top two positions.
Sure, Nurul and her mother had been the strength of PKR back in the “reformasi” days, when Anwar was imprisoned. But PKR does not belong to the family alone as if it was a private company. From the beginning, the purpose of PKR was to free Anwar from jail. But many members have sacrificed in the crusade to free one man who promised to reform the country.
The party now needs a new version of leader, not Anwar’s daughter who talks with empty rhetoric like UMNO, insulting people’s intelligence in the process. Surrounded by cronies, rent-seekers, apple-polishers and whatnot, Anwar – and Nurul – is driving PKR into another version of UMNO. While Nurul was an outspoken opposition, she appears to be directionless and clueless after PKR grabs power.
Anwar’s game plan is to make his daughter as a buffer zone to prevent the family dynasty from losing power. As the finance minister, PM Anwar has unlimited resources to send Rafizi to his early retirement. That’s how he repays talents and lieutenants who refuse to kowtow to him. Nurul would not and dares not reject anything that daddy says, and the last 2 years has proven that.
Source : Finance Twitter
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