Rafizi Ramli was throwing everything, including the kitchen sink, to express his frustration – even anger – which he had been keeping for the last 30 months. Since becoming the Economy Minister after the Nov 2022 General Election, he has not been able to freely criticize the government because his own boss, Anwar Ibrahim, is the 10th Prime Minister of Malaysia.
In his last and deliberate attempt to infuriate his own party PKR (People’s Justice Party), Rafizi Ramli has announced his preferred candidate line-up or allies, effectively declaring a war between his team against Nurul Izzah’s team. The move is seen as the PKR deputy president’s last salvo before losing due to corruption and vote rigging to the daughter of PM Anwar in the party election for the No. 2 position.
But Rafizi’s sharing of his faction members, just 24 hours before the PKR election, has not gone down well with the party’s top leadership. Zaliha Mustafa, chairman of PKR election committee said stern warnings will be slapped on those involved. But does she dare to sack Rafizi when the deputy president has already threatened to resign and quit the Cabinet if he loses?
Nobody has the balls to risk their posh ministership on the betting table, except Rafizi. That alone suggests that he is not power-crazy, or at least not as power-crazy as other party leaders, including PKR president Anwar (who dreams of a second term). Rafizi could still keep his job even if he loses, but his dignity and reputation far exceed the hunger for power and perks.
Zaliha, who was appointed as the Federal Territories Minister by PM Anwar with a specific mission – to slash crooked Najib Razak’s jail term from 12 to 6 years – should stop humiliating her own party with hypocrisy. Rafizi’s revelation of his team is no different than Nurul’s launching of Sabah PKR’s election machinery together with team-mate Selangor Chief Minister Amirudin Shari recently.
By now, every Tom, Dick and Harry knows that besides Amirudin, Anwar loyalists and apple polishers like Information Minister Fahmi Fadzil, Education Minister Fadhlina Sidek, PKR Youth Chief Adam Adli and vice-president Ramanan Ramakrishnan are Nurul’s preferred choice in the party election. So, what cock was Zaliha babbling that Rafizi cannot reveal his own faction member?
In fact, if Rafizi has indeed violated party election rules for announcing his choice of candidates, Anwar-appointed PKR vice-president Nurul too has breached party rules for hijacking – even sabotaging – the launching of Sabah PKR’s election machinery which was scheduled to be carried out by PKR deputy president Rafizi in his capacity as the party’s election director.
Yes, the daughter of Anwar Ibrahim was so desperate to win the deputy presidency that she had – shamelessly and deliberately – stolen the Sabah launching without prior discussion by the party’s political bureau or central leadership council. Apple doesn’t fall far from the tree – Nurul’s sabotaging is similar to how her daddy had hijacked “Bersih 3.0” rally in 2011 and turned it into his own political “Reformasi” campaign.
And she has the cheek to claim that Rafizi will always be her friend. Nurul has even cooked up a hilarious lie to justify her contest for the deputy presidency – she heard speculations that Rafizi had taken a leave of absence as Economy Minister, even heard rumours of Rafizi’s planned resignation from the Cabinet post. So, she decided to contest and not bothered to call his good friend for clarification.
After backstabbing her self-proclaimed friend, did Nurul really think Rafizi would be so dumb and generous to help her in the coming challenges – state elections in Sabah, Melaka, Johor as well as the 16th General Election? Even before Nurul’s Sabah betrayal, Rafizi had already expressed his desire to play a non-active role in PKR to teach traitors, backstabbers and evil schemers a lesson.
That explains why Rafizi had warned Nurul to be prepared to serve as a “war general” if elected as PKR deputy president. The fact that she, together with Amirudin, decided to hijack the launching of Sabah PKR’s election machinery means the Anwar’s daughter knew she would win the party election, never mind the victory is tainted with nepotism, scheming and election irregularity.
Even if Rafizi still thinks Anwar’s family members are still worth the friendship, there’s no way he will let bygones be bygones and help them with dirty works, whilst General Nurul gets all the credit. He will most likely retire from PKR, at least temporarily, and do what he does best as an MP for Pandan – voicing on behalf of people their displeasure about Anwar government’s weaknesses.
In the 2020 Sabah state election, PKR won only 2 out of 73 seats. Then, in the 2021 Melaka state election, Anwar’s party was crushed and humiliated without winning any seat. In the subsequent 2022 Johor state election, the same People’s Justice Party captured only 1 out of 56 seats. It was then that PKR scrambled to beg Rafizi to return to active politics after his departure post-2018 General Election.
The return of Rafizi in March 2022 – before the November 2022 national polls but just after the embarrassing defeat in the March 2022 Johor state election – re-ignited hope for many Malaysian and saw PKR capturing 31 parliamentary seats in the 2022 general election, leading to the formation of a multi-coalition ruling government that finally allowed Anwar to become the 10th Prime Minister.
Mr Rafizi, widely credited as a key strategist behind the Pakatan Harapan coalition winning the most seats at the national polls in 2022, will be “unavailable” if he keeps his promise to resign as Economy Minister. Nurul, surrounded by Anwar apple-polishers whose interest is just to enrich themselves with projects and power, will be alone without Rafizi to face PKR sycophants, UMNO crocodiles, Bersatu racist bigots and PAS religious extremists.
Due to disagreement with party top leadership on how PKR kowtow to former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, who led the Pakatan Harapan to defeating ruling Barisan Nasional government in the May 2018 General Election but cunningly destroyed PKR by promoting Azmin Ali faction to strategic Cabinet portfolios, Rafizi withdrew from active politics in 2019.
But unlike in 2019, when Rafizi quit politics due to Mahathir, this round, Rafizi is preparing to quit due to Anwar and his dynasty, treachery and sycophantic politics. As the most powerful man today, PM Anwar cannot claim that he is powerless compared to during the previous Mahathir administration. Therefore, it would be harder to persuade and beg Rafizi to return to PKR for the second time.
This explains why Anwar is sucking up to everyone in Sabah before the upcoming state election to the extent of closing both eyes to the corruption committed by Chief Minister Hajiji Mohd Noor and his gang of corrupt ministers. This is also why the prime minister had extended the contract of corrupt MACC Chief Commissioner Azam Baki for the third time, which Nurul pretended as “unwelcome”.
Once Rafizi quits as Economy Minister, he would watch with popcorn and Coke how PKR under the leadership of Anwar-Nurul gets slaughtered – not only in the Sabah, Melaka and Johor by-elections, but also how parasite UMNO-led Barisan Nasional bullies, threatens and blackmail Pakatan Harapan into surrendering strategic seats in exchange for UMNO support in the next 16th General Election.
Even if Rafizi somehow wins, he will be leading a badly damaged party – significantly split with bad blood within its ranks – because most of his allies would have been defeated. Some may argue that PKR will close ranks, hug and kiss each other after the intense party election. While that’s true in the past, it will be different this time largely because PKR is the ruling government where power and riches are for grab.
Anwar might think he was clever to use divide-and-conquer strategy to stay in power. But without strategist Rafizi massaging data and creating a “new wave”, the PKR president is essentially a “1-term Prime Minister”. There was a reason why Rafizi criticized certain senior party leaders, obviously referring to Anwar, for becoming increasingly timid after gaining power – reluctant to take risks and even too coward in speaking out.
Source : Finance Twitter
The Coverage Malaysia
