As PKR (People’s Justice Party) scrambles to meet and find a new role for Rafizi Ramli, the respected strategist who had just lost his deputy presidency due to nepotism and cronyism in the just concluded party election, Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim was caught with his pants down when asked by reporters about Rafizi’s resignation as the Economy Minister.
Anwar, who won PKR president post unchallenged, wanted to minimize the damage after he silently endorsed and approved a grand plan to topple his deputy so that his own daughter – Nurul Izzah – could be installed as PKR deputy president, along with other cronies and apple polishers. PKR, long trumpeted as a reformist party, has already seen its “Reformasi” slogan mocked as “Reformati”.
But a few minutes after PM Anwar rejected media queries that Rafizi has quit, the Economy Minister dropped the bombshell himself – announcing his resignation effective June 17. The humiliating moment shows that Rafizi – either deliberately or mistakenly – had not informed his boss about his decision to quit, or had ignored his boss’ instruction not to announce it till the party discussed the best way to mitigate the damage.
Either way, the damage is done. How could the premier so clueless that he hadn’t been informed by his own senior minister cum former PKR deputy president about the resignation? As published previously (read here), the battle for the No. 2 post will expose not only nepotism, cronyism and hypocrisy, but also creates bad blood. The self-inflicted problem, however, has just begun.
Nik Nazmi followed the footstep of Rafizi when he too has resigned as Minister of Natural Resources effective July 4 after his failure to defend his vice presidency in the party election. In addition to the expiry of the senatorship of Minister of Investment, Trade, and Industry Tengku Zafrul Aziz in December 2025, at least three vacancies needed to be filled.
Democratic Action Party’s (DAP) recent internal election in March – which saw several top posts change hands – adds pressure to Anwar to make a major Cabinet reshuffle. But doing so could see the prime minister’s current plunging popularity drop even lower. While daughter Nurul has expressed disinterest in any Cabinet post, do not underestimate the forked tongue in the Anwar family.
Newly crowned PKR deputy president Nurul will certainly be offered a Cabinet post through backdoor – senatorship. She might pretend to refuse the offer to paint a picture that she’s not power-hungry, or at least to minimize the damage of nepotism. In the event she accepts – under the pretext of party support and people’s demand – a post, she’s likely to replace Rafizi as the next Economy Minister.
Two new PKR vice presidents – Selangor Chief Minister Amirudin Shari and former MIC treasurer-general Ramanan – will also be promoted to the Cabinet. Former traitor Azmin Ali loyalist-turned-Anwar-loyalist Amirudin could get the Economy Minister portfolio if PKR top leadership decides it would be a good tactical move for Nurul to put up some drama and reject any Cabinet posts at the current moment.
Horse trading could be happening behind closed doors, with PKR and UMNO (one of the ruling coalition partners) exchanging portfolios. As Rafizi makes his grand exit, there are already rumours that former Health Minister Khairy Jamaluddin from the United Malays National Organization (UMNO) could make a return and be part of Anwar’s cabinet reshuffle.
Ramanan, the top Anwar bootlicker who won the vice presidency through money politics, may replace Nik Nazmi as Minister of Natural Resources. Narcissist Anwar Ibrahim, could use the promotion of Ramanan, an expert in praising and apple polishing the premier and his daughter, as a gimmick to hoodwink the Indian voters that they finally have a Tamil-speaking minister to represent them.
In his desperate attempt to consolidate power, Anwar’s half-baked master plan to replace Rafizi with daughter Nurul to take over the party may backfire. It was already bad that Nurul has triggered accusations of dynasty politics and nepotism. Amirudin and Ramanan will taint the reformist party with cronyism and corruption, making PKR closely resembles the much hated UMNO party.
Make no mistake – there’s no way in hell that Rafizi will accept any other positions or roles after his resignation. At 47 years of age, he’s still young and can afford to wait – and watch with popcorn – without contaminating his reputation and dignity. In fact, he will earn more respect and sympathy from grassroots and voters by resigning and voicing average Joes and Janes’ displeasure.
In Malaysia, where political resignation is a rare commodity, Rafizi is setting an example of accountability, responsibility, integrity and good leadership. Those were qualities which Anwar had long trumpeted, but failed to practise. Crucially, Rafizi could wash his hands off unpopular policies like e-invoicing and RON95 petrol subsidy cut, which he had cleverly passed the ball to Finance Minister Anwar.
Mr Anwar could have received the resignation and leave request letters from the two ministers, but had approved only the leave. But Rafizi Ramli and Nik Nazmi’s decision to go ahead with their resignations suggests that both were extremely disgusted with all the treachery, backstabbing, corruption and voting irregularities spreading in the Parti Keadilan Rakyat.
While Rafizi Ramli had indicated in many occasions that he will be more than happy to quit as Economy Minister if he lost, he will not go quietly, not after the evil plot to topple him just because he refused to become an obedient lapdog. Therefore, you can expect him to bark fiercely, which could undermine and destabilize Anwar-led Unity Government.
Even before the power struggle for the No. 2 post in PKR, Anwar’s popularity has been dropping like a rock. One of the biggest dissatisfaction was how he selectively prosecuted his enemies, but freed corrupt friends like UMNO president Zahid Hamidi. Former PM Najib was given a 50% discount on his jail term, reducing it to just 6 years from 12 years.
With the latest quake hitting PKR, it’s hard to imagine PM Anwar can afford to arrogantly and unilaterally create a new law allowing the despicable Najib to serve his remaining jail sentence under house detention. Rafizi, who will do more harm than good after losing the PKR deputy presidency, will gladly condemn Anwar for colluding with UMNO by freeing Najib Razak.
Get real, Rafizi isn’t stupid. He knew that his outspoken personality of being critical of the government policies, especially those he does not consider to be aligned with the party’s “reformasi” principles, could win him support among PKR members. Without a Cabinet position, hence his hands are not tied, it would be easier for him to build his credential before challenging Anwar for the PKR presidency.
Yes, he is more dangerous and powerful being just an ordinary PKR member than being a Minister. Known for exposing corruption such as the Cow-Gate and LCS (littoral combat ship) scandals, Rafizi had gone to prison and re-emerged stronger. And chances are he will be having fun attacking not only fellow comrades in PKR, including daddy-daughter Anwar-Nurul, but also allies like UMNO.
That’s why Rafizi revealed how he rejected a last-ditch appeal from his rival Nurul Izzah to help her following the conclusion to the party polls. Anwar’s eldest daughter was so terrified of Rafizi becoming her enemy and the emergence of a “parasite group” whom she had colluded in the party election that not only she had begged for his help, but also reportedly offered him a potential position.
Meanwhile, the pressure and spotlight will be on newly appointed PKR deputy president Nurul Izzah. Her silence on any issues will be capitalized by Rafizi to attack both her and her daddy. This is also the reason why Rafizi saw Nurul’s cheap trick when she was begging for his help. He wanted to give her enough ropes to hang herself by watching how corrupted Ramanan destroys PKR under Anwar-Nurul leadership.
Nurul naively wanted Rafizi to be her sidekick, but Rafizi’s strategy is to challenge either Anwar or Nurul for the presidency in the next PKR election. He now has plenty of time – till 2028 – to build his weapon arsenal, canvass for support and perfect his Invoke data-mining for the next war. Suddenly, Rafizi has become Anwar’s deadliest enemy, and the PM has to be very careful of what he says and does, including Najib’s pending house arrest.
Source : Finance Twitter
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