Rafizi Ramli

Political career

He was elected to Parliament in the 2013 election. PKR selected him to contest the seat of Pandan, the incumbent holder of which was Ong Tee Keat of the Malaysian Chinese Association (MCA) in the governing Barisan Nasional coalition and the then, Minister of Transport. MCA dropped Ong; the popular but controversial ousted party president as a candidate for the election. This decision was exploited by Rafizi, who repeatedly praised Ong on the campaign trail.[5] Rafizi enjoyed an enormous swing towards PKR to be elected by a margin of 26,729 votes, more than doubling the number received by the MCA candidate.[6] Prior to this, he was the strategy director for his party.

Kajang Move

Rafizi is a close ally of the PKR's parliamentary leader Anwar Ibrahim.[7] In 2014, Rafizi engineered the failed Kajang Move, which sought to oust Khalid Ibrahim, a PKR member, as Chief Minister of Selangor and install Anwar as his replacement. The move encountered a number of obstacles; it ultimately succeeded in forcing Khalid's resignation, but Azmin Ali, PKR's deputy president, replaced him instead.[8]

In October 2014, after the Kajang Move reached its conclusion, Rafizi was appointed as secretary-general of PKR, replacing Saifuddin Nasution Ismail as the leading administrative officer of the party.[9] Rafizi's appointment came two months after his election as one of the party's four vice-presidents.[10] The party's constitution permitted him to hold both his appointed and elected positions.[11]

Opposition

Rafizi Ramli has been a staunch critic of the Barisan Nasional led government. He has revealed many leakages in the government, including corruption and mismanagement. Among his infamous revelation for Barisan Nasional was the National Feedlot Corporation scandal which involved the Women, Family and Community Development minister, Shahrizat Abdul Jalil. Shahrizat and her family were accused of misusing RM250 million in public funds meant for a state cattle ranch in Gemas, Negeri Sembilan.[12] She's, however, were cleared out from this case by Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC).[13] He has also revealed malpractices and wastages in the government which includes awarding of over-priced closed tender projects and purchasing of overpriced assets. Pakatan Rakyat state government officials also have their part with the revelation of 14th Menteri Besar of Selangor, Tan Sri Abdul Khalid Ibrahim out of court settlement with Bank Islam over the RM66.67mil Kumpulan Guthrie Bhd shares when Khalid was the group’s chief executive officer. His revelation, which liquified Khalid Ibrahim's integrity were a part which culminated the Kajang Move.[14]

Rafizi Ramli is an advocate for lower petrol prices. He criticised the government's move in 2014 to end petrol subsidies, arguing that it would benefit oil companies and petrol station owners but not the Malaysian people. He had prominently threaten to lead a street protest on 2015 New Year's Eve if the government did not lower the oil prices, following the fall of oil prices worldwide .[15][16][17][18][19] He had also advocated for changes to the way petrol prices are fixed by the government, to protect petrol station owners from the deleterious impacts of fluctuating prices.[20][21][20]  His action for defending petrol station owners have attracted criticism from netizens and Utusan Malaysia for abandoning people's interest.[22][23][24]

Controversy

Law Suit

He was charged for exposing confidential Public Bank's customer document in his pursuit of exposing the NFC scandal. Rafizi was charged in August 2012 under Banking and Financial Institutions Act (Bafia) 1989 for revealing four Public Bank customer-profile documents on the balance summaries of the NFC, National Meat and Livestock Sdn Bhd, Agroscience Industries Sdn Bhd and NFC chairman, Datuk Seri Mohamad Salleh Ismail.[25][26]

He allegedly disclosed the documents to media consultant Yusuf Abdul Alim and to The Star reporter Erle Martin Carvalho, at the PKR headquarters in Petaling Jaya on March 7, 2012. Bank clerk Johari Mohamad, 44, is also accused of conspiring with Rafizi.[27][28] His effort to strike out the charges were rejected by High Court on 23 November 2012, by Appeals Court on 23 May 2013 and finally, by Federal Court on 6 April 2015.[29] His trial will begin 27 April 2015.[30][31]

In August 2017, a Malaysian High Court in Kuala Lumpur upheld an 18-month jail sentence against him for having page 98 of the 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) audit report without approval, in violation of the Official Secrets Act 1972.[32]