Malaysia PM sets sights on ex-deputy leader’s seat

MALAYSIA: After Bersama’s launch by Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR)’s former deputy leader, Prime Minister (PM) Anwar Ibrahim took over Pandan, a seat likely to shape the next General Election.

Anwar is the leader of the PKR and is accused by those leaving the party of abandoning the reformist agenda, while he is also seen as leaning towards the United Malays National Organisation (UMNO) during his tenure as PM.

Anwar’s adoption of the Pandan seat after Rafizi Ramli’s exit as a Member of Parliament (MP) sets the stage for a major electoral battle—if PKR fields him there.

Rafizi has also announced that he will defend his seat in the next General Election. An Anwar versus Rafizi ticket will boil down to a massive defeat for the Prime Minister or a political disaster for the former Economy Minister.

At present, Rafizi’s party is dominating the narrative on social media, with its posts and Bersama-related content popping up on people’s Facebook walls in particular.

The continued flow of resignations of members and leaders from PKR who are joining Bersama is also dominating the news.

However, Anwar is not alone in his push to retake the PKR seat from Rafizi. He has enrolled a controversial figure, Tengku Zafrul Abdul Aziz, as the party’s monitoring officer for the constituency.

It appears that Zafrul’s role is to keep the image of Anwar alive in the constituency, while Rafizi refuses to relinquish his grip on Pandan. Zafrul is the PM’s senior political adviser.

He was the Finance Minister after the PKR lost power in a move that saw several PKR MPs leave the party to join an opposition coalition in 2020.

Zafrul was then appointed as a Senator and held the post of Finance Minister from March 9, 2020, to October 2022.

After coming to power, Anwar appointed Zafrul as Minister of International Trade and Industry, but his move to join PKR after leaving UMNO last year sparked controversy within the ‘reform’ party.

It is the Selangor Chief Minister Amirudin Shari who made the announcement that Zafrul was now the ‘government representative’ and Anwar’s representative in Pandan.

“So we have arranged for (Tengku Zafrul) to serve as the government’s representative and, of course, the Prime Minister’s representative in Pandan,” he said on Friday.

Amirudin said Tengku Zafrul’s appointment to oversee Pandan was made at Anwar’s own request, as the former Minister wanted to play a more active role in Selangor politics.

“Tengku Zafrul has also been entrusted to monitor the Ampang parliamentary constituency. However, the leadership in Ampang consists of PKR members, so I do not want to interfere further. But if any issues arise in Ampang, Tengku Zafrul can also look into them,” he said.

According to Amirudin, although the party faced challenges in managing constituencies vacated by former PKR leaders, it had not disrupted or weakened the party’s services and operations.

“This is not something new. We experienced this before, involving former PKR deputy president Datuk Seri Azmin Ali in Gombak and former vice-president Datuk Zuraida Kamaruddin in Ampang.

“That was how we managed the administration and, in the end, our victory margin in Ampang increased compared with the previous election,” he said.

Meanwhile, Bersama promised it would give PKR a run for the money in the constituencies known to have been pro-Anwar in past elections.