KUALA LUMPUR: Two former Malaysian Cabinet ministers from Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim’s Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) are quitting the party and vacating their respective parliamentary seats.
Former Economy Minister Rafizi Ramli and former Natural Resources and Environmental Sustainability Minister Nik Nazmi Nik Ahmad made the announcement at an event on Sunday (May 17), adding that they would write officially to the Speaker of the Dewan Rakyat (Malaysia’s House of Representatives) on Monday to convey this decision.
With the current parliamentary term already more than three years in, the seats will simply remain vacant until the next general election, bypassing the need for by-elections.
Rafizi who is Pandan MP and Nik Nazmi who is Setiawangsa MP will be joining Parti Bersama Malaysia on Tuesday, a minor political party registered 10 years ago.
It took part in the 2018 elections, but lost in all five parliamentary and 20 state seats it had contested in Penang.
The party’s founder and president, Tan Gin Theam, officially handed over the registration certificate of the party to the duo at the event, which took place at the PJ Performing Arts Centre in Petaling Jaya, Selangor.
Both Rafizi and Nik Nazmi also said they will formally convey their decisions to exit PKR to the party’s secretary-general Fuziah Salleh.
“Our aspiration is to offer a political platform to like-minded citizens who believe that political power belongs to the people, not to politicians,” said Rafizi during the event.
He added that the party would contest in the upcoming series of elections wherever there is a need to do so.
He also said that regardless of whichever party currently held those seats, Parti Bersama Malaysia intended to field capable, next-generation candidates, though he cautioned that there is no guarantee of success.
“We might lose our deposits across all seats and be laughed at. We might retire from politics as failures. But the nation and the younger generation require this leap of vision,” said Rafizi.
Read the full article here
