Rafizi: The Anwars mortgaged house to fund GE14 campaign

PKR deputy president hopeful Rafizi Ramli continued to attack his opponent Mohamed Azmin Ali over the weekend, this time by accusing the latter of failing to raise funds for the party's GE14 campaign.

Rafizi, who was campaigning in Kuantan, Pahang last night, said Azmin, without naming him, could have used his influence as Selangor menteri besar at the time to help raise funds for the party but didn't.

"We had a menteri besar and his exco members. We looked powerful. But at least he should fulfil his responsibility to source for funds like what we did for the party. We sold t-shirts for RM20 to RM30 a piece.

"But the money (from Azmin's camp) never came. Two weeks (before nomination) I told (then de facto PKR leader) Anwar (Ibrahim) not to worry. We can help with the deposit and campaign funds where we can. The party has to pay for the rest.

"But the party is poor. So you know what Anwar did? Anwar and Kak Wan (Azizah Wan Ismail) mortgaged their house in Bukit Segambut to raise RM4 million. They still haven't repaid the loan.

"We won the elections. We became the biggest party through Anwar mortgaging his house for a mere RM4 million to pay for the candidates' deposit my friends," he said.

Rafizi said it was saddening and embarrassing for him that Anwar (photo below) had to resort to mortgaging his home to fund the party because other leaders did not help source for funds.

"I told him, we (in Invoke Malaysia) will help where we can. The rest, you (Anwar) will have to pandai-pandai. (In the end,) he pandai-pandai mortgaged his house. He was left with no other options," said Rafizi.

A video of Rafizi's campaign speech was uploaded to his Facebook page last night.

Rafizi, who is now on a nationwide tour, has been aggressively attacking Azmin in recent weeks, often portraying the latter as someone who was not loyal to Anwar and the party's reformasi ideology.

For the most part, Azmin has chosen not to respond to Rafizi's allegations.

Meanwhile, Rafizi told his audience in Kuantan last night that he was aware of demands that he does not air dirty linen in public, but promised to continue doing so in the interest of transparency.

Rafizi also shed more light on his idea to establish a cooperative for party members. He said that if 200,000 members were to join the scheme and invest RM500 each, the co-op will have RM100 million that can be invested.

"We have the expertise to run it. Wong Chen is a corporate lawyer. I am a corporate man. There are many of you here from Pahang with expertise in business.

"Together, we can give out microcredit loans to our members. We can teach people how to do business. We can teach their children how to do so. The children of reformasi activists.

"This is how we look after the welfare of our members. Win or lose, we will do this," he said.

Voting for the PKR leadership elections begins on Sept 22. The election will take place over the span of six weekends, in different regions, ending on Oct 28. - Mkini