Rafizi Ramli, famed for never mincing his words, seemed to have a cat catch his tongue - quite literally.
Faced with the revelation that more than two-thirds of cases involving politicians end with “no further action” (NFA), the former minister admitted defeat and turned to a lighter distraction: “playing with his cat”.
“When more than two-thirds walk away with an NFA and no prosecution, it’s no wonder the public compares it with how ordinary citizens are treated when accused of something as petty as stealing milk.
“Honestly, I don’t even know what else to say. Might as well just go back to playing with the cat,” he said on X.
On Sept 4, Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department (Law and Institutional Reform) Azalina Othman Said told Parliament that two-thirds of the investigation papers opened between 2020 and July this year on criminal cases involving politicians have been classified as NFA.
Citing data from the Attorney-General’s Chambers (AGC), she said 41 out of 60 such cases have been deemed NFA.
The minister, however, stressed that authorities are empowered to conduct further probes into cases that have been classified as NFA if circumstances change in the future.
In his post, Rafizi described the NFA as an honour that has become even more prestigious than ordinary medals.
“Another way to see the weight of this award: it’s hard to get shortlisted, but once you’re on the shortlist, your chances are high. Since 41 out of 60 shortlisted received it, that’s 68 percent - more than two-thirds succeeded.
“The value of this honour must be in the millions, because each shortlisted case surely involved transactions worth millions,” he said.
Can’t point fingers
To be fair, Rafizi said there is no detailed information about which criminal cases or which politicians.
“What we do know is that this spanned two administrations and three prime ministers between 2020 and July 2025 - the Perikatan Nasional government under Muhyiddin Yassin and Ismail Sabri Yaakob, as well as the Madani government under Anwar Ibrahim.
“So, all parties and their politicians can’t just point fingers about who’s worse, because the 68 percent NFA ‘success rate’ for politicians with criminal investigations involved all three prime ministers - Harapan, BN, and PN alike,” he added.
Although details of the cases are unavailable, Rafizi said it is unlikely the politicians were investigated for stealing milk, noting that such cases typically involve abuse of power and corruption rather than financial need.
“Except in my time, about 10 years ago, when I exposed major national scandals. Back then, all charges against me had nothing to do with corruption or abuse of power.
“They were all about silencing me. I was charged under the Sedition Act, accused of insulting Umno, and so on.
“But as far as I remember, after 2018, such charges disappeared because no MPs dared take the risk of exposing corruption.
“So, my guess is that between 2020 and 2025, most investigation papers against politicians were likely about abuse of power and corruption,” he added. - Mkini
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