SPOT ON, ANWAR WILL NEED PKR’S FULL BACKING TO BE 8TH PM – NOT DEPUTIES WHO WANT TO BE PM THEMSELVES: RAFIZI CRITICIZES ‘VIPER IN THE BOSOM’ PARTY MATES – ‘THEY ARE NOW SITTING IN BIG CARS, GETTING LOTS OF ALLOCATIONS, THEY HAVE BECOME LIKE UMNO-BN’

KUALA LUMPUR – PKR vice-president Rafizi Ramli claims several party leaders, who have since moved into positions of power, have ‘forgotten their roots’ and sidelined the party’s original purpose of championing the people’s rights.

Without naming names, Rafizi fired a broadside at the individuals, whom he described as being no different from Umno and Barisan Nasional leaders.

“Don’t get too comfortable. There are some who, since becoming ministers and political secretaries, have become like Umno and BN. They no longer acknowledge other people.

“When they’ve won, they’re now sitting in big cars, getting lots of allocations. They’ve stopped being a party which fights for the people,” he said at the ‘Reformasi 20 Tahun’ event, held to commemorate the 20-year anniversary of the ‘reformasi’ movement.

Rafizi, who is PKR vice-president, will be challenging Datuk Seri Azmin Ali for the PKR deputy presidency. Azmin has so far remained cryptic on whether he would be defending the post.

Rafizi said his bid for the deputy presidency is, among other things, to rid the party of such leaders, whose practice of feudalism had made the culture prevalent within the party.

This, he said, was one of four reasons for his decision to contest the post, which were to back Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim’s future bid for prime minister, strengthen the party, and help its grassroots.

“Anwar will become the eighth prime minister. It means he will need a leadership team that is 100 percent behind him.

“I am not merely fawning (taksub) over Anwar but when he becomes PM, he will need a full mandate from the party leadership.

“We do not want a leadership who agrees in front of him but says the opposite behind him,” he said.

Rafizi emphasised on the need for PKR to be free from a feudal culture where one “shakes and kisses hands“, where grassroots members could not criticise party leaders.

“That is not our culture. We are a reformation party because we are brave enough to criticise those in power.

“If anyone brings the culture of feudalism and money as well as positions into the party, then we will fight this,” he said.

– NST