Rafizi to Indian voters: Back a leader who don't belittle people from estates

PKR deputy presidency candidate Rafizi Ramli, while campaigning for support among Indian party members today, said they should back "top leaders" who respected minorities and not belittle the fact that they come from the estates.

“What is the future of Indian politics? The future lies with multiracial parties, but we’d have to choose top leaders - the Malay, the Chinese, the Indian (leaders) - who love the minorities, who love the poor, and would not belittle that Indians come from estates,” he said at a gathering in Petaling Jaya today.

Rafizi did not mention names but appeared to be referring to a comment made by his rival and incumbent PKR deputy president Azmin Ali.

Azmin had made the comment when rebutting criticism from Kapar MP Abdullah Sani Abdul Hamid about his loyalty. Sani is seen as an ally of Rafizi.

“These people now want to talk about Reformasi. They’ve lived a luxurious life, and now that things have calmed down, they come back (to talk about Reformasi).

"Then suddenly don’t know from which estate or bush, (someone said) Azmin has to prove his loyalty to the party," Azmin had said.

Azmin and Rafizi are currently in a straight fight for party deputy presidency.

Meanwhile, in his speech, Rafizi said he had been lobbying the party to groom Indian leaders to be fielded in the 14th general election.

He did not do this to win Indian support, he said, especially since he already had “one foot in prison” due to criminal charges still pending against him in the two, three years before the election when he did his lobbying.

Instead, he said it is the responsibility of top party leaders to champion minority rights, but they can only do this with input from Indian leaders and other leaders who would advocate on minority issues even though they are not in a minority group.

Rafizi said he had advocated that constituencies that comprise more than 15 percent Indian voters ought to be contested by Indian candidates.

Despite the backlash, he said his efforts had some success and some of these candidates had gone on to become state assemblypersons.

However, he said his efforts in Selangor had been undermined by party members on “the other side”. -Mkini