Rafizi Ramli
Mohd Rafizi bin Ramli is a Malaysian politician. He is the Vice-President and former Secretary-General of the People's Justice Party, a component party of Pakatan Harapan. Rafizi is also a former Member of Parliament of Malaysia for Pandan in Selangor from 2013 to 2018. He is the founder of the whistleblower organization, National Oversight and Whistleblowers Centre and the election volunteerism organization, Invoke Malaysia.
Background
Rafizi was born in Besut, Terengganu and was raised in Kemaman, an east-coast town. He came from a humble background; his father was a rubber tapper. During his schooling days he was active in extra-curricular activities where he represented Malay College Kuala Kangsar for debate championships as well as being a top student. After finishing his secondary education, he was awarded a scholarship to study Electrical Engineering at University of Leeds. He then worked for an accounting firm in the United Kingdom and at the same time, took professional papers and qualified as a chartered accountant under Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales. Upon returning to Malaysia in 2003, Rafizi worked for the Malaysian oil company, Petronas from 2003 to 2009. During his tenure at Petronas, he held many important portfolios including managing Petronas' 30 Billion petrochemical assets. In 2009, he became the general manager of the health care company Pharmaniaga, before being appointed as the Chief Executive of the Selangor Economic Advisory Office, a position he held until July 2012. He dedicates his involvement in politics to Adlan, his close friend who had become his inspiration. Rafizi was active in politics since his university days. When Anwar Ibrahim was sacked as the deputy prime minister of Malaysia in 1998 he became more involved politics and had joined in the Reformasi movement.Political career
Rafizi was elected to Parliament in the 2013 general election. PKR selected him to contest the seat of Pandan, the incumbent holder of which was Ong Tee Keat of the Malaysian Chinese Association in the governing Barisan Nasional coalition and the then, Minister of Transport. MCA dropped Ong; the popular but controversial ousted party president as a candidate for the election. This decision was exploited by Rafizi, who repeatedly praised Ong on the campaign trail. Rafizi enjoyed an enormous swing towards PKR to be elected by a margin of 26,729 votes, more than doubling the number received by the MCA candidate. Prior to this, he was the strategy director for his party.Rafizi had decided not to contest in the 2018 general election because of his eligibility was in doubt as his appeal of court cases convictions and jail sentences for exposing both scandals of National Feedlot Corporation and 1Malaysia Development Berhad which were still pending then.
Kajang Move
Rafizi is a close ally of the PKR's parliamentary leader Anwar Ibrahim. In 2014, Rafizi engineered the failed Kajang Move, which sought to oust Khalid Ibrahim, a PKR member, as Chief Minister of Selangor and install Anwar as his replacement. The move encountered a number of obstacles; it ultimately succeeded in forcing Khalid's resignation, but Azmin Ali, PKR's deputy president, replaced him instead.In October 2014, after the Kajang Move reached its conclusion, Rafizi was appointed as secretary-general of PKR, replacing Saifuddin Nasution Ismail as the leading administrative officer of the party. Rafizi's appointment came two months after his election as one of the party's four vice-presidents. The party's constitution permitted him to hold both his appointed and elected positions.
Opposition
Rafizi Ramli has been a staunch critic of the Barisan Nasional led government. He has revealed many leakages in the government, including corruption and mismanagement. Among his infamous revelation for BN wrong doings was the National Feedlot Corporation scandal which involved the Women, Family and Community Development Minister, Shahrizat Abdul Jalil. Shahrizat and her family were accused of misusing RM250 million in public funds meant for a state cattle ranch in Gemas, Negeri Sembilan. She's, however, were cleared out from this case by Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission. He has also revealed malpractices and wastages in the government which includes awarding of over-priced closed tender projects and purchasing of overpriced assets. Pakatan Rakyat state government officials also have their part with the revelation of 14th Menteri Besar of Selangor, Tan Sri Abdul Khalid Ibrahim out of court settlement with Bank Islam over the RM66.67mil Kumpulan Guthrie Bhd shares when Khalid was the group’s chief executive officer. His revelation, which liquified Khalid Ibrahim's integrity were a part which culminated the Kajang Move.Rafizi Ramli is an advocate for lower petrol prices. He criticised the government's move in 2014 to end petrol subsidies, arguing that it would benefit oil companies and petrol station owners but not the Malaysian people. He had prominently threaten to lead a street protest on 2015 New Year's Eve if the government did not lower the oil prices, following the fall of oil prices worldwide. He had also advocated for changes to the way petrol prices are fixed by the government, to protect petrol station owners from the deleterious impacts of fluctuating prices. His action for defending petrol station owners have attracted criticism from netizens and Utusan Malaysia for abandoning people's interest.
Controversies
Law Suits
He was charged for exposing confidential Public Bank's customer document in his pursuit of exposing the NFC scandal. Rafizi was charged in August 2012 under Banking and Financial Institutions Act 1989 for revealing four Public Bank customer-profile documents on the balance summaries of the NFC, National Meat and Livestock Sdn Bhd, Agroscience Industries Sdn Bhd and NFC chairman, Datuk Seri Mohamad Salleh Ismail.Rafizi was allegedly disclosed the documents to media consultant Yusuf Abdul Alim and to The Star reporter Erle Martin Carvalho, at the PKR headquarters in Petaling Jaya on 7 March 2012. Bank clerk Johari Mohamad, 44, is also accused of conspiring with Rafizi. His effort to strike out the charges were rejected by High Court on 23 November 2012, by Appeals Court on 23 May 2013 and finally, by Federal Court on 6 April 2015. His trial will begin 27 April 2015. On 7 February 2018 Rafizi was sentenced by a Sessions Court in Shah Alam to 30 months in jail for exposing confidential banking details relating to the NFC scandal. The conviction was however overturned by the High Court on 15 November 2019 and he was fully dicharged from the earlier jail sentence.
On 8 April 2016, Rafizi pleaded not guilty to the charge of publishing libellous statement against Tabung Haji through the posting of an article with the heading '’Analisa Kewangan Tabung Haji 2009-2015” in his blog www.rafiziramli.com. On 27 February 2019 the Kuala Luampur Magistrate’s Court acquitted and discharged him on defaming TH.
In August 2017, a Malaysian High Court in Kuala Lumpur upheld an 18-month jail sentence against him for having page 98 of the 1MDB audit report without approval, in violation of the Official Secrets Act 1972. The conviction and 18-month jail sentence had prevented Rafizi from contesting in the GE14.
On 1 June 2018 after the GE14, Rafizi however was released on good behaviour bond of RM10,000 bound over for two years in one surety over the OSA conviction by the Court of Appeal.
On 16 November 2019, Rafizi Ramli succeeded in his appeal in the case involving NFC, National Meat and Livestock Sdn Bhd, Agroscience Industries Sdn Bhd and NFC chairman, Datuk Seri Mohamad Salleh Ismail. Judge involved in this appeal was Judge Mohd Yazid Mustafa. Mohd Yazid, in his ruling, said exhibit P4 and attachments A to D were photostated documents that failed to meet requirements under Section 65 of the Evidence Act 1950, and therefore inadmissible. Also discharged and acquitted from the same charge was bank clerk Johari Mohamad.