KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 19 — Rafizi Ramli said PKR will field the “best candidate” in the Bandar Tun Razak parliamentary seat for the 15th general election after its previous choice who won Election 2018, Datuk Kamaruddin Jaafar, followed the stream of MPs who quit Pakatan Harapan in 2020 following the 'Sheraton Move'.
The PKR deputy president said he felt it would be wrong and arrogant not to admit the party made a flawed choice in the past considering the constituents were among its stoutest supporters who had voted in the party since 2008.
“This time, the Keadilan and Pakatan Harapan candidate in Bandar Tun Razak, Insya Allah will be the best candidate we have as a signal we seek forgiveness from the Bandar Tun Razak voters,” he told hundreds of attendees who turned out for his Ayuh Malaysia ceramah at Taman Tasik Permaisuri here last night.
Rafizi said PKR president Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim will announce the candidate next week before the Election Commission sets the date for official nomination.
“Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim himself will announce the candidate on the 24th or the 25th, Insya Allah,” he told the cheering audience, many of them locals.
Rafizi said that since the 'Sheraton Move', PKR had tightened its vetting process and was confident the party could now field clean leaders who are intelligent and capable of voicing their constituents’ problems.
The former Pandan MP said that one of the criteria PKR looks for in its potential election candidates is the ability to show love to the unprivileged, someone who would not leave them in the rut after winning a seat.
He added that while he is confident of the loyalty to the party’s values this time around, Rafizi urged voters to “keep knocking on the doors of the MP’s office” if the PKR choice candidate wins GE15 to keep their elected representatives on their toes.
“I reprimanded several MPs for spending too much time on Twitter. The rakyat’s problem is not on Twitter but on the ground.
“I am not afraid of them leaving the party, I am afraid of some of the MPs becoming lazy, not having creative ideas to solve problems or becoming too chummy with the rich and powerful people and developers,” he said.
In the 2018 election, Kamaruddin beat both Umno and PAS candidates to win the Bandar Tun Razak seat by a majority of 19,930 votes.
Kamaruddin was a close friend of Anwar's long before PKR was formed, and started out as the Kelantan Umno Youth chief and Tumpat Umno division chief in the 1990s.
He was among those detained under the Internal Security Act following Anwar’s sacking from government in 1998, and was also subsequently expelled from Umno.
He then joined PAS in 1999 where he won the Tumpat parliamentary for four terms before joining PKR after the Islamist party underwent an internal revolt in 2015, resulting in several leaders breaking away to form Parti Amanah Negara.
Kamaruddin is now with Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia.
