KUALA LUMPUR: PKR vice-president Tian Chua has questioned Rafizi Ramli’s act of announcing that a parliamentary seat would be vacated to enable PKR de facto leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim to contest in a by-election.
Tian Chua said the matter was never discussed among the party’s senior leadership, which made the announcement by Rafizi, who is also PKR vice-president, all the more puzzling.
Rafizi, he said, has no right to make the announcement as the question of which seat would be vacated and who would make way for Anwar was never discussed among the leadership.
“Who is Rafizi to announce this? (PKR president) Datuk Seri Wan Azizah (Wan Ismail) was forced to confirm the matter because Rafizi had announced it. We’re not even sure if Dr Wan Azizah even knew, all because Rafizi went ahead an announced it first.
“The issue here is that no one knew of the move. Just like the ‘Kajang Move’, no one knew.
“This should be discussed at the leadership level, it cannot be done in secret,” he told NSTP.
Tian Chua was responding to queries regarding his tweet on Saturday night, where he had questioned why an individual had appointed himself as a kingmaker for all matters.
In the same tweet, Tian Chua also questioned as to how many times this individual intended to drag the party into the mud, as what happened during the Kajang Move.
On Friday night, Rafizi, during a campaign event, had revealed that a parliamentary seat would be vacated next week to pave the way for Anwar to contest and subsequently return as a member of parliament.
Dr Wan Azizah, when pressed, subsequently confirmed the matter but declined to reveal which member of parliament would be giving up his or her seat for Anwar.
Tian Chua said an announcement of this magnitude should only be made after a discussion with the PKR leadership and the Pakatan Harapan (PH) Presidential Council.
“The PH Presidential Council must be notified because Anwar will head PH and become the prime minister; this is not a trivial matter and we cannot downplay Anwar’s role.
“He (Rafizi) has no right to make the announcement. He has no right to go around as if he is making all the decisions for everything,” he said.
Asked on he believed Rafizi was the architect behind the move, Tian Chua, sarcastically replied that Rafizi decides “all matters and decisions in OKR.”
“He wants to show to the world as if he is the one who planned everything. If we look back at his statements, he said he was the one who planned for Parti Amanah Negara (Amanah) and PH to be established. He was the one who arranged for (former Selangor Menteri Besar) Tan Sri Abdul Khalid Ibrahim to go down. He arranged it all.
“So now, he is planning for Anwar’s transition to become prime minister. If we were to follow what he says, he planned every single thing,” he quipped.
NSTP is reaching out to Rafizi for comments.