RAFIZI RAMLI VS NURUL IZZAH THE PROXY WAR- Part 1

"Strategy number 3 in the 36 stratagems of the Art of War.  Strategy 3 states that - Borrow one's hand to kill" 

Rafizi Ramli, a name that is synonymous in "exposing" the so-called mismanagement and power abuse of Barisan Nasional (BN) leaders has today i think helped BN tremendously in the next General Election. First of all, the structure of UMNO (Backbone of BN) is that party leaders are very hard to be removed from their position, since with position comes power and also with power comes supporters alike. Nevertheless, since UMNO leaders can't be removed internally, the best way to remove them is by using the opposition i.e. externally.

This is where Rafizi Ramli comes into play, and oh well did he did not play his part well. Rafizi Ramli just took the bait so easily in the NFC case. Always look at the bigger picture in politics, and to do that let's look at three (3) very prominent personalities in Lembah Pantai/PKR. One will be none other than the current MP, daughter of PKR Supreme Leader Anwar Ibrahim, Vice President of a party which her mother is also the President Mrs. Nurul Izzah, DS Shahrizat Jalil (former MP of Lembah Pantai) and the third would be the the hidden hand behind the fall of both Nurul Izzah and Shahrizat Jalil which will remain a mystery.

Nurul Izzah

Is support from DAP crucial in Lembah Pantai?

Nurul Izzah binti Anwar (born November 19, 1980) is a Malaysian politician from Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR), and is the current Member of Parliament for Lembah Pantai. She is the daughter of Anwar Ibrahim, a former Malaysian Deputy Prime Minister and the current de facto opposition leader and of the PKR.^[1] Her mother, Wan Azizah Wan Ismail, is the President of PKR.

In the 2008 general election, Nurul Izzah contested the seat of Lembah Pantai in Kuala Lumpur, which was contested by three candidates. There were speculations that she ran for the seat with the intention of handing it over to her father, who was disqualified from running for office until April 2008, though she quickly rejected such claims.

The seat was defended by three-term incumbent Shahrizat Abdul Jalil, who was Minister for Women, Family and Community Development in the Barisan Nasional government. Initial reports suggested that Shahrizat would retain the seat, as she had been a popular Minister, and in the 2004 election retained her seat with a majority of 15,288. However, on polling day, Nurul Izzah won 21,728 votes to Shahrizat's 18,833, and was elected as the new MP for Lembah Pantai.

The defeat of the powerful three-term incumbent by a new face was one of the many surprises in the 2008 election, which saw significant losses of parliamentary seats by the ruling party.In November 2010, Nurul Izzah was elected one of the Vice Presidents of Parti Keadilan Rakyat. 

Nurul Izzah won the Lembah Pantai seat with a mere 2895 votes which is about 5% of the total number of votes of 40, 561. Not a comprehensive victory thought. However, taking into consideration this small margin of victory, UMNO is very confident of getting this seat back, therefore the obvious candidate was supposed to be DS Shahrizat Jalil, who was appointed a Senator, a full Minister and also the new Wanita UMNO Chief.

Shahrizat Jalil

End of a political career?

Datuk Seri Shahrizat Abdul Jalil (born 15 August 1953) is a Malaysian politician and the current Minister of Women, Family and Community Developmentin the Malaysian cabinet. She is a Senator in the Dewan Negara and the former Member of Parliament for Lembah Pantai which she held for 13 years before eventually losing it to first time MP, 27 year old Nurul Izzah Anwar during the 2008 general election.

Shahrizat is the Chairlady of the Women's wing of the United Malays National Organisation (UMNO), and therefore also the Chairlady of the Women's Wing of the ruling Barisan Nasional coalition.

Shahrizat had been the Member of Parliament for the Lembah Pantai constituency in Kuala Lumpur for the past 3 terms since 1995. Housing squatters in Lembah Pantai under her leadership has been Barisan Nasional’s trump card. To date, some 90% of squatters in Lembah Pantai have been resettled and allowed to purchase their homes, according to Shahrizat.

When Shahrizat first became the area’s MP in 1995, the problem of the day was squatters as well as other concerns, such as floods, fire, garbage collection, street lamps, and children’s scholarships. Nevertheless, some have disputed her contribution to the development seen in the constituency, with most development being private sector driven initiatives, or projects under the Kuala Lumpur City Hall, which is unrelated to her position as an MP.At the same time, many have characterised these federal government-funded development projects as vote buying measures, especially in wooing the urban poor in the Pantai Dalam area.

In an upset during the 12th Malaysian general election which was held on 8 March 2008, Lembah Pantai constituents rejected UMNO and Shahrizat as their elected representative, to a 27-year old newcomer, Nurul Izzah Anwar, daughter of Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) Supreme Leader, Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim.

The obvious choice before the NFC scandal broke loose was that Shahrizat was going to be again running in Lembah Pantai against Nurul Izzah, however, somebody just had a better idea to kill off both this politician and my own prediction is that GE-13 Lembah Pantai will belong to UMNO.

In my next series, i would discuss how Rafizi Ramli and the third hand worked in tandem by removing both their political enemies using the NFC issue. Mind you if Malaysian thinks that NFC is all about UMNO they are grossly wrong, using NFC Rafizi is actually removing his challengers in PKR so that he can move up the political ladder and be nominated to run in the coming GE.


It has to also be remembered that up till now, all the exposes by PKR is through Rafizi. However, in the eyes of Anwar Yes Rafizi is a valuable asset to the party, but not so to the political warlords and to learn more about this, please read about the PKR elections in particular the fight for the post of AMK leader and you'll know what i mean. 


Note: Shahrizat Jalil has now resigned from her post, therefore in my opinion she would not challenge Nurul Izzah in the coming GE. 

Wait for my next article on the Rafizi Ramli vs Nurul Izzah saga.