Rafizi refuses to explain ‘Kajang Move’ any longer
(MM) – The architect of the so-called “Kajang Move” announced in apparent exasperation that he will no longer field questions from the press over the decision, claiming yesterday that he has already made his case.
In a forum on the Kajang by-election, PKR strategic director Rafizi Ramli directed journalists pressing him to explain the unusual move to refer to his written statement released a day after the announcement of Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim as his party’s candidate for Kajang.
“I promised myself, hopefully that this is the last forum where I explain (the Kajang Move). After this, if any reporter asks me, I would say ‘you refer to this forum’,” Rafizi told the audience here last night.
The Pandan MP claimed that the press were hounding him on the same questions despite the answers he has repeatedly provided.
“If I cannot convince you after this long forum, [then] I have not convinced you. Then whatever questions you ask is just to take a brickbat to me,” said Rafizi.
“It’s not really to get an answer, [since] you already have an answer… Let us move forward.”
Rafizi earlier took issue with a report by a news portal quoting him as saying that Anwar was fielded to prevent Putrajaya from declaring a state of emergency to seize Selangor from the Pakatan Rakyat administration.
The PKR MP claimed he was only giving an extreme example of the lengths Barisan Nasional might go to in order to wrest control from the nation’s richest state.
He then explained that he released a written statement in order to prevent oral responses from being misquoted or misrepresented by news outlets.
In a surprise move last week, PKR’s Lee Chin Cheh resigned as Kajang assemblyman, presumably to pave way for Anwar to contest the by-election.
The unforced resignation fuelled rumours that it was to allow Anwar to join the state assembly for the purpose of removing Mentri Besar Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim from his post.
Lee won the Kajang state seat in Election 2013 with a 6,824-vote majority in the constituency that is 48 per cent Malay, 41 per cent Chinese and 10 per cent Indian.
