Anwar’s ex-aide to launch ‘Reformasi 2.0’ in Tanjung Rambutan

(FMT) – A former close aide of PKR’s Anwar Ibrahim is planning to bring back the “reformasi” movement with a launch event planned in Tanjung Rambutan, Perak, tomorrow.

Ezam Mohd Nor, a former PKR leader who once served as Anwar’s political secretary, said there had been positive feedback during his recent tour early this year.

“All party supporters want Anwar to lead the country. He is the most suitable leader to initiate a reform movement. We don’t have any other choice,” he told FMT.

He said the movement, which in 1998 saw tens of thousands of people protesting in Kuala Lumpur against Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s administration following Anwar’s dramatic sacking as deputy prime minister, would be informal and “uphold the spirit of reform”.

The Reformasi movement started as an anti-Mahathir movement

“It seems we have returned to 1998, with those arrested for corruption being freed,” he said, believed to be a reference to several court decisions to acquit former Barisan Nasional leaders of corruption charges.

Ezam was among the founders of PKR in 1999, then called Parti Keadilan Nasional. After a fallout with Anwar and then vice-president Azmin Ali, he left the party to join Umno. He was later appointed as communication director at the finance ministry, before quitting the government at the height of the 1MDB saga in 2016.

Ezam said a reformasi event would also be held in Gombak, the parliamentary constituency of Azmin.

Azmin, who was PKR deputy president until he was sacked last February, defected to PPBM and backed Muhyiddin Yassin as prime minister.

Calling Azmin a traitor, Ezam said: “We must understand that he had handed over power to a corrupt group who had lost power. His action is against the reforms agenda, and we must ditch him as he has committed a grave sin in the struggle for reforms.”