My office continues our full support for INVOKE Malaysia and YB Rafizi Ramli, and all his work to ensure the defeat of Barisan Nasional in GE14. I attended the launching of the INVOKE truck. The truck is essentially a mobile stage for Rafizi to deliver mini ceramah in the hard to reach rural areas.
Unlike the posturing, politicking and deal making pursued by feckless politicians, at least in INVOKE, we are constantly doing ground work; building on big data and now preparing to actively campaign in the rural areas with our new truck.
Recall that Rafizi, due to his 1MDB related Official Secrets Act conviction, is no longer eligible to stand for Parliament in the next general election. He is facing jail term if his upcoming appeals fail. Most men in his position, will cut back on work to spend time with the family. Not Rafizi Ramli.
With time running out before he goes to jail, he is actually working harder than ever. In my humble opinion, he is the hardest working and selfless MP making preparations and personal sacrifices (time and his entire life savings) so that his colleagues have a better chance to win their seats and overthrow BN.
He is a workaholic. There are many occasions when I will shake my head in disbelief seeing him shuttle from one ceramah to another, day after day, week after week. He often jokes that he sees his wife and son, twice a week. In contrast, I aim for a work life balance, focusing on laws, mentoring interns and cerebral policy making.
I believe Rafizi feels the need to carry the weight of a nation on his back. With corrupt politicians everywhere, this young man carries the reformist hope that good will prevail and that this nation will eventually be governed by the good and not the opportunists and the corrupted.
Other than the INVOKE event, I also dropped by the Kelana Jaya Amanah Hari Raya event. I renewed my unconditional support for my brothers and sisters from Amanah. Whatever the Selangor MB says, I totally disagree with him on PAS. I will fight 110% in support of Amanah.
When I stood in GE13, the Amanah leaders were even more hardworking, reliable and honest than some of my own party members. We had to slowly remove the lazy kaki bodeks that wanted unreasonable amount of “money to mobilise”. Luckily the local PKR good guys got the upper hand and we had a core of honest and hardworking PKR team. Then together with the current Amanah leaders, and the very efficient and honest DAP machinery led by YB Hannah, we ran a good campaign and won in GE13.
I have been steadily building my internal machinery in the last 4 years. Today, we are ready with some 60 hardcore interns and volunteers, backed by a full PACA force ready to mobilise. In short, we are prepared for the coming general election.
So now it is time for me to repay the hutang budi to my Amanah friends who are about to face their first general election. I will do my very best to campaign for my very close friends from Amanah such as Ir Izham, Dr Hatta Ramli, Hanipa Maidin, Raja Bahrin, Khalid Samad and Dr Dzul.