SHAH ALAM – Datuk Seri Rafizi Ramli has claimed that he and former Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) Vice President Nik Nazmi Nik Ahmad faced continuous pressure from the party machinery, leading to their decision to leave the party.
The former PKR Deputy President said that over the past year, they were subjected to various forms of pressure and attacks, which even extended to his family members.
"For an entire year, they used the party machinery to push me and Nik (Nazmi) out.
"Every day there was pressure and insults. In my case, even my child was attacked. This kind of thing has never happened in the history of Malaysian politics. Political differences resulting in a child becoming a target," he said in a Facebook post on Saturday.
The former Economy Minister also claimed that PKR President and Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim did not sack them directly out of fear that it would open up space for a tebuk atap (backdoor government) movement.
Therefore, according to him, Anwar allowed subordinates to carry out the "dirty work".
"When we finally left, suddenly the narrative changed. We were instead accused of being traitors. The one shouting 'traitor' the loudest is Sangeetha Jayakumar. The public already knows her own family’s track record.
"But what means the most to me is not those attacks. What matters is that the public can finally piece the whole story together themselves," he said.
Rafizi also described the allegations of treachery leveled against him and Nik Nazmi after leaving the party as completely baseless.
In fact, he said the treatment they received during their time in PKR helped the public understand the real reason behind their decision to step down.
"A year of PKR’s treatment toward us actually completes the 'puzzle' for the public to understand why we did what we did.
"It was never about Anwar Ibrahim. It is about the ordinary people we have known over these past 25 years," he added.