Umno main contributor to the downfall of M'sia, Rafizi says

SHAH ALAM - PKR deputy president Rafizi Ramli said that the masses are aware of Umno being the number one contributor to the downfall of the country.

He said that the reason why PKR was interested in taking Umno down was never because of wealth, but it was due to the mess that the former created.

“Najib loses to us and we were able to bring Umno down due to our vision but we have to remember that after we became the government, the demands from the people to us were way greater.

“They (the people) know that Umno is the reason for the destruction in the country and involvement in corruption, they know their lineup only cares about wealth and money,” he said during his speech at PKR’s 16th National Congress.

He added that when Pakatan Harapan became the government in 2018, the people were more interested in seeing the changes they would bring to the country, not merely over ideas and speeches.

He said this due to the generations nowadays were different from the generation of 20 years ago.

“We are facing different generations, this is not the generation of 20 years ago, this is no longer ‘bersih’ generation, where 60 per cent of our voters (now are at) the age would be 35 years and below, they don’t know bersih, they don’t know 2018 so they don’t see PKR as a party that has been going through a lot,” he said

Commenting further, he said the next government would face different problems due to the existing country’s problems created by previous leaders such as Najib Razak.

“The next government will be facing problems with the limited financial situation of the country, we are heading towards the end of the economic cycle, there is no longer an industry that can save us for the next 10-15 years, we do not have the money.

“We will also be inheriting the previous mess from the government and the prime minister in which they equated economy and prosperity with mega billion projects, even now, we are still left with the mess that has been left by Najib.

“The debt will be borne by the future generations, this is not a unique problem to us, it happens to most countries in the world due to the government that borrows money, especially China to build unnecessary infrastructure.

“The younger generations that are way smarter than us, but most of them are struggling with their pay and their lives are way worse than us back when we were still at their age. Not only that, we are also facing the pensioners who do not have enough savings,” he said

Due to this, Rafizi said the party’s challenge no longer revolves around proving Umno was bad but to open the mind of the future generation to see that PKR would be the party of the future with visions and answers.

“We have different opinions on things in the party, it’s not about being loyal to the president, it is not about me or anyone in the party wanting the president to become prime minister because we need to look for ways to offer the best for the public, for the publicto trust us and that is when our president can become the prime minister,” he added.