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Rafizi laments PKR aping Umno
KUALA LUMPUR, May 19, 2025: Incumbent PKR deputy president Rafizi Ramli became the first senior party leader having the courage to to warn members of behaving/becoming like Umno.
“The use of bots reflected badly on PKR as it mirrored the campaigning tactics of Umno,” he adding that he had a team conducting social media data analysis which, a few months ago, detected the use of bots to boost the number of reactions on social media to postings by government ministries and agencies.
Rafizi is being challenged by appointed vice-president Nurul Izzah in the deputy presidential race on Friday.
PKR president Anwar Ibrahim has engineered the challege, pitting his daughter against Rafizi.
This is the second time (the first in 2022 when Anwar openly supported Saifuddin Nasution) Anwar is trying to rid the party loyalist and a committed reformist.
Anwar failed miserably and was humbled when party grassroots gave Rafizi a more than 16,000-vote majority landslide vitory.
It has become crystal clear that the “Abim and Umno DNA” in Anwar is too overwhelming for him to discard the politics of nepotism and patronage ala Umno-style for Reformasi (Reformation).
Rafizi and his team of young and old reformists are a stumbling block to Anwar’s govenance.
No News Is Bad News reproduces below a news report of Rafizi lamenting that PKR is campaigning with bots “like Umno”:
PKR campaigning with bots ‘like Umno’, says Rafizi
The PKR deputy president says this reflects badly on the party and that Malaysians are closely watching the central leadership polls.
PKR deputy president Rafizi Ramli said his social media platforms are also flooded with bot accounts.
PETALING JAYA: PKR deputy president Rafizi Ramli claims that bots are being used by certain candidates running in the party’s central leadership elections, lamenting that this makes PKR look like Umno.
Rafizi said the use of bots reflected badly on PKR as it mirrored the campaigning tactics of Umno, its fierce rival prior to the formation of the unity government, and warned that Malaysians were watching PKR’s central leadership polls closely.
The Pandan MP said he had a team conducting social media data analysis which, a few months ago, detected the use of bots to boost the number of reactions on social media to postings by government ministries and agencies.
He said this had spilled over into the PKR elections, quipping that the party now had a division in Vietnam – a reference to the registered location of one of those bot accounts.
“If you want to use bots, please don’t use it for Nurul Izzah Anwar’s social media platforms or else she will get criticised.
“It would be a laughing stock for others to say that we have a division in Vietnam,” he said at a campaign event in Perak last night.
Adding that his social media platforms were also flooded with bot accounts, Rafizi blamed the practice on newer members and called on PKR to be extra careful in recruiting new members.
He added that it reminded him of the communication strategies of former prime minister Najib Razak.
Rafizi is in a one-on-one contest with Nurul Izzah for the PKR deputy presidency, which he won in the 2022 party elections. Nurul Izzah, who did not contest then, is currently an appointed party vice-president.
Separately, Rafizi said his team decided against contesting the post of PKR Youth chief as they respected party president Anwar Ibrahim’s advice to leave the party’s top posts uncontested in this election.
He dismissed claims that his team had no one capable of contesting the post, saying he believed that a culture of respect was crucial in the party.
Nonetheless, he sought to explain Rodziah Ismail’s candidacy for the post of Wanita PKR chief, saying he had advised her to deeply weigh her intentions first.
“She later told me that the Wanita PKR grassroots felt that the women’s wing was slowly drifting away from its original ideology, becoming more comfortable in affluent areas.
“She said it was not about winning or losing but taking up the voice of the Wanita PKR grassroots to the leadership. If we lose, at least our voices and hopes will be heard and considered by the new leaders,” he said.
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