No to political violence

Nothing on earth can justify harming a child, no matter how big the political differences. — Agencies

ONE or two readers out there might remember that former Economy minister Rafizi Ramli and I have fought publicly before over political differences many years ago.

Suffice it to say, ours was not always a warm or cordial relationship.

When I read about how his son was attacked by a man who injected him with a syringe at a mall in Putrajaya, however, I was shocked and horrified. This was a barbaric act that should be condemned in the harshest of terms.

The very second anyone touches innocent family members, everyone else in Malaysia should be up in arms – to defend those who were hurt, and to bring those who sought to inflict such harm to justice.

Nothing on earth can justify harming a child, no matter how big the political differences.

While it is too early to tell, there is speculation that Rafizi’s son was targeted as a result of Rafizi’s work with whistleblowers to expose certain scandals – something Rafizi has long shown a penchant for.

If the attackers’ intent was to try and silence Rafizi, and deter him from calling attention to a specific scandal – we must make the end result the exact opposite.

With the nation shocked by this heinous act of political violence, we must ensure that there will be ever more public attention and scrutiny as to what scandal this involved, and who gave the order to so brutally hurt an innocent child.

Rafizi has had a bumpy road in politics, full of ups and downs, since the time he became active again, back in the mid 2000s.

Many responded positively to his firebrand style, while he was in the Opposition in the mid 2010s.

Performance reviews of his time as minister were probably a little mixed. He may have scored higher in terms of ideas than in terms of execution perhaps.

Some say he has a slight lack of people skills coupled with some difficulties in emotional self-regulation and a slightly high sense of self-righteousness – all of which may account in part for his performance as a minister and his failure to win the PKR deputy presidency.

After his dramatic exit from the government, it felt a bit like the old Rafizi and all that fire in his belly was let loose again.

One can imagine why Rafizi did not seem to mind resigning as minister at all. He seems much more in his element voraciously pointing accusatory fingers and rallying public anger.

Some might even hold that he is now doing a better job than the current Opposition themselves in terms of trying to expose scandals and bring things out into the light.

There is certainly value in having some competent people asking important questions and holding the powers that be accountable. No government benefits from having a blank cheque to do whatever they want without being questioned vigorously and often.

Whatever else, Rafizi certainly seems to be enjoying himself a lot more in his current role than in his previous one as minister. One gets the impression of a man rather more liberated than before.

I can’t possibly imagine how this attack must have affected him and his family, however.

He has already come out to say that he will not be deterred from continuing his work.

I too remember when I was younger and full of that zeal, proudly declaring that detention and such would not deter us from our goal of working for a better Malaysia.

Things feel very different though, when one’s family is involved.

I can no longer confidently say I would continue to do this kind of work if there was even the slightest chance any future children of mine were at any kind of risk at all.

In some sense, it becomes the responsibility of the rest of us to keep the pressure up for transparent investigations so the risk is not borne by people like Rafizi and his family alone.

As far as potential perpetrators go, there have been some rumours of some highly placed political operatives with friends in high places and a history of thuggish behaviour.

There have also been rumours going around about a connection to mining scandals in Bornean Malaysia. It is too early to tell where the truth is right now, but it is not too early to demand the most robust of investigations, and to keep asking the right questions again and again.

Any form of political violence must be met with the full anger of the Malaysian public, not just for the safety of Rafizi’s children, but for the safety and security of all our children.

Nathaniel Tan is a strategic communications consultant. He is still blocked by Rafizi Ramli on Twitter/X, but can be reached at [e-mail]. The views expressed here are solely the writer’s own.