PETALING JAYA, May 17 — A year after their departure from the Cabinet, PKR’s Datuk Seri Rafizi Ramli and Nik Nazmi Nik Ahmad today announced that they will take over the Malaysian United Party (MUP) as their new political platform.
The announcement was made today at the PJ Performing Arts Centre in a symbolic handover ceremony. MUP’s founder and president, Tan Gin Theam, presented the two PKR stalwarts with a mock party registration certificate to officiate the transition.
MUP or Parti Bersama Malaysia is a little-known, Penang-based political party that was officially registered on December 2, 2016.
Today’s announcement coincides with the Pakatan Harapan convention taking place at the same time in Johor Baru, the first time such an event has been held since 2022.
Speaking during the “Hala Tuju Politik Rafizi dan Nik Nazmi” event here, Rafizi said the new platform was aimed at Malaysians who believe political power should belong to the people rather than politicians.
He also thanked Tan and the existing party leadership for agreeing to hand over the party to them, describing the move as sincere support for their political aspirations.
“Our aim is to offer a political platform to Malaysians who share our thinking, those who believe that political power belongs to the people, not to politicians.
“As fate would have it, Parti Bersama Malaysia was also founded by ordinary people who were not well known on the national political stage, so it is fitting that our platform moving forward is a party established by ordinary Malaysians.
“That is why we are very pleased that there is no need to change the party’s name, which has existed since 2016,” he said.
Rafizi also said that the group had anticipated difficulties in registering a completely new political party.
“So, what we have done over the past year is this: we registered several new parties as decoys, so that those in power, in Putrajaya, would laugh at us because they thought our efforts would go nowhere if approval was denied,” he said.
“At the same time, we studied existing small parties and began discussions where there was alignment in intentions and ideas.”
Rafizi also invited Malaysians to register as party members and contribute financially through crowdfunding via the party’s website.