April 20, 2026
KUALA LUMPUR – FROM the powerful seat of power in Putrajaya to the PKR grassroots, there is an incessant chirping that neither the Madani government nor the party can tune out. It is a high-pitched, rhythmic, and increasingly frantic noise.
It is the sound of Datuk Seri Rafizi Ramli’s hiruk alarm clock. Most alarm clocks serve a noble purpose; they rouse you from slumber to face the reality of the day. But Rafizi is an alarm clock with a broken off-switch.
Rafizi once served as the party’s strategist, loyal to Prime Minister and PKR president Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim. But now he has become the party’s most irritating and inescapable alarm clock – a function he once performed against PKR and Anwar’s arch rivals, Umno and Barisan Nasional.
The hiruk (commotion) began with a campaign slogan used during Rafizi’s bid to defend his PKR deputy presidency in early 2025. He argued then that the test of power was suffocating the party’s idealism. Party delegates, however, preferred Nurul Izzah Anwar’s Damai (peace) over Rafizi’s Hiruk campaign in May 2025.
After losing his party post and consequently quitting as Economy minister in June 2025, the Pandan MP’s hiruk alarm clock did not abate. It grew louder.
No longer muffled by Cabinet’s collective responsibility and party consensus, he unleashed a series of scathing attacks targeting Anwar’s administration and the PKR inner circle.
Rafizi led a faction of eight PKR MPs to pressure the Prime Minister into suspending Malaysian Anti-Corruption Com-mission (MACC) chief Tan Sri Azam Baki, and openly questioned the Prime Minister’s anti-corruption credentials and the transparency of his inner circle.
He has repeatedly framed Nurul Izzah’s victory and the elevation of certain leaders as a return to the dynastic politics PKR once fought to dismantle, arguing that the party has “traded its soul for the comfort of the palace”.
He even targeted PKR vice-president R. Ramanan, accusing the leadership of granting “special treatment” to select individuals while sidelining the grassroots reformists who built the movement and subsequent victory.
The ex-Economy minister and former PKR strategist labelled the government’s performance as “defensive” and “uninspiring”, forecasting a disastrous showing for Pakatan – currently comprising PKR, DAP and Amanah – in the 16th General Election (GE16).
For most politicians, the weight of personal and legal pressure acts as a snooze or silence button on their alarm clock. Not for Rafizi.
He is wired to thrive on friction; the more he is squeezed, the louder he rings. Even after a harrowing incident in August 2025 when his son was reportedly injected with an unknown substance – a traumatic event that would lead most to retreat into private life for the sake of their family – Rafizi emerged more defiant than ever.
He is also facing one or two MACC investigations into alleged irregularities during his tenure as Economy minister. To a standard politician, corruption investigations call for strategic silence and legal caution. To Rafizi, they are merely fresh batteries for his alarm clock; he has characterised them as “reckless slander” to neutralise his influence.
Anwar, a master of political survival, has attempted to throw a thick, velvet blanket over the hiruk clock. His strategy has been one of “studied calm”, publicly urging party members to focus on the economy and ignore personal grievances, essentially trying to starve Rafizi of the oxygen of attention.
Internally, the party has utilised more direct silencing mechanisms to dampen the noise. PKR has issued multiple show-cause letters to Rafizi, citing repeated breaches of party discipline, and by ensuring loyalists control the party machinery, the leadership has effectively unplugged him from the formal decision-making hierarchy.
PKR leaders have called for his sacking, but the party seems hesitant, sensing that expulsion is exactly the fuel Rafizi wants to use to launch his next political move.
Rafizi has been openly egging PKR on to sack him, famously stating that he thought the party was brave enough to do so, but it turns out they are merely “konar baring” (skirting around the issue) because they fear the fallout.
He seems to be seeking the status of martyr that comes with being cast out for speaking truth to power against his own mentor.
The strategy is clear: Rafizi is preparing for GE16. With a dozen or so loyalist PKR MPs already in his camp, he is positioning himself as bringing the “Real Reform”. This possible new political vehicle claims to hold the original flame of 1998, which Anwar has supposedly allowed to flicker out in the name of political expediency.
During coffee at a cafe in Kuala Lumpur, a pollster told me that Anwar and PKR’s biggest threat is not opposition bloc Perikatan Nasional. It is the politician who is currently screaming like an alarm clock within his own party.
Pakatan voters, once the backbone of the Reformasi movement, now find themselves adrift, caught between a government that feels increasingly like politics as usual and a disruptor who promises a return to their reform roots.
The pollster warns that Rafizi’s crusade could cost PKR several urban seats in GE16, as he peels away the idealistic youth and the disappointed reformists who feel the Madani government has become too comfortable in power.
As the general election approaches, the Prime Minister and PKR face a gruelling reality: you can ignore an alarm clock for a while, hide it under a pillow, and even try to break its glass, but as long as the internal mechanism is still ticking, the noise will persist.
Rafizi will remain the alarm clock that has decided the only way to save the house is to make sure no one inside ever gets a moment’s sleep.