It was officially announced late yesterday that Rafizi Ramli lost his bid to defend his position as the deputy president of PKR to Nurul Izzah, daughter of party president and prime minister, Anwar Ibrahim.

It was a foregone conclusion that Nurul would win considering the fact that 201 out of 220 divisions had declared their support for her. While divisions are free to nominate whoever they want in democratic elections, this contest is worth examining to see if it was fairly conducted.

First and foremost, why was there a contest for the deputy president’s position when Anwar had publicly declared that the party had declared that the top two positions would be left uncontested?

The explanation given by Nurul in a Facebook posting at the end of her campaign last night was that Rafizi had resigned from the Cabinet due to the poor showing of his team in the divisional elections and that her supporters then approached her to contest the deputy president’s post as they were concerned over a “potential leadership vacuum”.

In his defence, Rafizi had explained that he did not resign but had applied for leave.

This is what raised concerns over this contest. Even if Rafizi had resigned from the Cabinet, it does not mean that he automatically steps down from his party position. He remains as party deputy president unless he has declared that he would not be defending his position. But with Anwar’s announcement that the top two positions would not be contested, he abided by the status quo.

So, why did Nurul’s supporters still nominate her for the deputy president’s post? Very clearly, it had nothing to do with concern for a “potential leadership vacuum”! Apparently, as Rafizi had said, there was a move to oust him from his position.

Nurul’s supporters used Rafizi’s purported resignation as an opportunity to justify a “potential leadership vacuum” and went against the party position of a no-contest for the top two positions and nominated Nurul.

Both Nurul and her party supporters went against the party position. But what is even more disturbing is that the party president said nothing to advise party members to abide by the party decision. His silence meant tacit approval.

So, not only Nurul and her supporters but the party president himself went against the party decision. If this isn’t openly defying an established order to change the top leadership, then what is it? And was it playing by the rules to be fair?

If there were no party decision for a no-contest for its top positions and Nurul was nominated and won, she would have won fairly. If the party wanted to change its position and open the top two positions for contest, the party should have met and made the decision and announced it; that would have meant the president’s position would also be contested.

So, the party and its president deceptively kept silent while forces rallied to remove Rafizi from his position.

This is the kind of politics that Malaysian politicians play to seize power. They did not follow the rules when Muhyiddin Yassin staged a coup and allowed himself and his Perikatan Nasional government to be appointed in 2020 by the king, how he was forced to resign and Ismail Sabri Yaakob became PM in 2021 without a confidence vote, and how Anwar led his coalition, Pakatan Harapan, to form the next government in 2022, also appointed by the king.

When the political status quo changes, Malaysian politicians close their eyes to some very fundamental aspects of the rule of law when power is within reach and justify seizing it “to save the nation” or “save the party”. This is what makes our politics totally unstable, chaotic and disorderly.

It must be said here, however, that in a way, Rafizi asked for it. He made the biggest mistake a Member of Parliament could make by being aloof from the voter base when he became a minister. In the end, it cost him his party post.

The voters have every right to punish him for keeping his distance from them, but doing it by going against party directives with the seeming tacit approval of the party president smacks of cheating.

The lesson to be learnt here is that in the chaotic mess of Malaysian politics, to maintain integrity and a legitimate claim to power, have the confidence of a strong grassroots support to help withstand the deceptive machinations of politicians who don’t know how to win according to the law or principles.