FORMER PKR Deputy President, Datuk Seri Rafizi Ramli reminded the party that the selection of candidates for the Sabah General Election must be in line with the wishes of the people, especially involving the 'lompat' candidates.
According to him, this is because since the beginning, PKR has had a different view on the 'lompat' candidates.
He claimed that there was a view that such candidates were like a windfall because they usually already had a name, rank and influence.
Some bleieve that if the 'lompat' candidate was a former elected representative in the area, the chances of winning might be higher.
However, there was another view that such acandidate was incompatible with the reformist spirit who wanted to see a principled politician.
“If the candidate who 'lompat' was truly reformist, we would not have had to fight him before – either he had been in PKR from the beginning, or he was a good elected representative,” he said in a statement today.
He was commenting on the 10 PKR candidates including four parachute candidates, who were candidates who jumped from other parties or candidates who had just joined the party.
He said that the candidate who had just joined the party, Datuk Ruji Ubi for the Merotai seat, was easier to understand because he was high-profile and a former senior government officer, thus could increase PKR’s value in the eyes of the people.
However, three other candidates have a record of party hopping, namely Datuk Yamani Hafez Tun Musa Aman, Datuk Jamawi Jaafar and George Hiew.
Rafizi said, PKR emerged on the national political scene with the promise to bring new politics and throw away the old culture that made the people's mandate a bargaining chip.
In fact, PKR once had the experience of entering elections by featuring former elected representatives who switched parties, namely during the last Melaka state election and the results were not good.
"PKR lost all the seats even though in the 2018 GE, PKR recorded the biggest victory in history in Melaka," he said.
Rafizi claimed that Yamani Hafez is the son of the current Yang di-Pertua Negeri Sabah, was once a member of UMNO, then Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia (Bersatu) and now PKR.
He further claimed that Yamani will make the ruling party in the Federation his political platform.
Similarly, the Melalap candidate, Jamawi, also once joined UMNO and was with Parti Warisan when Sabah was under the party's administration.
However, when Warisan fell in 2020, Warisan returned to UMNO and when UMNO was not on the same page with GRS in 2023, he was with GRS and is now in PKR.
Rafizi added that candidate George Hiew was originally from DAP, then joined Warisan and managed to become an assistant minister but when the party fell, he joined GRS, and is now PKR.
Commenting on the decision, Rafizi said that leaders can face two choices in every decision: either choose a shortcut to win (for example, taking a ready-made candidate); or choose to win through efforts to produce candidates who are educated by the party itself. – November 12, 2025
