Drawing on Rafizi's expertise for national economic recovery

KUALA LUMPUR - The return of Mohd Rafizi Ramli in politics clearly pays off when he was appointed to the Cabinet after Pakatan Harapan (PH) helmed the Unity Government to rule the country after the 15th general election (GE15).

Appointed as a Minister in the Prime Minister's Department (Economy), Rafizi, 45, is indeed one of the names mentioned before, in the list of Cabinet Ministers led by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim.

Having taken a break from the world of politics for a while, Rafizi is said to be an expert in reading data and determining economic formulas, and his expertise is expected to make the Malaysian economy move up to a higher level.

Born in Besut, Terengganu on Sept 14, 1977, the PKR deputy president received his early education at Sekolah Rendah Sultan Ismail, Kemaman before continuing his studies at Malay College Kuala Kangsar (MCKK).

Rafizi then took Physics A-Levels at Morrisons Academy in Scotland and Chemistry A-Levels at the same academy before continuing his studies for a Bachelor's Degree in Electrical and Electronics Engineering at the University of Leeds, England.

The founder of a data firm, INVOKE, began his career with Jeffreys Henry Chartered Accountants, London from 1999 to 2003 and passed all the chartered accountant examinations with the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England & Wales (ICAEW) within two years.

He was also accepted as a member of ICAEW in 2003, after completing the minimum training period at an accounting firm and was accepted as a member of the Malaysian Institute of Accountants (MIA) in 2003 when he returned to Malaysia.

Rafizi then served at Petronas Malaysia Sdn Bhd as a manager in the Propane Dehydrogenation Plant division before being promoted to senior manager (Business Planning, Operations and Petrochemical Technology) responsible for managing Petronas' petrochemical business market group with assets exceeding RM30 billion.

He then served at Petronas Carigali Sdn Bhd (2007-2009) as senior manager (Accounting, Budgeting and International Taxation).

Here, he is responsible for managing the financial affairs of 51 Petronas Carigali subsidiaries involved in upstream operations at international level involving annual budgets exceeding RM20 billion.

In 2009 he held the position of general manager at Pharmaniaga Berhad then as chief executive at the Selangor Economic Advisory Office until 2012 before founding a company, National Oversight & Whistleblowers Center (NOW) (2012-2018) and now the founder of a non-profit company, INVOKE.

Rafizi broadened his political wings when he ran for the Pandan parliamentary constituency in GE13 and won the seat.

He was then disqualified from contesting in GE14 because he was found guilty by the Kuala Lumpur Sessions Court for disclosing banking information under the Banks and Financial Institutions Act (BAFIA) in 2018.

In the same year, fate was not on Rafizi's side when he lost to Datuk Seri Mohamed Azmin Ali in the PKR election for the deputy president post, but was appointed as the party's vice president.

Since then, Rafizi was seen to be 'taking a break' from his political career before making a comeback when he announced that he would run for the position of deputy president in the party election in July 2022 and won the post.

He immediately returned to the political radar when he contested again in GE15 in the Pandan parliamentary seat which was taken over by PKR Advisory Council chairman Datuk Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail in GE14.

Rafizi won with a majority of 48,296 votes beating four other challengers in the constituency in GE15.

Fate seemed to be in his favour when PH returned to take the leadership of the country through a Unity Government when Anwar who is PKR president was appointed as the 10th Prime Minister. - BERNAMA