Rafizi Ramli said he did not want to return as a lawmaker soon notwithstanding his acquittal of the criminal conviction that previously disqualified him from standing for elections.
The former Pandan MP said he was also not interested in getting back into active politics for now, suggesting that he was still recuperating from his previous stint that included an unsuccessful campaign to depose Datuk Seri Azmin Ali as PKR deputy president.
“From the beginning, I stated that I was not interested to climb quickly in politics as before. I am also not interested in any position be it in the government or civilian.
“I think these three or four years, I want to return to be an ordinary person,” he was quoted as saying.
When asked he would reconsider if PKR president Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim personally appealed for him to do so, Rafizi said that would be decided if it ever came to pass.
Today, the High Court overturned a Sessions Court decision from February last year and acquitted Rafizi and former Public Bank clerk Johari Mohamad of breaching the Banking and Financial Institutions Act (Bafia) by disclosing banking details of the scandal-plagued National Feedlot Corporation and its then chairperson Mohd Salleh Ismail.
Mohd Salleh is the husband of Shahrizat Abdul Jalil, who was a former minister and Wanita Umno chief.
For the record, Bafia was repealed in 2013.
The conviction where Rafizi was sentenced to 30 months’ jail prevented him from defending his Pandan federal seat in the 13th general election, which then PKR president Datuk Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail took over.
Rafizi and Azmin were open rivals in PKR, although their acrimony subsided after the latter was able to fend off Rafizi’s challenge for his deputy presidency in the PKR election.
Rafizi was later appointed as a vice-president.
He has maintained a low-profile since then.
In an immediate reaction to today’s ruling, Subang MP Wong Chen said justice had been served.
“It was a tense judgment, started with favouring the prosecution then ending in favour of Rafizi. The court burst into claps!” he said in a Facebook post.