THE Finance Ministry’s “adoption” of Kuala Selangor is seen as a sure sign that Datuk Seri Tengku Zafrul Abdul Aziz will contest in the district in the upcoming general election (GE15), analysts said.
Azmi Hassan of Akademi Nusantara told Free Malaysia Today (FMT) that the announcement is a strong indicator that the finance minister will target the Kuala Selangor parliamentary seat for his electoral debut.
“It is a very clear indication. Not only is he, as a minister, giving special attention to Kuala Selangor, but the whole ministry itself is focusing on the district,” Azmi told the news portal, pointing out that Tengku Zafrul had made several visits to the area.
According to Azmi, as an UMNO candidate, Tengku Zafrul would fare well in Kuala Selangor considering that the district is a Malay-majority area.
Rumours had been circulating that the finance minister is seeking a parliamentary seat to contest, and there were speculations that he would do so in Kuala Selangor on an UMNO ticket.
Previously, UMNO secretary-general Datuk Seri Ahmad Maslan confirmed that Tengku Zafrul was an UMNO member since before he became a cabinet member in 2020.
Azmi, however, opined that it would be best for Zafrul – who is a Dewan Negara senator – to sit out of the upcoming general election altogether.
“I don’t think it’s a good idea for him to contest because he was chosen to be finance minister as a technocrat and for his financial experience, not his political affiliations,” he told the online portal.
Tengku Zafrul was the CEO of CIMB Group Holdings Bhd when then-prime minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin appointed him as the finance minister.
Azmi further noted that in the public’s eye, Tengku Zafrul had performed his tasks well by putting the wellbeing of the nation first while putting an emphasis on statistics and data.
“If he were to contest GE15, then he would have to ‘toe the line’ and be bound by the party’s ideologies, making it harder for him to stick to his principles,” he commented, adding that the chances of Tengku Zafrul being reappointed as finance minister are “quite high”, regardless the outcome of GE15.
According to FMT, Professor James Chin of the University of Tasmania, on the other hand, believed that Tengku Zafrul’s reappointment as finance minister would be contingent on him contesting and winning a seat in GE15.
“If he doesn’t, then it is very unlikely that he will be reappointed as finance minister,” he was reported saying to the news portal.
Chin noted that as an MP, Tengku Zafrul would be “harder to remove”, adding that it was now obvious that Tengku Zafrul intended to pursue a “full on” political career after leaving the banking industry.
The Kuala Selangor seat is currently held by Amanah’s Dr Dzulkefly Ahmad, who on June 1 said that he was not planning to contest in the next general election as he wanted to make way for younger Amanah leaders. – June 7, 2022
