Tengku Zafrul is not the only brilliant technocrat in the country

Hidden reason that nobody wants to tell

On 30 May, Tengku Zafrul Aziz the current minister for international trade and investment under the Anwar Ibrahim administration resigned from his party position in UMNO to apply for PKR membership. This move was hinted at for the last five months, although the purpose of such move is really unknown, even now.

Tengku Zafrul is not a career politician. He has worked in the Malaysian corporate world in the finance area since the 1990s, taking on senior positions over the last two decades. Although Tengku Zafrul didn’t attend the Ivy league institutions, he completed both his degree and masters in the UK in accounting and finance. He even did an EMBA from Tsinghua University.

Tengku Zafrul had a good corporate profile and is well connected through banking and finance circles. He married into royalty on the Selangor side as well.

Tengku Zafrul was appointed to the senate and made the first independent minister of finance in Malaysia, when Muhyiddin Yassin became prime minister in March 2020. No one knows whether Muhyiddin was forced to coopt Tengku Zafrul, or whether he was chosen for his talent, during a challenging economic time with the Covid-19 pandemic was upon Malaysia. When Muhyiddin Yassin’s government fell, Tengku Zafrul continued as finance minister under prime minister Ismail Sabri Yaacob.

During the Covid-19 pandemic, Tengku Zafrul was in charge of managing the economy and directing aid and cash packages to those who needed it. After the pandemic Tengku Zafrul wrote a book “Weathering the Economic Storm”, which described Malaysia’s economic journey through the pandemic, challenges facing him, and how the ministry of finance worked. The book was fairly accepted but didn’t rise to the occasion of putting ‘Zafrulnomics’ in the map, which is why have wrote the book.

Nevertheless, Anwar Ibrahim continued Tengku Zafrul on as a minister. It was a late surprise to the cabinet. Tengku Zafrul didn’t get the finance ministry as he had hope, Anwar kept that for himself. Tengku Zafrul became the minister of international trade and investment, where his strong networking through the WEF Davos crowd, he had access to many of the world’s largest corporations, and could land more FDI into Malaysia.

Tengku Zafrul could be considered a ‘watchdog’ for the rulers in his tenure with the executive government, However, he enlarged his activities in UMNO and eventually became a member of the supreme council. In 2022, Tengku Zafrul ran in the seat of Kuala Selangor, narrowly missing out on winning the seat, which was won by Amanah’s Dzulkefly Ahmad, who is now the health minister. This loss in a bitterly fought election has greatly restricted Tengku Zafrul’s political ambitions, as his tenure as senator will be completed on 2 December. Under the current constitution, Tengku Zafrul is unable to be appointed for another term.

Where to for Tengku Zafrul?

It’s hard to understand why Tengku Zafrul had to make any move at all. Just wait until December and do what he likes. There would be no controversy. The most logical place to go would be Washington as Malaysia’s ambassador to the United States. It would have been the perfect place for him, expanding on his career diversity, play an important role with tariffs and the Trump administration, where maybe he could score some wins. This is where Tengku Zafrul could now give the most important service to the Malaysian government.

Come the next general election, he could come back and run for PKR, and try and win a seat (he might have been better staying with UMNO for that).

Other than the above path, Tengku Zafrul could have gone back to the corporate life on a seven-figure salary.

There is talk of Tengku Zafrul remaining in politics. He hasn’t realized this is a dead-end game. There is talk of Tengku Zafrul taking over as Menteri Besar of Selangor. However, two things stand in the way. The current Menteri Beser Amirudin Shaari has to move up to federal politics as a minister. It’s a good time for Amirudin to go, as questions are starting to be asked about what’s going on in MBI.

Tengku Zafrul needs a state seat. They are not easy to come by, especially in the middle of a term. Tengku Zafrul could stand in Amirudin’s seat if he vacated it for Putra Jaya, but this would take some time. Batu Caves is winnable for Tengku Zafrul.

To stay as a federal minister, Tengku Zafrul would have to win a seat in a by-election before 2 December, 2025, to stay in office on a continuous basis. Its not going to be easy for any PKR candidate to win any by-election anywhere. PKR is suffering from a shortage of seats. Too many ministers and not enough seats.

Short of amending the constitution (Article 45 3(a) ) to allow senators more than two terms (this is possible), there is no where for Tengku Zafrul to really go anywhere politically. Tengku Zafrul will be a minister until December 2. Why join any political party if you are going to become and ambassador. The only real political possibility is running for Selangor Menteri Besar.

Zafrul is more technocrat than visionary, more like Tok Pa (Mustapa Mohamed) than any Mahathir type visionary. In the immediate future, Tengku Zafrul is the no-where man.


Adapted from the article written by Prof Dr Murray Hunter, uploaded from his blog, published on 1 June 2025.

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