(Photo courtesy:Sin Chew Daily) 2010-04-05 16:02
PETALING JAYA: PKR Lembah Pantai Member of Parliament Nurul Izzah Anwar, or known as “Anwar’s eldest daughter”, started to walk down the street when her father, opposition leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim was put behind bars in 1998. Since then, she is also known as the “Princess of reformasi”.
The “princess”, who has been carrying her father’s reputation since her childhood, does not deny that she has been living under the shadow of her father. She had thought of getting help from her father when she was facing difficulties after being elected the Lembah Pantai MP. However, she always insists on fighting the battle herself.
She told Sin Chew Daily that she understood that people would measure her performances based on her identity as “Anwar’s daughter”. However, she was not her father Anwar, or her mother, PKR President Datin Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail.
She made a phone calling gesture when confessing that she did wish to call her father for help when facing difficulties: “Daddy, daddy, what should I do?”. But eventually, she chose to solve the problems herself.
To her, Lembah Pantai is an excellent training ground in which she has to find solutions to solve problems in her constituency without sufficient government funding and resources. And these experiences make her grow.
Nurul, who has been working hard to make a success, never puts constituency affairs aside, even when she was pregnant. When she was carrying out her task, the expected mother was still being shouted and cursed when people saw her in illegal squatter areas.
She said that she saw her constituency as her own flesh and blood and therefore, she had to protect it well and defend the residents’ interests in the Parliament.
“I was quite gentle before this, and I respected the Speaker. But I understand now that I have to be a bit “violent” in order to fight for what I want,” she said.
After her performances that prove her ability and services for her constituency, she is also working hard to make herself different from other young leaders in PKR.
“If I am appointed any position in the party, it will be because of my own ability. Because to me, there is no such thing as ‘Anwar’s dynasty’, or political successor,” said Nurul.
Anwar’s sodomy case seems like the return of a nightmare
Anwar faced malpractice and sodomy charges and was put behind bars in 1998. Once again, he had to face another sodomy trial 12 years later. For Nurul, who has finally walked from from the shadow, it is like “the return of a nightmare”.
“It is really not easy. I have grown up all these years and I am having two children now. My younger brother just got married and he (Anwar) has just become a grandfather. We enjoy very much time together…,” she said.
Nurul stressed that she could still remember clearly the pains when her father was imprisoned and unexpectedly, they have to face the same situation again today. She said:”All these really hurt. I do not know how to describe it and it is hard for others to understand.”
“Family is very important to me. To a large extend, I joined politics because of the influences from my family. These are all inter-related and it is really very bad to us when my father is facing the sodomy accusation,” said Nurul.
As a fresh politician, she defeated UMNO candidate Datuk Seri Shahrizat Abdul Jalil as the Lembah Pantai MP in the 8 March general elections. Even though she was keen on constituency affairs, she admitted that it was really tiring to be a MP.
She described herself as a “fire fighter” who had to “put out fire” everywhere. It was mainly because no state assemblyman was there to share the work with her. She had to do all the work herself and with her opposition background, she had to face funding difficulties and resources shortages.
After all these days, Nurul introduced free health clinics and worked together with nonprofit organisation MyKasih to provide assistance to the poor. On the day when she was interviewed, Nurul also received funding from Yayasan Aman that provide RM500 assistance each for some students taking Arabic language course in University of Malaya.
Nevertheless, Lembah Pantai is still a strong district for UMNO, particularly after the Prime Minister has paid five visits there over the past few years and the “1Malaysia clinic” was being set up there. These are all great challenges to Nurul.
She also boldly predicted that she might lose part of Malay votes in the next general elections and thus, she started to prepare herself for the elections and accelerate the registration for young voters in her constituency. (Translated by SOONG PHUI JEE/ Sin Chew Daily)
