Nurul Izzah Anwar lives in a man’s world but is still a lady. She does not seek to be the equal of these men. She seeks to do better!

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Umno fears Nurul, not Azmin

CT Ali

 | October 15, 2012

Umno knows that Azmin will self-destruct and take Anwar Ibrahim and PKR down with him. It is Nurul that Umno is now battling against.

COMMENT

Nurul Izzah Anwar lives in a man’s world but is still a lady. She does not seek to be the equal of these men. She seeks to do better!

She tells us that she is the proud mother of two cuties and that she is the defection-proof member of parliament for Lembah Pantai.

I like that description of herself on her Facebook “defection-proof MP of Lembah Pantai”. Huh, what pizzazz!

Tell me, Anwar (Ibrahim), how many other defection-proof MPs do you have within PKR? How comforting is it not to have to watch your back constantly? How good does it feel to know that come what may, this Lembah Pantai MP will be on your team unconditionally?

Not for money, not for the menteri besar’s post or any other post anywhere in your party at state or federal level. But on past performances, she certainly is worthy and deserving of consideration for same.

People will ask if her father had prepared her for Lembah Pantai. I know that Anwar prepared her for Lembah Pantai long before she was ready for it. Like Benazir Bhutto and Aung San Suu Kyi, Nurul learnt about politics from an early age simply because it was all around her.

She grew up in politics, lived it, she endured it through the darkest hours of her father’s political persecution and incarceration and more, and when given the opportunity, she triumphed in Lembah Pantai against all odds. We all have great expectations of her future.

But did her father prepare her for what was to come after Lembah Pantai? What is he doing to ensure that she will be able to survive the onslaught Umno now throws her way in its attempts to retake Lembah Pantai at all costs?

In a constituency where all of Umno’s available resources, manpower and considerable financial leverage are now being used to woo the voters?

Can she keep her hold on a constituency that Umno had decreed “they must win” because winning in Lembah Pantai will take away from PKR and Pakatan Rakyat the jewel in their crown – Nurul.

Umno’s main concern

Umno has no real interest in taking down Azmin Ali (PKR deputy president), save for a token slap on his wrist whenever he strays too far.

Umno knows that given enough rope, Azmin will hang himself. Azmin will self-destruct and take Anwar and PKR down with him. It is Nurul that Umno is now battling against.

And how will Umno do battle against Nurul? You cannot fault her work as MP of Lembah Pantai despite having all of Umno’s arsenal arrayed against her to make her work among her constituents almost impossible.

There is not a hint of the scandals and innuendos that plague Barisan Nasional MPs in her. She has no money to speak and lives a life within her means. She is the incumbent MP BN fears most – fearless because she has no blemish on her character, honest, accountable, responsible, open and that most perplexing for Umno to deal with – “defection-proof!”

However, this general election will be more daunting than the last for Nurul.

We have all endured past family “dynasties” that promised much but delivered naught.

Najib Tun Razak started with a bang by becoming the youngest MP at 23, then on to being menteri besar of Pahang riding on the coat-tails of Tun Razak’s legacy. But his ascend to ignominy was swift and expected.

A failed marriage, now a domineering wife, and he allowed politics to serve his personal agenda rather than have himself served politics. Soon he will end his days in politics with a whimper.

Najib, Hishammuddin Hussein and Khairy Jamaludin are all lessons for other aspiring scions that seek to perpetuate lasting political dynasties for no other reasons than that they think they can – and later, much later, we will have to tell them that they can’t.

Now we have Nurul. If I could fault her, it is because I believe that she loves her father too much to do what she has to do now for herself and for PKR.

Too many times in the past PKR has faltered at a time when it should not. Its near-death experience at the 2010 party elections has not been helped by the aftershocks of Azmin’s inept attempts to consolidate his personal power base within PKR at the expense of Khalid Ibrahim (Selangor Menteri Besar), Nurul and Dr Azizah Wan Azizah Wan Ismail (PKR president) – because only these three people stand in his way to greater personal glory in PKR.

What is good for Azmin does not equate to what is good for PKR or Pakatan. That much the leaders within DAP and PAS have made known to us. But Anwar prefers to maintain an elegant silence that speaks too loudly to us all of a PKR that is in crisis.

If the problems within PKR stay within PKR, good. Unfortunately that problem has begun to affect the battle for Lembah Pantai even as Umno gears up to offer its final solution to the people of Lembah Pantai – vote for RNC – Raja Nong Chik (Zainal Abidin).

The challenge for Nurul

Let me be precise. RNC has done enough to win nomination from BN to challenge Nurul Izzah in Lembah Pantai. RNC has done enough work among the people in Lembah Pantai to give Nurul Izzah a run for her money.

Yes, he has all the resources he needed from Umno to do this. Yes, he is the minister most able to assist the people in Lembah Pantai and yes, he has done whatever he humanely could do to assist them.

No, he has not been nominated to stand in Lembah Pantai but he will be come nomination day for the 13th general election.

So whither goes Nurul? What help have she had from within PKR for her battle against RNC? Or more to the point, is PKR in any condition to extend any assistance to Nurul given the open sores we see of the continuing attempts by Azmin to tell all and sundry that in a blind PKR, he has one eye.

And the one eye is king in the land of the blind! So he thinks!

Is it not time that Anwar put his house of cards in order? Or does he think there is still time? Time to allow Azmin to organise PKR into what Azmin wants it to be. He has succeeded in having a PKR without Zaid Ibrahim. Now he wants a PKR without Khalid, Azizah and Nurul?

Enough is enough, Anwar. Again I want to tell you of the dangers posed by Azmin. Yes, Azmin sees Nurul as a tigress with the capacity and the will to stand up to him but, at the same time, he sees that this tigress sits and awaits patiently while her father dithers.

Azmin, do not think that the tigress is showing respect to you when she sits patiently while you go about the odious business of consolidating your own political interest within PKR at her expense.

This is not a family dynasty hungry for power and position that Anwar heads within PKR but nevertheless they are a family – a family with enough talents within them to carry PKR and Pakatan through the 13th general election if required. Do not forget that.

I did not hear Nurul urging the people to storm the prison walls when her father was incarcerated. I did not hear Nurul suggesting that anyone is deserving of any post in PKR or Pakatan, what more in the Cabinet if Pakatan takes Putrajaya – not even that her father should be prime minister.

I did not hear Nurul talking of reforms within PKR or refocusing PKR’s political agenda. What I see is that she has become what we want PKR to be – by the things she does as MP and the example she sets in her work for PKR.

Yes, she is a tigress but do not make the mistake to think that she is showing you respect just because she chooses to sit quietly by her father’s side.

CT Ali is a reformist who believes in Pakatan Rakyat’s ideologies. He is a FMT columnist.