In the year 2023.

In the year 2023 my grandchildren Isabel and Sofie will ask of their parents, Terrina and Emmett what they know about 2013 - the year when Barisan Nasional lost government to Pakatan Rakyat.

Their parents will tell them that it all started in 1989 with this man call Anwar Ibrahim who is the father of the present Malaysian Prime Minister, Nurrul Izzah.

In 1989, Nurrul’s father was the Deputy Prime Minister and the Prime Minister was a man call Mahathir. They were not members of Pakatan Rakyat but were members of another Malay political party call UMNO. UMNO had been the only government of Malaysia for over 55 years.

And I know that Isabel will ask Emmett - "What happened to UMNO?"

And I know her father will tell her about how great nation, great states and great men and women  - all of them will eventually fail when they become corrupt and self serving. And that was what happened to UMNO. They failed the Malays, they failed the people of Malaysia and in the end they failed themselves because of their greed and arrogance.

Then they will ask what happened to Nurrul’s father? How did everything started from him?

They will be told that Anwar Ibrahim was removed  by Mahathir from his DPM’s post, arrested and unfairly convicted by a tainted judiciary of things that he did not do and spent many years in jail. Upon his release he put together the Pakatan Rakyat coalition and started the process of forming a viable opposition party to the UMNO led Barisan Nasional. Nurrul’s father was leader of this opposition coalition comprising of DAP,PAS and Nurrul’s party, PKR.

It took two general elections before they finally took government in 2013 at the 13^th general election. Nurrul’s father became PM and Nurrul served in the first Pakatan Rakyat cabinet as a junior Timbalan Menteri.

It was just before the next general election that her father step down as PM and she was the popular choice to take his place and she then led the Pakatan Rakyat coalition to victory in the 14^th General Election over the Barisan Nasional coalition and took her place as Prime Minister in her own right.        

And that, Emmett and Terrina will tell Isabel and Sofie, was how Malaysia got its first female Prime Minister!