Nurul Izzah was forced to make too many concessions

I was the first person in my family to attend a ceramah. In May 2013, I asked two of my non-political friends to follow me to see Nurul Izzah Anwar. Their parents thought I was crazy, not the least because I had chosen to go to a low-cost housing area – an Umno stronghold in Lembah Pantai – out of ignorance.

To convince my friends, I showed them a clip of Nurul Izzah speaking at the KL Chinese Assembly Hall, where she talked about “Zaman Edan – A Generation of Ludicrousness”, because a wrong was made to seem right, and black was made to seem white.

I bought into Nurul Izzah’s dream of a fairer, cleaner, wiser society. Even when the rain poured over our heads as we stood at the narrow alleyway, we saw something special in her.

The Umno troublemakers tried to sabotage her speech by pulling off the sound system. She didn’t waver, she raised her fist into the air, and with a voice that reverberated against the walls of the concrete flats, she thrice let out the most forceful chant that defined her life: Reformasi.

A teenager in 1998

As the months went by, I learned about Nurul Izzah’s story.

The most difficult part was to try to walk in her shoes and exacting how she must have felt. In 1998, an 18-year-old woman in university was forced into the limelight when she witnessed first-hand the cruelty of power and the heartlessness of politics.

She was forced to go around the world to explain how her father was unjustly incarcerated, at venues big and small, to audiences loyal and sceptical.

When most adolescents spent their time on their interests and were given latitude to figure out who they are, Nurul Izzah was forced to give up her youth for a cause.

As the daughter of Anwar Ibrahim, she had to carry the torch wherever she went. Some people used her, some people left her, some even betrayed her; but she continued to push the rock up the hill with Sisyphus-like determination.

When the opposition was facing its most difficult time, she was called to battle for seats that no one dared to take on. Twice at Lembah Pantai, she had to defeat two giants, Shahrizat Jalil (photo) and Raja Nong Chik, with sheer will and raw strength.

When the opposition needed to devise a bitter strategy of working with Mahathir, she was asked to put aside her history and just accept it, as though 20 years of suffering could be reduced to an academic matter. But she swallowed her pride and went to London to save Pakatan Harapan by convincing Mahathir to stay on.

When the coalition had finally secured victory, she was called to step aside. The high but empty principle of “nepotism” seems to preoccupy mediocre minds. That somehow principles are uncritical and unspecific.

Even when she deserved a ministerial post more than anyone, nepotism ruled her out. Even when she had won the legitimacy of the party by securing the highest vote for the vice-president’s post, claims of nepotism for her appointment as Penang state chairperson did not end. Maybe the unexceptional will never be able to understand exceptions.

Mahathir, a 'changed man'

Like the rest of us, Nurul Izzah was gracious enough to give Mahathir a second chance. At that time, we tried to convince the Reformasi loyalists that Mahathir was either a changed man, or that the component parties will guard against any authoritarian instincts that he had displayed in his previous tenure as prime minister.

But now we know the past has not left us – it has only taken a different form. Besides creating a submissive cabinet of personalities deferential and self-abasing, there have been obvious reminders of history.

There was Rahim Noor, there was Rahim Thamby Chik, there was a third national car(of which lies of government funding still await rebuttal and clarity), there was the crooked bridge, there was the past, and there will be more of the same to come.

When all of these surfaced, of course, Nurul Izzah was asked to accept them and think of the “big picture” that has become increasingly opaque.

Outsiders may understand that there are many compromises that one must make to succeed in politics – but how far can conviction and idealism stretch before one evolves into another person altogether?

Final straw

The final straw must have been the defections from Umno to Bersatu. The exodus represents a complete betrayal of the people’s trust and disrespect of the democratic process.

Our suspicion of Mahathir just intending to ride on the opposition wave to remove Najib before regrouping his old Umno allies into his party again has finally materialised.

I could accept bipartisan cooperation with the opposition, even with Umno, but I cannot accept the acceptance of large numbers of former Umno members to the point of virtually altering the election outcome.

Only a fool would buy into the notion that a “filtering committee” to check a former Umno member’s involvement in corruption would sufficiently circumvent the fundamental betrayal of the people’s trust.

It was never Umno that was the problem, it was the Umno culture of making wrong seem right, making black seem white. The problem has always been, and will always be, the “Zaman Edan” culture that we bring from our past.

Again, Nurul Izzah was asked to accept this. I think, this time, she just didn’t want to take it any longer.

---

JAMES CHAI works at a law firm. His voyage in life is made less lonely with a family of deep love, friends of good humour and teachers of selfless giving. This affirms his conviction in the common good of people: the better angels of our nature. E-mail him at jameschai.mpuk@gmail.com -Mkini