After Nurul Izzah, the daughter of the country’s next prime minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, quit all her party posts last year, she is now resigning from the PAC and says she will not contest in the next general elections.
The announcement shows that she has indeed lost her faith in the Pakatan Harapan government.
Are Nurul’s allegations baseless? Let’s look at each of them together.
Firstly, she accused the PH government of making slow progress in reform, which is unfortunately true.
Each time the government comes under the pressure, it will back off in the last minute. For instance, it has suddenly withdrawn from ratifying ICERD because of the opposition from Umno, PAS and rightist organizations.
PH has also pulled back from recognizing the UEC certificate it promised, just because the government has to take care of the feelings of the Malays.
PM Mahathir has allowed Ronald Kiandee, who left Umno for PPBM, to continue to serve as PAC chairman against the coalition’s election pledge. The decision has since drawn tremendous backlash from the public.
PAC member cum PKR’s MP for Subang Wong Chen claims that he may follow the footsteps of Nurul Izzah if Tun Mahathir is insistent.
Under the pressure, PM Mahathir finally agrees to pick a suitable opposition rep to replace Ronald Kiandee.
How to build a New Malaysia if the government is not bold enough to carry out the reforms and is constantly reversing its earlier decisions? Young leaders within the ruling coalition are already unhappy with this, in particular Nurul.
PH is supposed to be a multiracial coalition but under the manipulating hands of PPBM, bumi agenda has been launched just to please the Malay voters.
This clashes with Nurul’s political struggle in PKR all these years.
Nurul is also critical about the increasing trend of religious conservatism in the country.
As a matter of fact, PH itself has not introduced any Islamization measures. However, it has bowed to the pressure of conservatives, for instance on the issue of child marriage.
The new government’s position is not firm enough and has so far not honored its election pledge of banning child marriage.
The PH government has also failed to protect he LGBT community.
Giving in to the demands of conservatives will only emboldened them further while suppressing the voices of moderates and limiting the freedom and rights of Muslim women and the LGBT community.
The connivant attitude and failure to hold interfaith dialogues of the previous BN administration have boosted religious prejudices and arrogance. By right the new PH government should strive to break the walls and encourage interfaith dialogues and promote exchanges to enhance mutual understanding.
The initiative by minister in the prime minster’s department Mujahid Yusof Rawa to show support for victims of Christchurch mosque shootings in New Zealand should serve as a good start to spread the positive message of love.
Nurul should have predicted today’s situation even before GE14 when Tun Mahathir and other PH leaders including Nurul herself laid down their differences for political interest but have shied away from questions relating to principles, and have opted to sacrifice their principles after winning the elections just to remain in power.
The same thing happens to the opposition. For example, to win the Malay votes in Semenyih by-election, Umno acting president Mohamad Hasan said the Malays feel like visitors in their own country because there are too many “penumpang” in the Parliament.
But now, to win back the hearts of some 46% non-Malay voters in Rantau, he vowed that he was not a racist.
If our politicians are not willing to change themselves, how do we expect them to transform this country?
Nurui’s disappointment is easily understandable. Instead of quitting out of frustration, perhaps she should stand up and go down to the grassroots to change the political climate from bottom up and transform this country.
MYSINCHEW
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