VETERAN journalist and blogger Datuk A. Kadir Jasin felt compelled to comment on PKR’s vice-president Nurul Izzah Anwar contesting the party’s deputy president post at the PKR polls on May 23 even as twice former premier Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad refrained from doing so on grounds of “family issue”.
Amid family elements, nepotism – and possibly an Anwar family political intrigue – the oft-perceived Dr Mahathir loyalist deemed that there is also an element of public interest at stake given “with the will of fate, Nurul Izzah could end up becoming Malaysia’s first female Prime Minister (PM)”.
“If she’s destined to win the PKR deputy president post and it’s destined that something untoward happens to Anwar (PMX Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim) now or in the future, there’ll be quarters who would propose that she replaces her father,” penned Kadir in his latest Facebook post.
“This has already happened with his mother Datuk Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail. When Anwar went to jail for the second time in 2015, Dr Wan Azizah took over his position in the party.
“When Dr Mahathir’s Pakatan Harapan (PH) won the 2018 General Election, there was an attempt to block him from becoming PM by appointing Dr Wan Azizah. But the attempt from outside PH failed.”
Ascension of Puteri Reformasi
Towards this end, the National Journalism Laureate reckoned that veteran political observers and Anwar’s contemporaries when he was in UMNO would certainly not be surprised by the “manoeuvre” of promoting Nurul Izzah.
“It is similar to the maneuver of Anwar’s camp to remove the late Abdul Ghafar Baba in the 1993 UMNO election,” recounted Kadir.
“With solid support for Nurul Izzah, Rafizi (PKR’s incumbent deputy president Datuk Seri Rafizi Ramli) can only hope to be a fallen hero from unrequited loyalty.
“The mass media quoted PKR deputy information chief 1, Datuk Seri R. Ramanan as saying that more than 150 out of 222 PKR divisions – or more than two-thirds – have expressed support for Nurul Izzah’s candidacy.”
While Rafizi who is currently the Economy Minister could end up leaving PKR “to become a staunch critic of Anwar like many other otai (slang for “veteran”) reformists”, Kadir foresees that Nurul Izzah a.k.a. the Puteri Reformasi “will always be referred to as Anwar’s daughter and associated with nepotism”.
“Ironically, nepotism and cronyism are her own father’s battle cry,” asserted the former group editor-in-chief of mainstream New Straits Times (NST).
“Whether she will become another PM’s daughter who successfully ascends to the throne like (now incarcerated) Datuk Seri Najib Razak or finds herself stuck half-way like Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein and Datuk Seri Mukhriz Mahathir, only time will tell.
“Whatever the case is, we cannot delay too long to make the transition from the post-World War II generation to the generations that follow suit. Our political leadership is getting old and trapped in destructive personal politics.” – May 16, 2025
Main image credit: Nurul Izzah Anwar/X
