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Destiny's daughter seeks her destiny

I am repeating this article I posted yesterday at the request of several on this list which wanted it repeated.

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Miss Nurul Izzah Anwar, the 23-year-old quiet, shy, almost taciturn, eldest daughter of the jailed former deputy prime minister and UMNO deputy president, has blosommed into a young, assertive, confident woman and politician in her own right. She would have ended her life as an engineer and housewife, as her father wanted her to be. He had kept her mother and her sister in the background, but his politically motivated incarceration changed all that. Her mother, Datin Seri Wan Azizah Wan Ismail, marched right into politics, became president of a political party, Parti Keadilan Nasional (KeADILan), succeeded her husband as member of Parliament for Permatang Pauh. In between her undergraduate studies, she helped her mother in her political campaigns, and soon acquired a persona of her own. She is the darling of the crowd now. And this begins to worry the more formidable women in UMNO.

She is now in her final year of studies, and she is now being considered for an active political role. The Wanita UMNO deputy leader and federal cabinet minister, Datin Shahrizat Jalil, is so worried at the prospect of her standing in the Lembah Pantai constituency that she has sent feelers to KeADILan to ask her not to. Datin Shahrizat who would have lost Lembah Pantai in 1999 if her KeADILan opponent was more ruthless and disallowed a ballot box that came in hours after the other ballots had been counted; indeed, she was already crying and praying when it was clear she was out. She need not have worried. Those in KeADILan who want her in Parliament want her to be a giant killer. They want her to come in with a bang. For that, defeating someone like Datin Shahrizat would not do. They have set her sights on Penang itself, her hometown, and Kepala Batas, in particular. Kepala Batas is the parliamentary constituency of the deputy prime minister and the putative prime minister after Dr Mahathir. She probably could not win there, but it would not be an easy victory for Dato' Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi either.

They reason, quite rightly, that she would have the quiet support of those who do not want to see Dato' Seri Abdullah as the next prime minister. Though he is the cock of the hoop in Kepala Batas, he would have to fight harder for his turf than if he faced another. For the Malay crowd come in droves to hear her speak, is sympathetic to her plight of being a victim in her father's plight. She had had her scholarship put on hold, and faced impediments normal girls her age would not have to cope with. And she not only coped so brilliantly but carved a public persona for her as the daughter of Destiny. And she cannot now disappear into the bosom of her family now that she has completed her studies. This daughter of Destiny now seeks her own destiny. She goes after her father's tormenters. She and her mother are the most effective crowd pullers in Malaysia today. And she attracts the young as Putera UMNO leader Azalina Othman Said never could.

This frightens UMNO, especially amongst the Wanita leaders. It is not only Datin Shahrizat who fears challenges like this. The Wanita UMNO leader and federal cabinet minister, Datin Rafidah Aziz, also cannot shake off the probability that a popular PAS woman politician could well take her on. They are vulnerable. Politics in UMNO and the National Front is so fraught with danger that defeat is a final end to a political career in a party that is a shadow of what it once was. Long used to having their own way, they suddenly find that they are not as popular as they thought they are. Now they cannot go to their constituencies without unwelcome questions asked of them. And all it needs to shake them off their stupor is to have a stray wind that suggest they would be challenged by forces they could not control. And this in a political party its leaders say is in absolute control. But battles are often lost for want of a nail. Would Miss Nurul Izzah then plunge into battle? She might or she might not. But the odds are she would.

M.G.G. Pillai
pillai@mgg.pc.