Now, as her father, who was re-elected to Parliament in 2008, faces a second sodomy trial that he denounces as a government conspiracy to thwart his political return, Ms. Nurul Izzah’s own political star is rising. Her recent victory has cemented her position as a key player in the People’s Justice Party, which her father founded and of which her mother, Wan Azizah Wan Ismail, is president. 

 Nurul Izzah Anwar in Kuala Lumpur. She is the youngest person to hold 

a leadership post in the party of her father, Anwar Ibrahim. 

KUALA LUMPUR — When Nurul Izzah Anwar was elected last month to one of the senior leadership posts in the People’s Justice Party at the age of 30, she became the youngest person to hold such a position in the Malaysian party’s history.

Her success in contesting one of the four vice president positions came just two years after she was elected to Parliament, but her public image has been more than a decade in the making and is inextricably tied to one ofMalaysia’s most recognizable politicians.

The eldest daughter of Anwar Ibrahim, Ms. Nurul Izzah traces her political birth back more than a decade, to when Mr. Anwar, a former deputy prime minister, was jailed on charges of sodomy and abuse of power.

The jailing of Mr. Anwar, who was released in 2004 after the sodomy charges were overturned, was a pivotal event in his transformation into the leader of Malaysia’s opposition. It also propelled Ms. Nurul Izzah, just 18 at the time of her father’s arrest, into public life, beginning with an impassioned plea for her father’s freedom before the U.N. Commission on Human Rights in Geneva.

Now, as her father, who was re-elected to Parliament in 2008, faces a second sodomy trial that he denounces as a government conspiracy to thwart his political return, Ms. Nurul Izzah’s own political star is rising. Her recent victory has cemented her position as a key player in the People’s Justice Party, which her father founded and of which her mother, Wan Azizah Wan Ismail, is president.

“I don’t think after going through 1998 it would be possible to retreat back to a nonpolitical life,” Ms. Nurul Izzah said, referring to her father’s first arrest.

While some analysts view her election to one of the party’s top posts as an important step toward emerging from her father’s shadow, others take it as a sign that Mr. Anwar’s family is engaging in dynastic politics.

In an interview in the opposition offices of the Malaysian Parliament, Ms. Nurul Izzah, the only one of Mr. Anwar’s six children to follow their parents into political life, insisted on her independence.

“Of course I love my father dearly, but at the end of the day, I am a legislator in my own right,” she said. “I have to fight my own wars, and I have my community and constituents to serve. I am answerable to them.”

She emphasized that she was not appointed but rather elected by the party’s members after campaigning against 17 contenders for the four vice-presidential posts.

“I am proud of the fact that we had to fight,” she said of the internal party contest. “I believe the fact that we have implemented direct elections as a way to choose our leaders was the best way to celebrate democracy in the party and to prove that no one particular individual can hold sway in terms of affecting the decisions or the outcomes.”

She also said that campaigning for her father’s freedom had been her own decision, and not the result of family pressure. “It was the right thing to do,” she said.

It was her work with human rights organizations as well as her father’s arrest, she said, that gave her an understanding of “the things that matter in Malaysia — the state of our judiciary, the state of our civil and political liberties,” and convinced her that politics offered an opportunity to effect change.

After earning a bachelor’s degree in engineering in Malaysia, Ms. Nurul Izzah completed a master’s in international relations at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore.

She returned to Malaysia in 2007 and was coordinating the People’s Justice Party’s activities in Lembai Pantai, a suburban Kuala Lumpur constituency, when the party asked her to run for Parliament in the 2008 election.

“I had just had a baby then, but in a sense, that was an important move, I felt, in trying to garner support from our young voters,” said Ms. Nurul Izzah, who has two children with her husband, Raja Ahmad Shahrir, who works for the management consulting firm Accenture.

She defeated the three-term incumbent Shahrizat Abdul Jalil, who is now the minister for women, family and community development, contributing to impressive gains by the opposition and, for the first time in nearly four decades, the governing party’s loss of the two-thirds parliamentary majority needed to amend the Constitution.

Her father’s most recent tribulations inevitably give rise to the question of whether Ms. Nurul Izzah could eventually step into his shoes as leader of the opposition.

As his second sodomy trial proceeds, the People’s Justice Party has said that there is a succession plan in the event that Mr. Anwar is jailed again. It has been a turbulent season for him. Last week, he was suspended from Parliament for six months for linking the government’s “1 Malaysia” national unity program with a similar campaign in Israel.

While Ms. Nurul Izzah said the party must “prepare for the worst,” she sidestepped the question of whether she could be a possible successor to her father. “It’s not about me or what role I would play, but what’s our strategy moving forward,” she said.

Ong Kian Ming, a political analyst and lecturer at UCSI University in Kuala Lumpur, believes that Mr. Anwar would continue to be the party’s de facto leader even if he returns to prison, and that the next step for Ms. Nurul Izzah would probably be the deputy presidency. If her mother stepped down from the presidency, the current deputy, Azmin Ali, would normally be next in line, but Ms. Nurul Izzah could always challenge him for the top job, Mr. Ong said.

“She’s at the forefront of a small group of leaders who can and will replace Anwar eventually,” he said.

Bridget Welsh, an associate professor of political science at Singapore Management University who taught Ms. Nurul Izzah at Johns Hopkins, said her leadership potential was evident early on. But despite the “small steps” Ms. Nurul Izzah has taken to distance herself from her father, Ms. Welsh said she was still “perceived rightly or wrongly as her father’s daughter” and must blaze her own political path.

Mr. Ong said that any critics within the party had so far kept any resentments about her rapid rise to themselves, and that the young politician had yet to be vigorously tested by internal or external opponents.

“She’s not really been put through the fire,” Mr. Ong said. “It will be interesting to see how she responds when that moment of political crisis comes about, and it will come.”

Ms. Nurul Izzah has repeatedly stressed the need to overcome ethnic and religious divisions in Malaysia, where tensions periodically flare, like the firebombing of places of worship early this year.

She has warned that Malaysia is at risk of becoming a “failed state” if it does not address such tensions and take on issues like the quality of the country’s universities, corruption and laws that prevent free speech.

While her rise through the party’s ranks has been rapid, overcoming such challenges is likely to require a sustained effort. But Ms. Nurul Izzah emphasizes that she is in for the long haul.

“In terms of promoting and advocating reform,” she said, “I think it should be a lifelong struggle.”

 By LIZ GOOCH, The New York Times

Nurul nampak ceria je.....Shamsidar nampak macam bermasalah je....... lu fikir le sendiri...

Mari kita kongsi cerita dari link ini....... Baca Di sini....

PETALING JAYA, 28 Nov - Naib presiden Parti KEADILAN Rakyat (KEADILAN) yang baru, Nurul Izzah Anwar berkata, rakyat akan memilih parti yang bermaruah seandainya pemimpin jujur dan berjuang berdasarkan prinsip nilai murni yang tinggi dan bukan berdasarkan personaliti sahaja.

“Kita mesti membezakan antara personaliti dan prinsip yang dibawa personaliti.

“Hanya prinsip dan bukannya personaliti yang mesti diinstitusikan di dalam parti kita,” katanya ketika menyampaikan ucapan penangguhan di Kongres KEADILAN hari ini.

Katanya, KEADILAN bersedia mempelajari apa yang berlaku daripada proses pemilihan yang baru berlangsung melalui pelaksanaan langkah-langkah susulan yang dapat meleraikan keresahan anggota.

Menurutnya lagi, KEADILAN berkebolehan seandainya meremajakan dan menawarkan kepimpinan yang mahir, beramanah dan berpegang teguh kepada prinsip dan asas perjuangan parti.

Sementara rakan sejawatannya, Fuziah Salleh juga turut menggariskan tiga peringatan kepada anggota sebelum yang dikatakan bersedia menghadapi pilihan raya umum ke-13 (PRU-13) tahun hadapan.

Beliau yang juga pengarah pilihan raya berkata, tersebut adalah mengarahkan jentera pilihan raya di negeri dan cabang mendaftar mengundi penyokong dan anggota sebelum 15 Disember ini.

“Kemudian membuat analisa di kawasan masing-masing, kerana pilihan raya adalah (melibatkan) angka. Ketiga, siapkan jentera pilihan raya di daerah mengundi.

“Insya-Allah, (kalau cukup tiga perkara) hujung tahun ini, boleh lah kita kata, kita boleh bersedia (dengan pilihan raya)… Kita harus bertindak,” katanya yang juga ahli parlimen Kuantan.

Manakala timbalan ketua menteri Pulau Pinang, Datuk Mansor Othman pula berkata, KEADILAN terus diserang kerana mempunyai kekuatan tersendiri dan dilihat sebagai parti masa depan.

Selain itu, katanya, mereka juga menyerang ketua umum KEADILAN dan Ketua Pembangkang, Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim kerana berjaya menyatupadukan rakyat Malaysia di bawah Pakatan Rakyat (Pakatan).

“Siapa sangka DAP boleh membawa bendera PAS, dan penyokong PAS membalut (diri mereka) dengan bendera DAP. Ini yang menakutkan mereka,” katanya.

Manakala Ahli Parlimen Batu, Tian Chua pula berkata, perjuangan KEADILAN adalah hasil daripada perjuangan rakyat yang tertindas.

-Malaysiakini-

Nurul Izzah Anwar adalah salah seorang yang akan berentap untuk menduduki salah satu daripada kerusi Naib Presiden Parti Keadilan Rakyat.

Syabas Nurul kerana berani membuat pilihan untuk bertanding dalam usia yang muda. Sememangnya Parti Keadilan memerlukan lebih banyak muka-muka baru daripada golongan muda. Kita mahu PKR sentiasa kelihatan 'muda' dan vibrant. Gandingan generasi tua dan muda akan menjadikan PKR lebih uumph dan ramai orang akan lebih berselera dan terliur untuk mendekatinya dan menyertainya.

Jadi, langkah yang diambil oleh Nurul Izzah Anwar amat dialu-alukan. Semoga dia akan beroleh kejayaan, insyaAllah.

Namun, anggota PKR yang kini diberi peluang untuk memilih para pemimpin mereka, jangan melihat Nurul sebagai anak kepada Anwar Ibrahim dan Wan Azizah. Jangan pilih dia berdasarkan faktor itu. Lihat kemampuan dan potensi yang ada pada batang tubuhnya.

Setelah berkecimpung dalam dunia politik dalam usia yang begitu muda, Nurul telah memperlihatkan kebolehannya yang luar biasa. Dia seorang anak muda yang berpelajaran tinggi. Bukan itu saja.... dia juga bijak. Dia juga berani. Pengalaman yang dia lalui sebagai anak seorang tokoh politik tanah air yang telah melalui saat-saat kegemilangan dan kemudiannya jatuh dalam keadaan yang begitu hina, telah mematangkannya.

Pengalaman inilah yang telah menjadikan semangatnya begitu kental dalam mengharungi arus politik yang bergelora dan berbadai. Dari seorang puteri reformasi, kini dia bergelar YB. Yes... YB yang ada integriti dan yang ada reputasi. Dia ikhlas dalam perjuangan untuk membawa Malaysia ke satu era baru yang lebih adil, lehih sejahtera dan lebih harmony.

Namun.... sebagai manusia, dia tidak maksum. Dia juga ada kelemahan.... sama ada dia sedar atau tidak sedar. Kalau ada apa-apa kelemahan yang dia sedar.... dia kena muhasabah diri dan memperbetul kelemahan tersebut. Tetapi, jika kelemahan itu tidak disedarinya.... maka kita perlu membantu dia untuk menyedarkannya. Kita tak mahu sebutir mutiara berharga, kecundang begitu saja.

Dan.... jika dia benar-benar ikhlas untuk menjadi seorang pemimpin, dia kena terima kritikan dan teguran dengan lapang dada dan cuba atasi kelemahan- kelemahan tersebut.

Sebagai seorang pemimpin politik, Nurul Izzah kelihatan terlalu elitis. Pergaulannya dengan rakyat bawahan kurang mesra. She lacks hubungan inter-personal dengan rakyat marhaen. Jika turun melawat kawasan pun macam terpaksa, semacam ber'cinta' jer nak pergi. Kekandang mencari alasan untuk elak daripada pergi.... especially di kawasan rakyat miskin such as di kawasan Kerinchi dan Pantai Dalam. Ini rungutan dan keluhan yang kita dengar daripada rakyat di kawasan tersebut.

Berbeza pula dengan kawasan Bangsar. Di situ, Nurul is very popular. Mungkin itu kawasan elite. Jadi... dia lebih selesa dan boleh mesra dengan rakyat di situ. Kalau turun ke kawasan tersebut, no problem punyer.

Itulah persepsi rakyat dan para pengundi di kawasan Lembah Pantai. Penampilan serta gerak lakunya yang terlalu elitis terlalu obvious. Aha... inilah kelemahannya. Nurul tidak dilihat sebagai pemimpin rakyat. Well dear... you've got to change. Be more-people friendly. Jangan selektif dalam menunjukkan kemesraan kepada rakyat. Treat them equally kerana mereka ialah pengundi anda.

Rakyat faham... sebagai MP daripada parti pembangkang, tangan kita terikat untuk menjalankan tanggung jawab dengan sempurna. Tapi... apa salahnya jika selalu menjenguk mereka dan bertanya khabar. Be there to show that you care. Keprihatinan, kehadiran anda dan kemersraan anda, will make a lot of difference. Tak kenal tak cinta. Kalau kenal mesra... rakyat lagi cinta dan gembira gilerr-gilerr!!

Banyak program kecil-kecil boleh diadakan untuk memupuk kemesraan dalam hubungan pemimpin-rakyat..... tak semestinya mega-mega program yang glamor-glamor. Yang penting, kemesraan wujud dengan rakyat marhaen and most importantly... anda akan dilihat sebagai seorang pemimpin rakyat. Aha... pemimpin yang mesra rakyat. Ingat.... masa depan politik anda berada di tangan rakyat yang menggundi anda.

Kalau Zaid Ibrahim menggunakan tag line... 'Zaid untuk Rakyat', apa kata Nurul pun guna tagline... 'Nurul untuk Rakyat' or gunakan some other tagline yang lebih gempak. Ini akan memberi persepsi yang positif kepada imej diri.

Well... Nurul, anda sebutir pertama yang sudah kelihatan kilauannya. Rakyat perlukan permata seumpama ini, agar kilauannya terpancar untuk menerangi bumi Malaysia yang semakin gelap masa depannya di bawah UMNO/BN.

Perubahan mesti bermula dalam diri kita dulu. Barulah perubahan yang ingin kita bawa untuk parti dan negara akan lebih bermakna. Good luck and all the best to you dan juga kepada semua yang akan bertanding.

Sumber:-Mo3M