Nurul the real winner

ANALYSIS
By JOCELINE TAN

Despite going against her father’s wishes, Nurul Izzah Anwar has emerged as a serious player in the contentious PKR elections.

A DAP Member of Parliament who bumped into Nurul Izzah Anwar in Parliament recently teased her about being the real winner in the PKR elections.

New veep: Lembah Pantai MP Nurul Izzah Anwar has risen from someone seen as part of the Anwar Ibrahim family to being her own person.

When the PKR polls closed on Sunday, Nurul Izzah had won the vice-president’s post with the highest number of votes, surpassing other more senior figures in the party such as Dr Mansor Othman, who is Penang Deputy Chief Minister.

She has emerged as a serious player in PKR, elevated from someone seen as part of the Anwar Ibrahim family to her own person.

The Lembah Pantai MP flashed a big smile but did not say much. She knew the DAP politician was alluding to the fact that the elections, especially the acrimonious contest for the deputy president’s post, had damaged the party and its top leaders, including her own father Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim.

But Nurul Izzah definitely felt quite uncomfortable when the DAP politician joked that she should watch out because the incoming deputy president, Azmin Ali, would now see her as a threat in the party.

Azmin, on his part, was keen to paper over reports of a rift between him and Nurul Izzah and portrayed her as the future of the party when speaking to reporters in Parliament yesterday.

But the fact is that Nurul Izzah and Azmin are barely on speaking terms. The last time they had a real conversation was when Azmin cornered her in Parliament a day before it became clear that she would be backing out of the deputy president’s contest.

The month-long PKR polls has been marred by allegations of polls irregularities, a dramatic pullout by Datuk Zaid Ibrahim, protests, and even instances of chair throwing.

On top of this, only about 10% of the 500,000 members in the party turned out to vote. It was not a good show and the numbers were far below what party leaders had hoped for.

The party’s first one man-one vote election has been a bruising experience to say the least. Zaid’s allegations of vote-rigging and the crony politics have had an impact because whatever one thinks of his political style, Zaid did carry a certain credibility.

The campaign has dented the image of the party, revealed the flaws of its adviser and hurt the standing of those closely associated with him, especially Azmin and president Datuk Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail.

But Nurul Izzah, Anwar’s eldest daughter, has somehow escaped the crossfire. Even her association with Zaid, who is now persona non grata in the party, failed to set her back.

The official results will only be announced at the party’s national congress this weekend but those now in a clear lead to join Anwar’s daughter as VPs are party activist Tian Chua, who is a good 2,000 votes behind Nurul Izzah, election director Fuziah Salleh and Dr Mansor.

The main casualty in the VP race is incumbent R. Sivarasa, who is somewhere in eighth place. N. Gobalakrishnan, who had aligned with Zaid against Azmin, managed to emerge sixth.

Insiders regard Nurul Izzah as the real winner because she won despite defying her father who had thought she was too junior for the VP post. She had also wanted to go for the deputy president’s post at one point until her father put his foot down.

PKR is about to end up with an overwhelmingly Malay leadership despite being a multi-racial party. Chua is the only non-Malay among the elected VPs whereas there were two non-Malays in the previous line-up.

Only six non-Malays made it to the 20-seat supreme council compared to eight previously.

But party secretary-general Saifuddin Nasution said half of the incoming supreme council comprised new faces and there was a good representation from peninsular and east Malaysia.

“Datuk Zaid stood for reform issues. But in the end, the party went for Azmin because he represented stability and continuity. That was the priority for members,” said Saifuddin.

Azmin got more than 15,000 votes to take the deputy president’s post, making mincemeat out of his rival Mustaffa Kamil Ayob who got only about 4,000 votes.

The gloves finally came off for Azmin when he slammed Zaid as someone who had been given lots of opportunities in the party but failed from day one. He said there was no place in the party for traitors and he emphasised the need for loyalty and teamwork for the party to succeed.

Azmin will probably be flexing his muscles in the days to come now that he is where he has always wanted to be.

In hindsight, some said that Anwar should have made an attempt to stay above the fray or at least not show his preferences so clearly. Names he had rooted for did very well in the polls.

Apart from Azmin, he had wanted Dr Mansor as a VP in order to legitimise his post as Deputy Chief Minister of Penang. He also lent his weight to the charismatic ulama Dr Badrul Amin Baharon whose religious credentials are important to the party and who emerged tops in the contest for a seat in the supreme council.

In coming out so clearly for Azmin and these selected few, it will now be more challenging for him to re-unite the party.