PENANTI, Aug 22 - The dark grey clouds are rolling in fast from the Chinese cemetery across the road when Nurul Izzah Anwar steps into the triple-storeyed Yayasan Aman, PKR's main action station in this neck of the woods.
The Lembah Pantai parliamentarian had arrived in town over a week ago to campaign alongside her father, Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim. But neither the punishing schedule nor negative news bombarding the party had worn her down.
She looks fresh in a pale yellow floral baju kurung. And then she smiles the million watt-smile so similar to her father's, whose face was plastered on a larger-than-life banner right behind her.
Nurul Izzah is no virgin campaigner. Beneath her sweet exterior is a veteran who has earned her stripes during the controversial Ijok by-election in April last year when tensions ran high between the Barisan Nasional and the opposition.
Then heavily pregnant, she continued to walk from house to house, campaigning for the ideals of the party.
"As an MP, there are more challenges this time around. It's more tiring than before," said Izzah, as she is fondly called, before describing the exhausting number of programmes she had to ensure were up and running in her constituency.
To be her father's pillar of strength in this mother-of-all by-elections, she has had to sacrifice many of her own interests, such as a forum discussing the University and University Colleges Act 1971 (Auku) organised by the University of Malaya in Kuala Lumpur last Saturday. Tony Pua, the DAP member of Parliament for Petaling Jaya Utara, went in her stead in the end.
"There needs to be changes to the Act... students should be allowed space and freedom in the decision-making process of the country," she said, explaining that her affinity with the issue stemmed from her own experiences back as an undergraduate during the early, headier days of Reformasi.Zeroing in on the current debate for University Technology Mara to set a quota to include non-Muslim enrolment, she commented that the issue had got out of hand to the extent that the vice-chancellor wanted to charge Selangor Menteri Besar Tan Sri Abdul Khalid Ibrahim for mooting the idea.
"I find it preposterous at the very least," cried Izzah.
As preposterous as the idea that PKR's fight is simply about putting Anwar on the seat of power in Putrajaya?
"This campaign is not just about Anwar Ibrahim per se," states Izzah, Anwar's eldest child.
"My father is an agent of change. That's one of the reasons why I undertook it myself. The campaign is not just specifically on one individual but for the larger mission of reform and to ensure that PKR continues," she adds.
"We can't do it for one man, but for the ideals, the party and the future of Malaysia. I really believe we can change things if we participate."
Izzah's face is earnest; her voice rings clear as crystal.
"Look at the make-up of our supporters. Now we've got a coalescence of races. It's not perfect," she notes, "But it's encouraging. I hate it when people use racial polemics. We should rise above that."
Because of her special position as a parliamentarian and her relation to Anwar, she sees herself as playing an important role, not only to highlight the party's policies, but to be the human connector between the icon and the grassroots.
"I came to Permatang Pauh in 1995, when I was 15," she recounts. She remembers being politically awakened then, observing Anwar's dealings with the grassroots.
"He was very in touch with the people here," she says. Like Anwar, she is very expressive with her hands, and she starts fanning herself in an effort to calm down enough to voice the turbulent emotions visible in the flickering of her eyes.
"It's sad, it's heart-warming, it's inspirational," she says, after a moment.
"I think he's gone through a lot and I hope the people here can see that. That's my role, to lead the support...in the face of the sodomy allegations."
But, she stresses, she is over the nightmare of 1998. Sodomy 1 is no longer a bogeyman for her, or her sisters and brother.
"We know our father. We believe in him and his innocence. There's no question of it haunting us that way," says Izzah.
"But justice must be served. At the end of day, how much more does the BN want to villify him? There are so many other things at stake!"
Like the rest of her family, even her quiet and unassuming mother, Datuk Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail, the fighting force is strong in Izzah.
"We're going to fight them. We want his name to be cleaned. He's spent six years in prison! This feeling is anger, not that we have doubts of his innocence."
There are times, of course, says Izzah, when she feels like leaving all the politics behind.
"Sometimes, it's crossed my mind, to leave everything behind to lead a serene, peaceful life," she admits. Narrating the trip she and the family made to the US last year, before the March 8 general elections, before they were certain they would win it, Izzah tells how she was sorely tempted to just stay there. But her father was there to remind her of her duty as a Malaysian.
"He said, 'You have to come back!' ...You have to appreciate the fact that people have accepted you into a position of power. We need to work on democracy. We must participate in efforts to improve governance and judiciary for the stakeholders."
And that is why she is standing her ground firmly even as her family, her party, and the Pakatan Rakyat coalition continue to face negative press that may have damaged the campaigning efforts as far away as Permatang Pauh.
On the allegations of hooliganims by PKR members and supporters at several events on the ground, including on nomination day, when a scuffle ended with two press photographers being injured, Izzah says, "It really perturbed me. People do not appreciate the lengths we go to trying to be objective and professional."
Her comments run on pretty similar lines as expressed by her political compatriots.
"My father was very angry. During the briefings before ceramahs with supporters, we always emphasise we don't condone violence, and to help the journalists who are only carrying out their job, even if we don't agree with their reports.
"But having said that, we did an internal investigation. We found the perpetrators were not members," Izzah explains of the follow-up after the Guang Ming Daily incident, in which a female photographer lodged a police report claiming she had been assaulted by several persons at an Anwar ceramah. Others alleged the hooligans were PKR supporters.
"Sometimes, people are so quick to jump to conclusions."
What if the perpetrator was proven to be a member or supporter to have acted violently, carried away by emotion in the heat of the moment?
"We will not tolerate such behaviour. Certainly, actions will be taken. No question about that. But this cannot be used as political tool to blemish against our party," Izzah emphasises, exhibiting a maturity that belies her 27 years.
Asked to comment on the perceived dissension within Pakatan Rakyat, she notes that their alliance is different from the BN's.
"It's better to have issues talked about openly. At least it's transparent, rather than putting up a brave front when the problem is not solved."
Referring to Zulkifli Nordin, the PKR MP and Chong Eng, the DAP MP, who recently had a heated tiff inside the Dewan Rakyat over a Bar Council forum on conversion to Islam, Izzah noted, "Even Zulkifli and Chong Eng, they could talk to each other after that. Of course, for me, I prefer if they had not said things in Parliament."
However, she says she has not seen any "adverse effects" from the scandals, or attempts at scandal, aimed at discrediting her father and PKR's reputation on the ground.
"We have a close relationship with the party machinery in Permatang Pauh and locals get to know our campaigning machinery quite well," says Izzah.
"Instead, people are questioning the timing of the PKR arrests," referring to the recent arrest of PKR members allegedly implicated in the assault against the media, "It was too blatant."
-TMI
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