In 2018, after Harapan’s win in GE-14, Dr Mahathir Mohamad became prime minister and Malaysians were full of hope because many people thought that he was a changed man. We assumed, wrongly as it turned out, that Mahathir was going to put right all the things that he had done wrong, during his first tenure as PM.
Sadly, three months after being PM, he reverted to type. The mask slipped and we saw the real Mahathir in control.
Now let’s imagine that six weeks after becoming PM (ie June/July 2018), Mahathir appointed his daughter, Marina, to be his senior economics and financial adviser.
Marina has a degree from a English university, has vast experience with civil society and with working in an NGO.
How would you have reacted? What is your response especially if you were a Harapan supporter and more importantly a keen admirer of Anwar Ibrahim?
I think you would be livid.
What if Dr Mahathir justified Marina’s appointment by saying that hers was an unpaid role because the appointment was not to misuse power or to enrich her? Marina is a woman of independent means and does not need the money.
The reaction? Harapan followers would go berserk.
They would still disagree with Mahathir and they would tell him that he could not justify Marina’s appointment or dimiss their concerns about a family member being given a plum post.
What if Mahathir insisted that Marina would NOT have any power and that she is NOT able to grant projects worth hundreds of millions of ringgits to other family members or friends?
Your reaction? My guess is you would still disagree.
You know that she need not dictate policy or be in charge of granting contracts, but she would be the gate keeper to all who want access to the PM and that is POWER in itself.
If you disagree with Mahathir as the hypothetical example, so let’s choose the DPM, Zahid Hamidi.
If Zahid had appointed his eldest daughter, the full-throated Nuruldhidayah as economics adviser, would you have agreed? I doubt it…
Right now, you are so scared that PN and PAS will rule, that you are prepared to sacrifice principles and integrity by closing one eye, in fact some of you close both eyes.
So, we thought we got rid of Umno-Baru nonsense BUT it appears, some of you are happy to accept a lesser version of Umno-Baru rule.
So, please stick to principles and integrity and you will not go wrong.
You MUST teach your politicians the right path because if you give them an inch, they will demand a mile from you. And then where will we be….back to square one kan? Betul tak?
I am unsure of Marina’s talents and skills in government. Nurul Izzah, former MP, etc., etc., is well known and I assume reasonably well respected *in her own right*. If the PM blandly advised her over a family dinner to seek work somewhere and wished her well in that, what do you think would happen? She is branded the “PM’s daughter”. Applying for any position immediately puts her in front of non-PM-daughters. An invidious position for her and her father.
If she is respected in the position she has taken on then so be it. When nepotism appoints wastrels and idiots to prominent positions then it should be condemned. But this appointment? She will do well.