Dr M and Anwar, in the words of Marina and Nurul Izzah
In the twists and turns of their fathers’ political careers spanning over three decades now, Marina and Nurul Izzah found themselves forced into the spotlight many times, and are sometimes expected to be apologetic for the actions of their fathers.
Clara Chooi, TMI
Their fathers are sworn enemies but Marina Mahathir and Nurul Izzah Anwar, having both come into their own as adults and opinion leaders, are today quite comfortable sitting side by side for coffee and a chinwag.
One a well-known civil rights leader and the other an influential politician in a party advocating justice for the people, there have been many times when both women found themselves sharing the same stage as they preached their respective causes.
Marina and Nurul Izzah also share another thing in common – their fathers, Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad and Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, were once a tag team in the government, when Dr Mahathir was prime minister and Anwar his deputy, the country’s two most prominent positions.
Dr Mahathir was Malaysia’s fourth and longest-serving prime minister, a post he held for 22 years from 1981 to 2003.
His bitter rivalry with Anwar started in the late 1990s when Anwar started taking bolder steps to assert his presence as the prime minister-in-waiting – moves that many have said had caused his 1998 sacking and six-year jail term following charges of corruption and sodomy.
In the twists and turns of their fathers’ political careers spanning over three decades now, Marina and Nurul Izzah found themselves forced into the spotlight many times, and are sometimes expected to be apologetic for the actions of their fathers.
The women, in a joint interview published in Clive Magazine’s June edition, agree that being in the spotlight and always facing public judgment, is what they share in common.
But Marina appears to express disdain for this, saying it gets “tiring” to be constantly talked about in reference to her parents.
“I get really annoyed when people throw the ‘blood is thicker than water’ argument at me,” she says in the interview published verbatim.
“I don’t care what anyone says about my dad, they’re entitled to their own opinions but if it is truly unfair, I will say something.
“When I get the ‘blood is thicker than water’ routine, it’s like ‘I got no brains, is it?’” she adds.
Nurul Izzah notes her acceptance of always having to face the court of public opinion.
“After some time, you just stop thinking about what people think because there’s nothing I can do to change that,” she tells Clive Magazine.
Asked if she had ever had to distance herself from her father in order to carve her own name, Nurul Izzah, who is vice-president of PKR, a party in which her father is the de facto leader and her mother, Datuk Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail, the president, says: “Sometimes you do things because it’s right.
“You should be comfortable and accept that this is my father. It’s important because it has shaped me into who I am today.”
According to the women, one of the best advice their fathers have given them as they were growing up appear to be the same: to remain true to themselves.
Marina says the advice from Dr Mahathir came when she was about to be sent off to the United States after Form Five to stay with an American family whom they had hosted when she was 16.
“… before I left he had to give me the talk,” Marina recalls.
“You’re going over there, it’s a different culture but we are who we are,” she says, quoting her father.
“Also ‘to remain true to yourself’. That’s always been something I kept close to me,” she adds.
