Is Nurul Izzah the one?

Opinion: Is Nurul Izzah the one?


1 May 2025 • 8:00 AM MYT


TheRealNehruism
Writer. Seeker. Teacher

Image credit: Malay Mail


I have always believed that one of the main reasons why our country is mired in such issues as corruption, racial and religious tension and exploitation is because our previous generation, which is the generation that has been ruling the country for that last 20 or 30 years, is a defective generation.


A nation, or a civilisation, will go through different phases in its life time. At one point, it will be rising, at another, it will be consolidating and at another, it will be declining. While we have much to learn about the values and worldviews of the generation that manned our nation at the point where we were rising or consolidating, the values and worldview of the what the generation that led us as we declined should right just be treated as a warning or a cautionary tale.


In the way that I see it, our previous generation – who are in the 70s or 80s or above today – are the generation that brought about the decline of our nation. These were a corrupt, racially charged, exploitative generation, whose ideas and values, will cause the deterioration and extinction of Malaysia, unless we ourselves of the influence that they have on us.


What I am saying here is not new – we all know it - it is because our current Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim knew it that he launched the reformasi movement and it is because we all know it, that we have booted out the previous government in 2018 and 2022, which had ruled the country since independence.


Despite changing movements in 2018 and 2022, we still have not fully resolved the issue, because it is the still geriatric leaders from the previous generation that are still ruling our country today.


If we want to get our country back on track, what we need to do is put these geriatric batch to pasture and somehow get the younger generation in charge. At the same time, we need reacquaint ourselves with the characteristics, values and worldview of the earlier generation, that brought about the independence to the country, took us out of poverty and established us as a nation of respect in the assembly of nations, while at the same, take more proactive steps, to discard the qualities, values and worldview that the previous generation has imbibed in us, which will only cause us to be racist, corrupt and self-absorbed, to the point that our country will continue to decline.


I think as of today, we already have few candidates from the younger generation that have the ability to take charge from the previous generation.


Rafizi, Khairy and Nurul Izzah – are probably the three top names in the list of potential leaders that we can count on to stop us from getting further and further lost in this quagmire of corruption, racism and exploitation, and find our way back to growth, happiness, peace, progress and abundance.


Of the three, I somehow have always favoured Nurul Izzah the most.


Much more than Khairy or Rafizi, there is something about her that makes me believe that she has within her the seeds of the Malaysia that is to come.


I never believed her father has it – I never believed that anyone in his generation has it, as a matter of fact – but amongst the younger batch of politicians, if you ask me who amongst them can we count on to wean ourselves away from the degenerate and debauched values and worldview that the previous generation have infected us with, reacquaint us back to the values of and characteristics of the earlier generation of Malaysians, that freed us from the yoke of colonisation, poverty and backwardness, and reinvent a new value system for Malaysians, that will allow us to get back on track in pursuit of happiness, peace, progress and abundance, my top bet is on Nurul Izzah.


There have been a series of reasons why I believe that she might be our best bet. The latest had to do with her view on how to handle a negative social media report about her recently. Her response, I believe, is the ideal response that all of us must try to emulate, in the social media and AI age that we live in today, to be able to pursue happiness, contentment and joy.


Unlike older politicians, who label any unflattering views that others have of them as lies, slander, fitna or defamatory content,, before proceeding to ask everybody from the police to MCMC to the courts to the editors of news outlets, to take action against those who do not see them as they wish to be seen, what Nurul Izzah did was just say forget about, when asked about what she thought should be done to social media influencer social media influencer Aliff Ahmad, who offered to make a detailed background check on her through a system called "Scrut Analytica" if his post received 20,000 shares on Facebook.


"I don't know him or ever met him. I'm also not sure how he earns an income, however, we have to support any effort that adheres to the law.


"But what is certain is that he should not be investigated just for making a challenge of a statement as was said about me," the PKR vice president said in a statement last week, to indicate that she did not consent to MCMC calling the influencer for questioning last week.


I think her view that “your opinion is a reflection of you, not a reflection of me”, is not only the right view that the young generation should have, it is also the view of a leader who has nothing to hide and who has faith in the people that she wishes to lead.


One of the defective aspect of the previous generation that currently rule the country, is that their penchant for threatening anyone with the courts or the instrument of states to stifle any unfavourable opinion that is made against them, is not only a sign of weakness, it betrays the true opinion that that these so-called leaders have on the people that they are leading.


These so-called leaders likely think that we are all fools who need to be constantly blinded by the illusions they create about their greatness and lack of flaws, in order to be sufficiently fooled to accept their rule.


Our earlier generations of leaders did not have this view of the people they led.


Tunku, our first PM, though coming from a royal background, never acted as if he was better than common people, or hid his shortcomings and exaggerated his virtues, to hoodwink us into supporting his rule.


When Mahathir, though a commoner, challenged Tunku and eventually brought about his downfall, Tunku did not send the police, the authorities or the courts to silence him.


Mahathir ironically, though coming from a humble origin, is often accused of starting the political culture in our country, where political leaders expect to be treated like they were beyond reproach or challenge, as if they came from a royal pedigree.


In 1998, Mahathir, would even put Anwar in prison, under the most humiliating terms, simply because Anwar had challenged and criticised Anwar.


It was probably a blessing in disguise that Anwar was subjected to much abuse and humiliation by Mahathir in the past, because if not, we might not have a single leader from the previous batch of leaders who can see through the excesses and debaucheries in their value system and worldview.


People are often criticising Anwar for not living up to his reformasi promises, and are calling his reformasi as reforbasi or reformati, but like I said – I never believed that Anwar contained with him the seed of the future to come in the first place.


I think Anwar’s role is just to end the debaucheries of the past and clear the way for a new Malaysia to emerge.


I don’t know who it is that we can count on to bring about a new Malaysia, that will exorcise the spirit of pettiness and self-absorption, that has condemned is into a life or corruption, deterioration and exploitation for the last 30 or 40 years, , but I what I am certain of is that the one that will do it will come After Anwar’s reign is over, and they will likely come from a generation that is once removed from the last generation, or be 20 or 30 or 40 years younger than Anwar.


As to who that person might be, for now at least, my bet is on Nurul Izzah.


Like Tunku, I see an inner light in her, that makes me believe that she will be the founder of a New Malaysia, as how Tunku was the founder of Independent Malaysia.