Anwar building family dynasty in PKR, says Patriot

Noel Achariam Noel Achariam Updated 7 years ago · Published on 14 Sep 2018 7:00AM · 6 Comments

Anwar Ibrahim confers with his wife, Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail, at a breakfast event in May, 2018. People don’t like the idea of a whole family in one party, says the Patriot president. – The Malaysian Insight file pic, September 14, 2018.

ARMY veterans warned Anwar Ibrahim against creating a family dynasty in Parliament, saying the PKR leader should have asked his wife or daughter instead of the Port Dickson MP, a retired rear admiral, to give up their federal seat for him.

National Patriots Association (Patriot) president Brigadier-General (rtd) Mohamad Arshad Raji said Anwar should have picked either Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail’s Pandan seat, or Nurul Izzah’s Permatang Pauh seat.

Instead, he said, Anwar had now laid the family open to charges of nepotism if he made it to Parliament,

“Anwar is creating a family dynasty within the party when he could have chosen another area to contest instead of going for the Port Dickson seat,” Arshad told The Malaysian Insight.  

“People don’t like the idea of a whole family in one party.”

Dr Wan Azizah is also the deputy prime minister. She has recently relinquished to Anwar the PKR presidency, a post she has held since the party was founded in 1999. Their daughter is a party vice-president.

Danyal Balagopal Abdullah on Wednesday announced that he was giving up the Port Dickson seat for Anwar to contest so that the PKR president could return to Parliament.

National Patriots Association president Brigadier-General (rtd) Mohamad Arshad Raji says Anwar should have asked his wife or daughter instead of the Port Dickson MP, a retired rear admiral, to give up their federal seat to him. – The Malaysian Insight file pic, September 14, 2018.

Arshad said Patriot members were disappointed that a veteran had given up his seat to Anwar.

“Why does it have to be Port Dickson, which is the home of the army? It was the military that had supported Danyal for they wanted one of them to represent them in Parliament.”

Patriot felt strongly that Danyal should have kept the seat to articulate issues pertaining to the military, which are often overlooked, he said.

Arshad warned that PKR will now have a tough time answering voters.

“What PKR has done is give the opposition ‘ammo’ to hit the party with. Whatever reasons PKR should give for the move will not make sense.”

Arshad said he wished to remain above politics but he would not stop any veterans from getting involved in politics or campaigning for any party.

“Patriot as an organisation will not get involved in politics, but our members are free to do so in their personal capacity.

“We have given our members their freedom (to support any party) but they cannot say that they are doing it for Patriot,’” he said.

Nurul Izzah Anwar is the Permatang Pauh MP and a PKR vice-president. – The Malaysian Insight file pic, September 14, 2018.

Anwar, meanwhile, had said that he had spoken to Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad about his decision to stand in Port Dickson, preparatory to him taking over as prime minister.

His decision, however, did not go down well with several senior PKR leaders who claimed they were kept in the dark.

PKR vice-president Tian Chua had questioned why the decision was conveyed to the PKR political bureau when it met on Tuesday but not to.

PKR Wanita chief Zuraida Kamaruddin had also expressed her disappointment that the members were not told about the new development.

Without naming names, she had said that some in the party were behaving as though they were in a secret society.

The Port Dickson parliamentary seat has 75,212 registered voters, who are Malays (43%), Chinese (33%) and Indians (22%). –  September 14, 2018. 

Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail, is the deputy prime minister and the Pandan MP. She recently relinquished to her husband Anwar Ibrahim the PKR presidency, a post she has held since the party was founded in 1999. – The Malaysian Insight file pic, September 14, 2018.


 

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Comments

  • Obviously when he becomes PM his wife will step down from DPM . His daughter is a backbencher in her own right. This plan is not news. It was clear before GE14 that this would be the scenario at some point, 3 MPs from the same family. But pH still won. So why complain now?

    Posted 7 years ago by Malaysia New hope · Reply

    • Looks like , seems like , but nothing is static. Politicians are form changer. Rafizi in one of his ceramah told many not to place and put all their faith and beliefs in the politician . Now he is asking people to believe in what he is doing. Have faith that is his battle cries. The PD move will works well because it is Rafizi master plan. He will ensure Anwar to be PM and Anwar wll ensure he has a dynasty to begin from PD victory. How much more is the Malaysia rakyat to be f#$%ed

      Posted 7 years ago by Lee Lee · Reply

  • Patriots is non political and above politics.......but comments and questions are all of politics.....hmmm.......

    Posted 7 years ago by Azis Yusoff · Reply

  • PH has 5 years, so far so good. People can wait, so why so hasty?

    Posted 7 years ago by Tanahair Ku · Reply

  • The Patriots was a key influence on PH victory in GE14. It is surely a mistake not to heed Patriots advice. Some PKR guys should at least initiate a talk to them.

    Posted 7 years ago by Tanahair Ku · Reply

  • In my opinion it doesnt hv to be an ex military MP to ensure the interests of ex servicemen are safeguarded & if it is a political strategy to hv DSAI to run in PD so be it Whats the big fuss Leaders are trying to resovlve the Nations issues Not has only a particular section of the society Ols do not be selfish

    Posted 7 years ago by B N Jettey · Reply