Losing Nurul Izzah to principles

COMMENT | Three months ago, Nurul Izzah resigned as PKR vice-president and relinquished her posts as PKR Penang chief and other government appointments. Yesterday, she quit the Parliamentary Public Accounts Committee. And a few years from now, she will end her final term as Member of Parliament.

She did all of this for principles.

This is unusual for Malaysian politics. Most of the time, when the government or party makes a decision that is not agreeable, most politicians would choose to compromise their own principle instead of compromising their positions.

Their calculations are that their positions have substantial power and influence, besides a huge salary. So, by keeping their heads low and wavering on certain principles, they’d be able to maintain status quo unnoticed.

Worse, when our politicians are ridden with an embarrassing scandal, they would still adopt the same strategy of keeping silent and keeping positions.

For example, the fake degree scandal only stayed in the public’s eye for a week...