LETTER | Nurul Izzah, your appointment an insult to civil service

LETTER | Dear Nurul Izzah: On Dec 17, 2018, you issued a public statement to announce that you were resigning as vice-president of PKR and chair of Penang PKR but would remain just an ordinary party member.

You also announced that you would no longer serve the federal government in any capacity - you were heading the special Technical and Vocational Education Training (TVET) task force and was chair of the Bills Committee at that time - while you were leaving the decision as to your role in the Penang government-linked companies to the party leadership.

You said that by taking this course of action, it would allow you to hold dear and true to your beliefs and ideals.

Unfortunately, you did not explain in detail what were your beliefs and ideals in that statement.

You also called on all stakeholders to continue pressing for the fulfilment of the promised reform agenda by Pakatan Harapan as well as the continuation of policies and programmes of the previous government if proven to be beneficial to the rakyat.

You also expressed regret that you did not made the announcement earlier but you resolved to do the right thing after you had taken stock of where you stand in relation to politics.

Good governance

Your father, the prime minister, who has been consistently advocating transparency and good governance when he was the opposition leader, appears to have forgotten what he has consistently advocated with your recent appointment as his senior economics and finance adviser.

It is not about whether you are qualified for this job or not being paid to do it. Or that the prime minister is practising nepotism. Or that you will be a liability to the government. Or that it is not legally right.

Regardless of whether your appointment was made in accordance with government guidelines or you have the academic qualifications, it is all about good governance.

Your father and you obviously understand the idiom – practise what you preach.

Managed contracts in an orderly manner?

A week after he was appointed as the prime minister, he was reported to have implored the civil service to cooperate with him.

And then in January 2023, he publicly called on civil servants to criticise actions by the unity government if they are in violation of the law.

Your appointment to manage contracts in an orderly manner is directly an insult and an affront to the integrity of the civil service.

If the civil servants were to criticise your father's action of appointing you to manage the contracts in an orderly manner now, is the prime minister going to listen and take action by terminating your appointment?

In March 2015, when you was arrested and then later released by the police over a speech which you apparently made at a Kita Lawan rally, a coalition that has been holding rallies and events to ramp up support for your father, who is now the prime minister, you said publicly that your arrest was a blatant abuse of power by none other than the then-prime minister Najib Abdul Razak.

Even though the act of appointing his own daughter is not as drastic as your claim that the earlier prime minister ordered your arrest in 2015, still the father's actions - the silence and the justifications issued for your recent appointment - clearly rankled.

What else has the prime minister agreed and has done todate that has gone against his promises in the run-up to the 15th general election?

He has already broken his promise to Harapan supporters that he will not work with the Umno- led coalition, the BN.

Personally, you have failed the rakyat and those that supported the Harapan coalition once in 2018 when you walked away.

A party insider apparently claimed you were frustrated with the antics of two big players in Harapan and PKR, as well as a person outside the coalition.

A business weekly even quoted you to having said that accepting Umno turncoats is a betrayal of the mandate given on May 9, 2018, and there’s no meaning to democracy if Malaysia is governed through elite-based politicking.

Regardless of the reasons you gave publicly, you have betrayed the trust of those who voted for you in 2018 with your abrupt departure.

Those who supported you and the Harapan coalition had so much hope and belief in you then.

Unethical to walk away

There were a lot of expectations that you will deliver on the much-needed reforms in the matters that you were entrusted with.

Unfortunately, you failed.

Maybe your defeat in GE15 was Harapan supporters expressing their feelings of disappointment with you on your decision in December 2018.

It is unethical of you to walk away when you claimed that your ideals and beliefs could possibly be compromised.

Would you walk away if your ideals and beliefs are compromised again in your current role, which is much larger with bigger responsibilities?

Do you, in all honesty, believe your cherished ideals and beliefs would not be compromised when you accepted the offer from the prime minister?

Isn’t your appointment elite-based politicking, the same reason that you were apparently quoted as one of the reasons that led you to walk away in December 2018?

The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of Malaysiakini.