Debate On Nurul Izzah’s Appointment Continues As Public Outrage Rages On
“It is not an obsession. It is about good governance,” says a former minister on the issue of nepotism in Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim’s government.
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The debate on “nepo babies” continues to spark fire among netizens and public figures alike on various social media platforms.
For 25 years, the word “Reformasi” rang in our ears as many defied the governments of the day and demanded an end to alleged cronyism, nepotism, corruption and abuse of power.
The “reformasi” movement seemed to have paid off when Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim was appointed as Malaysia’s 10th prime minister. But along came the clanger that he had appointed his daughter, Nurul Izzah, as his special adviser in economics and finance.
This has had the rakyat screaming “Nepotism!”
Former Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department for Legal Affairs and Judicial Reform, Datuk Zaid Ibrahim took to Twitter to share his thoughts on the issue of the nepotism debate.
“It’s not an obsession, Guna. It’s about good governance that you talked so much about. Nepotism means you throw away merit; fairness; objectivity ;transparent process. Not getting paid is irrelevant,” Zaid said in responding to veteran journalist and analyst P. Gunasegaram.
It’s not obsession Guna. It’s about good governance that your talked so much about. Nepotism means you throw away merit; fairness; objectivity ;transparent process. Not getting paid is irrelevant https://t.co/y8UFyoq0t3
— Zaid Ibrahim (@zaidibrahim) February 7, 2023
Zaid was commenting on an article by a local news portal on the excessive attention and obsession over Anwar’s appointment of his daughter as senior economics and financial adviser.
The article by MalaysiaKini was a comment piece written by Gunasegaram who also noted that this “isn’t even the worst decision that the PM has made so far in terms of appointments”, of which there are a series of very questionable appointments which have not attracted as much attention as these.
Also commenting on the article, Twitter user @jijan2023 said, “If we want nepotism, kleptocracy we might as well stick with BN/UMNO. We chose @pakatanharapan_ because of the reform, but now it’s the same!”
Further venting his frustration, he said: “Transparent process, fairness, merit no longer seems important to @anwaribrahim”.
Another Twitter user @ss2022x questioned: “Of all the 34 million people, why pick your own daughter?”
Again of all 34mil people, why pick your own daughter. Do or do not, there is no try. Do it right, you suppose give hope to people. Nepotism is not ok. Pro bono or what. Not ok.
— yy2023 (@ss2022x) February 7, 2023
While some fumed, others agreed with Gunasegaram that this topic should be buried once and for all.
Anwar, in responding to the criticism surrounding his daughter’s appointment, had stressed that she was not being paid an allowance for the post.
While Nepotism babies govern places like Hollywood as well as many other industries and businesses, do you think it is wise for it to come into politics as well?
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