KUALA LUMPUR: PKR de facto chief, Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, says his daughter, Nurul Izzah Anwar, is free to give her views on the appointment of former Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Rahim Noor as the facilitator for peace talks in southern Thailand.
Anwar said Nurul Izzah, who is also PKR vice-president, would definitely be affected by the incident which befell him 20 years ago.
“Nurul Izzah is free to offer her views. She was young, and having her father almost beaten to death would leave an impact. (Datuk Seri Mohamed) Azmin Ali also knew at the time. Everyone was angry.
“If you ask me, it’s definitely not easy,” he told a press conference after officiating the closing ceremony of the Congress on the Future of the Bumiputera and Nation 2018 (KBN 2018) at the Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre on Saturday.
He was commenting on Nurul Izzah’s opposition to Rahim’s appointment, as the latter was directly tied to a ‘black eye’ incident involving Anwar when he was in police custody following his sacking as deputy prime minister in 1998.
Anwar said the incident served as a lesson to the people, that those in power should not behave cruelly and abuse their authority.
“Now, we have given the mandate to Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad. We have to give him room to decide on what he thinks is best,” he said.
Commenting on writings by activist Hishamuddin Rais, who had claimed that Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail had urged Dr Mahathir not to appoint Lim Guan Eng as finance minister and appoint PKR vice-president Rafizi Ramli instead, Anwar said it was Hishamuddin’s personal views.
“That’s his own views, as he is a storyteller. Sometimes in politics, in writing, we have those who oppose, those who attack and bootlickers.
“Don’t be someone who attacks without facts, and don’t be a lackey. To me, we should give room to each interpret one’s views, there’s no need to fly into a temper so quickly,” he said.