Written by Syafirah
Nurul Izzah is a Malaysian politician and the daughter of Anwar Ibrahim, the current 10th Prime Minister of Malaysia. However, the young generations in this country seem to admire her more than her father. It is not surprising because, through the years, people have acknowledged her charismatic and empathetic leadership style, a true combination of her parents' strengths.
She is also well known for her courageous act, which is to stand up for what she believed was the right thing to do and forbid herself from the tyranny and sins of the political arena. In another way, it means that even if others regard her decision as being unpopular or unnecessary things to do, she would still do it without a doubt for the sake of the people and the nation. After all, she is the "Princess of Reformist", who fought for liberty and justice in a morally deceived and corrupted country. Moreover, in the face of opposition, she never seems reluctant to speak the unspoken words of the underprivileged.
A recent exclusive interview with the Sunday Star brings such a piece of good news that Nurul Izzah has undertaken the patriotic role as Senior Advisor to Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim pertaining to Economics and Finance since 3rd January 2023. In the patriarchal and high power distance social structure, she should be credited for her willingness to give no price for nation-building voluntary work even after being a former member of the House of Representatives of Malaysia.
Nevertheless, the typical skeptical Malaysians contradict the celebration of patriotism with a hurrah for jargon maniac of the so said nepotism as if they know and understand the ideas behind one of the most Googled words on earth for the next two to three weeks. With this kind of mentality and attitude, no wonder how devastating it is for high performers' talents to serve the nation and instead opt for being called brain drain rather than being brainwashed to keep the same pace as those 'dinosaurs' and 'unicorns'.
People should be made clear that although nepotism is excessively defined as the common practice of bringing our own clans to do jobs at the same 'Office' or place of work, it actually involves an agreeable amount of payment for jobs being done. Hence, giving a more accurate analogy that should the 'job' bears no money in return, then it was not a particular piece of work or something that requires full accountability and responsibility in fulfilling the activity.
Thus, it was not a crime or morally undone for Nurul Izzah to spare some of her great analytical and critical thinking to help engineer the intertwined needs of the economics and finance of the people at the piled-up 'broken' files in the PMO. She does no harm than good. She only volunteered her intellectual capacity and ability to draft resolutions of being one of the best local engineering students including being among one of the greatest internationally recognized public and social policy graduates.
The Tall Poppy Syndrome in Malaysia must be stopped. Instead of feeling threatened by the audacity and credibility of talented individuals, Malaysians must unite together for the better future of the next generations. Think about how former civilizations collapsed due to ill hatred and jealousy. After all, Malaysia is still a developing country and far yet from being among the top-notch developed countries.
However, this does not mean that there should never be a good audit procedure to identify whether the volunteering work has gone overboard as time flies. Should it be proven that Nurul Izzah is unqualified for her current duties despite being trusted to do so by the prerogative power of the Prime Minister himself, or being exposed of enjoying any special treatment, allowances, or grooming to be the next in place, then it must be admitted that a strong indication of nepotism has taken place.
Sample nepotism policy suggested how Donald Trump appointed his eldest daughter and son-in-law as senior White House advisers. The designations took advantage of US nepotism laws' loopholes for public officers. Eventually, the Senate proves that both Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump benefit from their supposed to be volunteering positions in the government.
In defending Nurul Izzah from the oppression of nepotism, she is selected based on her skillset, knowledge, and experience. She has never shown a tendency to be the favorite because she used to live the pain through years of her father being arrested for false accusations before. Thus, people should rather look upon her appointment as a form of referral according to her aptitude and attitude.
Nurul Izzah has the great potential to be a great fit within the PMO think tanks. She has the right skill set for the given role of being a Senior Advisor to the Prime Minister. With her recent appointment, it is hoped that she would be able to develop and strengthen relationships with other nationalists who have parallel aspirations and take an identical approach to get the work done successfully. It is just hope that the father-daughter relationship would not stir any biased decision-making.
Fundamentally, Nurul Izzah's qualifications and experience have been way above the normal average of other candidates. Her engineering background is very much related to economics and finance based on empirical research studies. Scholars verified how both economics and finances are being engineered through the complex process of formulating, estimating, and evaluating forecasted plans or project management. They also found that the basic engineering concept provides promising alternatives to a defined purpose, especially when it involves people and growth.
The reason is that an individual with an engineering background will do the decision-making process through a very thorough evaluation of every condition, feasibility, and appropriateness among the many options of alternatives within a specific task. An engineering person also was accustomed to doing estimation of projects through the strict lenses of validation process where mitigation of excessive budget and risks are done. Besides, an engineering background person would normally justify all possible pros and cons before any final implementation of the best-selected alternatives.
Last but not least, a very good reason for a protagonist like Nurul Izzah to pursue her second degree in public and social policy at one of the renowned international universities was due to her mission-driven nature and dedication to serving the people. Her work experience involves a wide range of governmental, nonprofit, and private organizations, where she serves in administration and analysis. Moreover, her known interest in critical and creative thinking is hopeful to address various policy issues that are still wobbly fit. She can help to give more ideas to redesign Malaysia's policy where all the diverse needs of the people can be smoothly allocated through any available resources. Critically, she is the bridge in bringing concern on how and where the money is spent in building the nation and lifting the lives of the common people.
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