Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail: The Torchbearer of Reform

The Torchbearer of Reform

Who walks down the streets of Kuala Lumpur to the cheers and chants of support. Together with her children, they are given thunderous applause from an eager loving crowd. In front of the courts as if parading with her lawyers, even those serious lawyer types smile and wave back and by doing so even encouraging the eclectic crowd to elate further. So much so that the police has to enforce the barrier lines forcing the people further back until they are now over the river only to be pushed further so as to hide them away from their symbol of their champion of discontent. The husband has over the period been seen always waving his hand up high for the crowd who in turn cheer his name and shout his slogan. He has never once shown any sign of defeat ever strong spirited. They try to shield his person from being seen by the public, blocking the roads, circling with trucks so that they cut him off from the very people he struggles for. How tragic and how sad things have become. The way things are going they are even afraid of his shadow and looking at the way things are heading for it is as if they are going to crucify him.

They incarcerated her husband but not his spirit and not his ideals. And that spirit and image is in her and her children, family and friends. Truly the spark has been lit, as she said in a TIME interview and she is indeed the torch bearer. The symbol of what is badly wrong in the society and why the fight for truth and justice must go on. It is not a lonely struggle for the goals are shared by all wise minded people. But the suffering, the anxiety, the grief is solely borne by her and her children. Indeed, when a woman has to fight for the cause of righteousness, she has to summon great strength and courage to boldly face antagonists of overwhelming proportions. She has to find the time for her children, keep attending to her beloved husband never once being away from his side in court under much restrictions and to visit him in prison never leaving his side except to part because of forced circumstance. At the same time she has to spearhead and carry on the struggle for justice and carry on her husband's message for reform.

Being the wife of Anwar Ibrahim, Dr Wan Azizah can never be the same after that fateful month of September 1998 when everything was taken away from them, their honour, their happiness, their space. That such inhumanity and such cruelty could be perpetrated in full view and in full knowledge of all thinking people was an insult and an affront to dignity and common sense. It caused such a profound reaction and public anger and resentment never before towards an authority which sees itself as benevolent and an authority which seeks constantly gratefulness and homage from the very people they are supposed to serve.

Who says a Muslim woman can never rise above the situation for this is the clear living proof of a woman challenging the odds. Her children steadfastly beside her, her family and friends always being there for her.. But there are no easy ways. A lady welfare minister 'advised' her through the press to just stay home and look after the children and not concern herself. How pathetic can you get and how totally out of touch that veteran lady politician was compared to Wan Azizah. Other politicians were more harsh menacing her with their open and veiled threats. How could this lady overnight be a threat to seasoned and crisis hardened politicians and the vast administrative machinery, one would ask. Some others stayed away from her and but the people are with her, the ordinary public, the NGO's, the ordinary folk rather unlike those fair weather friends. This noble lady  became a celebrity by being called upon near and far. The Indonesians, Philippines and the Thais send messages of sympathy and personal support for a start. Corazon Aquino immediately identified herself by her. Wan Azizah's daughter Nurul Izzah created a coup by her ASEAN visits showing much the mantle of her father. Then the much vaunted Western sympathies and later the Americans strutted into the scene. They snubbed the already unpopular antagonists and accorded Wan Azizah the level of a dignitary by receiving and meeting with their top officials. This and among others a certain line of a speech provided ammunition for an anti-American backlash in the wake of APEC and was exploited to the hilt to once again to slander Wan Azizah and her fledgling movement for justice.

But she is undeterred, not apologetic and much more determined. As they, the well organised and entrenched forces try to put her down, her spirit soars as well as the masses realisation to be with her and to reject what Rehman Rashid calls the politics of contempt. Things will change and ultimately she will prevail, insyallah. As she said in an iftar-breaking of fast gathering in the northern town of Alor Star, quoting from the Qur'an: al-insyirrah - with hardship comes ease, and with hardship comes ease.

(BIC NEWS 24 January 1999)

The Defector and Religious Conviction

In these times, it is always tricky and it needs some degree of astuteness to observe religious rulings in certain simple matters and in some encounters. The universal handshake is quite challenging for Muslims who hold strong convictions concerning the prohibitive injunction on the direct touching or contact of a non-muhrim's hand without just cause. For instance, the Iranian diplomatic staff after their 1979 Revolution put up posters reminding guests to their embassies of such prohibition in a polite and subtle manner so as to assure visitors that their staff had no intention to offend but were simply observing Islamic rulings. In the early days of Reformasi when Dr Wan Azizah or affectionately known as Kak Wan launched ADIL as an organized movement and as she went about touring the country, she was usually spotted with a shawl over her shoulders. The shawl was used to fulfil the ruling but without offending well wishers and supporters who came from all walks of life to shake hands with such a wonderful person. Later on, she wore a glove. This is similar to the one worn by Tabung Haji desk officers in handling customers when they come into contact who are non-muhrim.

Why then did such a simple gesture done to observe a religious ruling by Dr Wan Azizah is being mocked by the one and only political gung-ho defector MP representing Kulim Bandar Bharu is anyone's guess. It seems that among the common traits of defectors are to attack and vilify those who once ago were held in their high esteem and confidence. Investigating further, there is the attempt to ridicule and deride the high regard morally that the public has consistently had with Anwar Ibrahim, Dr Wan Azizah and her family. We can observe and record these attacks from the speeches and statements that come from various defectors as if they were set pre-conditions of their rehabilitation to get back into the governing regime. Defectors look for her vulnerability to take cowardly pot shots to swipe and stain her family name while sometimes stopping short to show that as if they still cared. How pathetic.

Dr Wan Azizah and family have been through this over and over again. We pray and hope that they shall persevere and remain strong. They are the symbol of a decent and upright family somehow caught in a strong test of faith and will. We are demanding such high moral standards from them without even being in their shoes and thus lose sense of the reality that sinks in that makes certain people run cowering for their lives to defect. Can anyone imagine how is was for an eye doctor who became a housewife albeit a very important one to come to lead such a new fledgling rainbow political party while at the same time caring for her incarcerated husband and taking care of the whole family. Just consider the challenges going to parliament after the disastrous 2004 elections, being the sole KeAdilan MP amidst the stares, the vilification, the slurs and the innuendos of hostile ruling MPs'. Women's rights groups simply ignored her plight being more concerned about assailing anything non-secular and religious.

We shall relate an incident observed by my other half during the heated and intense nomination day of the November 1999 elections at Tengku Bainon Educational College nomination centre for the Permatang Pauh seat. Dr Wan Azizah's candidacy was up against Dr Ibrahim Saad, a close family friend and Anwar Ibrahim's former political colleague and loyalist. My significant other was with one of Dr Wan Azizah's daughter engaging in conversation. Then, a voice, a lady called out gently to the daughter and asked her (called herself auntie) to fetch a cup of cold drinks. The daughter dutifully went to deliver the drink to the lady. My other half enquired, "Who was that?". The daughter replied, "O, that is Auntie Zainab, the wife of Dr Ibrahim Saad". When asked further, she said they as a family had no grievances against them and still regarded them as friends of the family. She could say that even when their father was taken away from them, slandered, beaten up and jailed, and their mother was for the first time facing a political tussle with an erstwhile family friend who had turned on them.

Indeed, this was a truly noble family and they bore no vindictiveness.

Whatever the Kulim MP might say, he has left something invaluable behind for some illusive and misleading pot of gold.