Sorry PKR but Wan Azizah is no Hillary Clinton
Hazlan Zakaria, The Ant Daily
First and foremost I would like to apologise to PKR and president Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail, for even if I am one of those who admired what she accomplished the first time her husband was jailed, as she is now I don’t think she can be compared to US presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.
We must acknowledge that Wan Azizah rose from the embers of her husband’s incarceration like a political Phoenix, to capture the imagination of Reformasi and opposition supporters, helping to forge them in an alliance that ultimately led to the 2008 political tsunami.
But that being said, her choices afterwards, and her decision to step back into the shadows have made cheap what were one priceless and admirable.
My single most important argument in this regard is that Hillary stepped out of her husband’s shadow to overshadow her husband, while Kak Wan, as Wan Azizah is affectionately known even in media circles, stepped into her husband’s complete shadow.
On that definition alone I must say, sorry PKR but Kak Wan is no Hillary.
From being her own woman and one of the paragons of women in politics, she willingly chose to wear the mantle of ‘puppet’ for her ‘God’s gift to Malaysia’ husband, the jailed de facto PKR leader Anwar Ibrahim.
Even Siti Khadijah, the wife of the Prophet Muhammad, was her own women in business despite her support of Muhammad in his role as the final prophet of Islam.
She was a strong woman and only then can she be the bulwark for the Prophet as he started his role as Messenger of Allah.
There is more than one way to be loyal and to support your husband, and these can still be achieved within the bound of Syariah and Islamic tenets without giving up what Kak Wan did.
Don’t get me wrong. I am also an admirer of what Anwar had done and his continued defiance but I do believe that if there is one thing I dislike about him, it would have to be how he conveniently displaced his wife when it suited him.
In doing so, Anwar with his thirst for power and Kak Wan with her acquiescence to it, made cheap her struggle as the symbol for women in politics.
