.jpg "Permatang Pauh MP Nurul Izzah Anwar speaks during a press conference at Parliament in Kuala Lumpur March 26, 2019. u00e2u20acu201d Picture by Yusof Mat Isann")
IPOH, March 27 — Pakatan Harapan (PH) must allow for free expression, said Farhash Wafa Salvador Rizal Mubarak who is the political secretary to Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim.
Farhash, who is also Perak PKR chairman, said this in support of Permatang Pauh MP Nurul Izzah Anwar who was criticised over negative remarks she made about the PH government to a Singaporean media outlet.
He claimed the media blew the matter out of proportions.
“As politicians, we should all be mindful with the choice of words but the media should also be sensible in their reporting,” he said in a statement.
He told Nurul Izzah’s detractors to note that she made the comments out of the same disappointment that led her to resign from Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee.
They should also be mindful of the challenges she and her family had gone through before, he said.
During an interview with Singapore’s The Straits Times, Nurul reportedly called Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad a “former dictator who wreaked so much damage”, triggering controversy in the PH coalition.
Dr Mahathir’s political secretary, Abu Bakar Yahya, described Nurul Izzah as immature, irrational and that she failed to understand Dr Mahathir’s position.
Dr Mahathir had also responded in kind, saying he was just as disappointed in those who said they were dissatisfied with him.
Yesterday, Anwar said Nurul was expressing disappointment with the PH coalition’s reforms and was not singling out Dr Mahathir.
