________________________________________________

Clive Magazine

Like This Page · June 4

Well, well, look who we have here.

Papa Don’t Preach

Posted 5 June 2013 at 05:29PM by Rathika.

Interview + Text Rathika Sheila + Ben Liew
Images Choen Lee @ Bunny+Bear Pictures
Venue Wondermama

They say fathers are closer to their daughters. Could it be or maybe it’s just that fathers put more pressure on themselves and their child when it comes to their firstborns. I spent my afternoon speaking to Marina Mahathir and Nurul Izzah Anwar about the relationships they shared with their fathers and their strangely normal upbringing. After spending 15 minutes chatting away about what CLIVE’s notorious Editor has been up to, and snacking on curry fries, I finally asked them the first question…

When was the last time you had dinner with your dad?
Marina Just the two of us? I think it was March 2011 in London. He wanted to bring his whole [entourage] but I said, “no, I cannot afford to pay.” We meet here in KL during family occasions. I met a young hairdresser in Singapore once and he told me he hasn’t been home for two years but he calls his mother every day. He said, “You cakap sekali sebulan, dia tak tahu apa nak cakap, tapi tiap-tiap hari you cakap 10 minit, dia happy.” I keep telling myself to do something similar but I don’t.
Nurul We don’t have one-to-one lunches because we’re a big family so usually my in-laws will join us. The recent one was along election week because throughout the campaign my sister in-law who works in the States was here, so that was about three weeks back. I don’t know what he’ll say to me when it’s one-to-one…
Marina Sometimes it’s better not to have the one-to-one [laughs].

Do your conversations around the dinner table revolve around work-talk mostly?
Marina What is work-talk?
Nurul That’s a good point. What is work? After a while, work, politics, daily life, it gets morphed into the personal because it’s engraved in you.
Marina Like anybody’s conversation, it goes all over the place. First you’re talking about your kids, then a little bit about politics and work.

What was the sternest action taken by your dad to discipline you?
Nurul My dad gives the evil eye. He just has to say “Izzah..” in his lowered tone of voice and I know I’m in trouble. My mum was more of a disciplinarian.
Marina I used to get spanked when I was little because I didn’t want to go to school.

Do you personally believe in “spare the rod and spoil the child”?
Marina I don’t agree with it. When you become a parent, you will understand why the temptation to whack them will come. It’s normal to think about whacking them but it’s not normal to actually do it.

—

Read the rest yourself!

http://www.cliveworld.com/daily-bread/papa-dont-preach/

https://www.facebook.com/clive.magazine

—

Nurul Izzar Anwar “You should be comfortable and accept that this is my father. It’s important because it has shaped me into who I am today.”

Malaysian Insider

Dr M and Anwar, in the words of Marina and Nurul Izzah

BY CLARA CHOOI
ASSISTANT NEWS EDITOR
June 08, 2013

KUALA LUMPUR, June 8 – Their fathers are sworn enemies but Marina Mahathir and Nurul Izzah Anwar, having both come into their own as adults and opinion leaders, are today quite comfortable sitting side by side for coffee and a chinwag.

One a well-known civil rights leader and the other an influential politician in a party advocating justice for the people, there have been many times when both women found themselves sharing the same stage as they preached their respective causes.

Marina and Nurul Izzah also share another thing in common – their fathers, Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad and Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, were once a tag team in the government, when Dr Mahathir was prime minister and Anwar his deputy, the country’s two most prominent positions.
…..

n the twists and turns of their fathers’ political careers spanning over three decades now, Marina and Nurul Izzah found themselves forced into the spotlight many times, and are sometimes expected to be apologetic for the actions of their fathers.

The women, in a joint interview published in Clive Magazine’s June edition, agree that being in the spotlight and always facing public judgment, is what they share in common.

But Marina appears to express disdain for this, saying it gets “tiring” to be constantly talked about in reference to her parents.

“I get really annoyed when people throw the ‘blood is thicker than water’ argument at me,” she says in the interview published verbatim.

“I don’t care what anyone says about my dad, they’re entitled to their own opinions but if it is truly unfair, I will say something.

“When I get the ‘blood is thicker than water’ routine, it’s like ‘I got no brains, is it?’” she adds.

Nurul Izzah notes her acceptance of always having to face the court of public opinion.

“After some time, you just stop thinking about what people think because there’s nothing I can do to change that,” she tells Clive Magazine.

Asked if she had ever had to distance herself from her father in order to carve her own name, Nurul Izzah, who is vice-president of PKR, a party in which her father is the de facto leader and her mother, Datuk Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail, the president, says: “Sometimes you do things because it’s right.

“You should be comfortable and accept that this is my father. It’s important because it has shaped me into who I am today.”
…….

According to the women, one of the best advice their fathers have given them as they were growing up appear to be the same: to remain true to themselves.

For the rest, click on
Dr M and Anwar, in the words of Marina and Nurul Izzah

——————————————————————