Knocked down, but never out — Wan Azizah on fighting through the storm

KUALA LUMPUR — “There were times when I asked myself whether I could survive,” Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail admits when reflecting on her personal odyssey over the past 20 years, but then she quipped: “I’m a doctor, come on. When you have to resuscitate, you have to pull yourself together.”

It has been a rollercoaster journey for the 65-year-old, who was first thrust into the political spotlight in 1998 after her husband, Malaysia’s former deputy prime minister Anwar Ibrahim, was unceremoniously sacked by then Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, and then jailed for eight years for sodomy shortly after.

Speaking to TODAY in the library of her family’s bungalow in Bukit Segambut, a 40-minute car ride from the Kuala Lumpur city centre, Dr Wan Azizah said she thought it was “time for me to rest” following her husband’s release from prison in 2004.

But in 2015, it was deja vu all over again for her and her family when Mr Anwar was jailed again after being accused of sodomising a political aide. “That was very sad, very difficult for me,” she said.

Dressed in a pink headscarf and traditional baju kurung with a floral print, Dr Wan Azizah holds court in her library, which is filled with a vast collection of titles, but dominated by books on politics, including Robert Nozick’s “Anarchy, State, and Utopia” and on Islam.

She points to one, in particular, which has helped her through her darkest hours — the Quran.

“I always remember one of the prophets saying that only those who do not believe in God would lose hope. I hold on to that,” she tells TODAY.

“In the second chapter of the Quran, it says that God will not test you more than you can bear. That helped me a lot. That gave me the strength to carry on. Ok, if God, my creator, thinks that I’m able to handle this, then I will. I’m quite spiritual, I seek help from God. Who is a better helper than God?”

That strength has seen her through good and bad times, and has kept her fighting alongside her husband for the last 20 years, even though she was initally seen as a somewhat reluctant politician.

Now, however, she appears to have come into her own in politics, having led a charge from being Member of Parliament for her husband’s old ward, Permatang Pauh, in Penang, to being appointed Deputy Prime Minister and Women and Family Development Minister in Malaysia’s new Cabinet following the historic opposition victory on May 9.

Ask her if she has put the label of “wife of opposition politician Anwar Ibrahim” behind her, however, and a hint of the steel that has kept her going all these years reveals itself.

“I don’t think I was just a wife of a politician,” she says. “I was a doctor. I had a tertiary education. I had my medical career, I was working. I do have some qualifications,” she said, a note of sarcasm creeping into her voice.

“I happen to be the wife of Anwar Ibrahim and that helps. And I happen to be the face of the downtrodden, in a way, when Anwar was maligned, unjustly treated, to pick up the mantle and fight for freedom and fight for justice.”

Born in Kampong Glam in Singapore, Dr Wan Azizah’s family later moved to Kedah, where she received her primary education at a convent. She went on to study medicine at the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, and later trained as an ophthalmologist.

Transitioning from “medical school to political school”, as she puts it, was not smooth sailing. She was not a good orator, and neither does she fit the typical mold of a leader. “My political career, it has been a fast learning curve. I just picked up things along the way,” she said.

To polish her public-speaking skills, she underwent a few tutorials. On whether she is a good leader, Dr Wan Azizah was quick to say that she prefers to be known for having a “nurturing” quality.

She admits that holding political office was never on her radar. “I’ve said I don’t mind being a sparrow among sparrows,” she said. “I like that. I just do my work quietly. I don’t handle the glamour or the limelight too well.”

She had aspired, she says, to becoming “a head of department at a hospital somewhere”. However, the spiritual part of her accepts how life has turned out.

“Everything happens for a reason. It’s not been too bad,” she said with a grin. “The kids have grown up. I’ve aged quite gracefully, I think. I’ve done my part for the country.”

Still, she relishes the fact that she has shattered a glass ceiling by being the first female deputy prime minister. But she points out that assuming high office is besides the point. What is important, she says, is to have “the best of intentions” — serving the people.

Chief among these intentions, she said, is wanting to guide the younger generation “to stand up and take the future in their hands”.

Ask her about advice on what is needed to batten down the hatches and weather a howling storm, and she says simply: Be patient.

“Patience is such a virtue. I’m spiritual, I seek guidance in a way that I tried to get closer to God and see how to improve yourself. And go for what you dream of.”