Nurul Izzah re-emerged in the media as a potential Education Minister

Since Nurul Izzah resigned from her positions as PKR vice-president and PKR Penang chairman in December 2018, her presence in the media has dropped significantly. The once vocal reformist leader went off the radar after announcing her departure from top positions in PKR.

However, it wasn’t long before she made a ‘comeback’. In March 2019, Izzah quit as a member of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC). Her decision to quit PAC became controversial as she was disappointed with the Mahathir-led administration, labelling the Prime Minister a “former dictator who caused so much damage”.

From the graph, it can be observed that Izzah’s exposure dropped significantly after her “former dictator” remark, with less than 200 news in April. Since then, her exposure remained low with most months barely making the 100-mark.

Interestingly, despite having a low presence in the media, it is learned that Nurul Izzah is unforgettable.

Following Maszlee Malik’s resignation as the Education Minister earlier in January 2020, Izzah’s name surfaced as a potential candidate to take up the post. Other names that made the rounds in blogs were Datuk Seri Mustapha Mohamad, Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim and unsurprisingly Tun Mahathir’s son, Mukhriz Mohamad.

In a poll conducted by The Malaysian Insight, Nurul Izzah appeared as the top pick to take up the Education Minister’s post with more than half of the 1,486 respondents voting for her at 52.2%. In second position was Mustapa Mohamed at 12.7% and in third was Foreign Affairs Minister Saifuddin Abdullah at 6.5%.

Having said that, Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad had said that he will be the one to decide on who will replace Maszlee.