In the spirit of tomorrow's Merdeka Day Lembah Pantai MP Nurul Izzah Anwar has mooted a publication called Utusan Rakyat to serve as the public's mouthpiece.

The PKR parliamentarian sent a letter of intent to Home Minister Hishammuddin Hussein today, to obtain a permit "to set up a platform to encourage constructive engagement of all parties" in matters concerning policies.

teoh beng hock memorial night 160710 nurul izzah "The main objective of this platform is to (convince) the people and society that Malaysia is truly free and independent," said Nurul ( left ) in the letter.

She added that her recent attack by "two Umno vice-presidents and cabinet ministers" over her comments to Indonesian publication Kompas on the KD Tunku Abdul Rahman submarine also motivated her to push for the publication.

Defence Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi had branded the MP a "traitor" for telling Kompas that the submarine "could not dive".

She said she came to a "realisation" that there needs to be "constructive engagement" in matters of public importance.

People's project

Nurul stressed that the proposed Malay-language daily would be a "bipartisan" publication and it is neither a party organ nor an extension of Suara Keadilan , whose permit is pending renewal.

"Although the application is under my name, it will be a people's project and I propose to hand over the ownership (of the paper) to a board of trustees," she told Malaysiakini , adding that public personalities will be invited to helm the board.

"It will a be platform with constructive involvement to draw out the country's direction of development, to prove that there is freedom to voice opinions after 53 years of independence and ... to strengthen investors' confidence that Malaysia is truly independent," she added.

suara keadilan report on felda bankrupt 220610 The MP, who is PKR de-facto leader Anwar Ibrahim's daughter, said she wanted to submit the letter of intent before applying for a permit, because she wanted the home minister to be directly involved in "facilitating" the publishing permit.

PKR's own mouthpiece Suara Keadilan is still awaiting renewal of its publishing permit after it was put off over the ministry's dissatisfaction with the publication's explanation over their headline ‘ Felda Bangkrap ' (Felda is bankrupt).

They have since gone on to publish one-off editions of their mouthpiece that do not require a permit, as long as each had a unique name.

After publishing Keadilan, Obor Keadilan , Sinar Keadilan as well as Utusan Keadilan , their latest is called Metro Keadilan .