MALAYSIANS KINI Sometime in August 2008, an unemployed fresh graduate named Siti Aishah Shaik Ismail was filling the pages of her blog from her first and brand new laptop.

This was no ordinary blog however. Seven years later, that blog turned out to be a gateway to politics for a newly minted senator.

She was only 30 years old when she was sworn in two weeks ago to represent Penang in the Dewan Negara, meaning that she barely met the minimum age requirement for the post.

Speaking to Malaysiakini in an interview a few days later on June 29, she revealed that it was her prolific writings that had caught the attention of PKR’s leadership in 2009, amid the Perak constitutional crisis.

At the time, the Ipoh-raised senator said she had met with PKR women’s chief Zuraida Kamaruddin ( photo ) who had gone to Perak to handle the crisis, who later invited her to join the party.

“Apart from my writings, she also saw my tenacity in keeping up with the events and helping the Perak government amid the crisis and instability. I was one of the female bloggers who was still there before, after, and during the collapse of the (Pakatan-led) Perak government.

“In addition, I had written an open letter to (PKR de facto leader) Anwar Ibrahim criticising the Penang government at the time, and he had replied to that letter, posted it on his website, and asked to meet,” she said, when asked what in her writings had gotten Zuraida’s attention.

She explained that by the time the Perak crisis erupted, she was part of about 40 bloggers known as the Perak Express, in which she was invited to join after one of the bloggers took note of her writings.

The group was a mouthpiece for the Pakatan-led government to supplement its outreach efforts online, she said.

But even before that, Aishah was a prolific writer as far back as her schooling days, even if it means borrowing a friend’s computer or frequenting cybercafés in the days before she bought her own laptop.

Even when she did get her own laptop in 2008, it was purchased by using her sister’s pay cheque to apply for a three-year installment since she was unemployed at the time and had just got her diploma in communications and IT in the year before.

“(The laptop) is still with us. My father is using it. It is still working. He said he wanted to give it to my brother, but I said, ‘No, no, no, you use it. Even if it is broken, keep it, because it has sentimental value’,” she said.

She said to her, writing was an avenue to express her thoughts that would otherwise be held back by her quiet personality.

Current affairs

Much of her early writings were focused on current affairs and social issues, only turning her attention to politics after the 2008 general election.

In fact on her first time using her then three-week old laptop to write a blog post, it was regarding the 2008 Permatang Pauh by-election in which Anwar made his political comeback as an MP.

“It is mainly because my family, especially my father, who taught me from a young age to be humane and to be considerate. No matter in poverty or in luxury, I need to be always sensitive to the problems afflicting the poor.

“That makes me feel that we need to do something to contribute to this country, not just through writings in cyberspace or just talk, but to voice our demands in the right place and in the right situation,” she said.

By 2009, Aishah was made the chief of PKR’s Sri Kandi movement, and later was also elected as a committee member of the party’s central leadership committee.

The Sri Kandi movement is PKR’s counterpart to the Umno’s Puteri wing, but falls short of being a full-fledged party wing. All female PKR members below the age of 35 are its members by default, numbering around 3,000 active members.

Aishah had held a position as a media officer for former Perak Menteri Besar Nizar Jamaluddin ( photo ) from 2009 to 2011, before turning her full attention to politics.

She had also contested in the 2013 general election in her home parliamentary constituency of Tambun against the incumbent Ahmad Husni Mohamad Hanadzlah, but lost.

When asked why she had opted to join PKR, Aishah revealed that she had seriously considered joining the PAS women’s wing as well, but ultimately chose the former because she felt that the party offers more opportunities for young women to develop their own abilities and take on leadership roles.

Despite this however, she was still caught by surprise when PKR president Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail first informed her on May 6 that she would be nominated as a senator, replacing the veteran unionist Syed Shahir Syed Mohamed who had finished his term.

The mother of two had just gotten old enough to meet the minimum age requirement to become a senator just three days before that fateful early-morning phone call, and on May 15, her appointment has been approved by the Penang state assembly.

“When I got the call, my first reaction was shock. Why was I chosen? Why not someone more senior?” she said, noting that most senators are much older than her.

“Wan Azizah ( photo ) said the reason I was chosen is to show to the public that PKR is a party that supports the youth, not just by giving them leadership positions within the party, but also outside the party.

“They (the political bureau) felt that that there is a need for the youth to have a voice in the Dewan Negara,” she said.

Indeed, several Sri Kandi leaders had taken it upon themselves to help her prepare for her speeches precisely because they saw her as their mouthpiece in the august house, including her maiden speech that broached on the issues of the GST, graduate unemployment, and special-needs education.

She would ask the team to conduct research regarding upcoming laws that are to be debated or any issues that needs to be raised, and then amend they speech that they prepared for her as necessary.

Focus on economic issues

Aishah said prior to her appointment as senator and especially prior to her marriage in 2012, she would have spent three to four hours a day reading and researching to ensure that she has a good grasp of the topics that she would address in her political speeches.

Economic issues tend to become her focus, she said, because she was often asked by members of the public about bread-and-butter issues.

“Every time I give a ceramah, I want to ensure that it is a speech that is full of knowledge; a speech where the people would understand the numbers, the facts, and what I say.

“I don’t want to be just berating at Umno and BN. I want to bring a culture of facts to the villages and the interior, so that they would understand oppression based on facts, not just telling them that Umno is evil and so on.

“That is what gives me strength to this day. Even today when I speak, I would ask friends and the Sri Kandi team to do research,” she explained.

Aishah also sees her appointment as a reason for the youth to remain hopeful in politics, despite the recent collapse of the Pakatan coalition.

She pointed out that even as cracks appear within the pact due to bickering between DAP and PAS, PKR was still making history through her appointment as a young senator.

She said she was also warmly welcomed by DAP secretary-general and Penang chief minister Lim Guan Eng as the state’s senator, although either PKR and DAP could have deferred on her appointment because of the crisis.

“That (deferment) didn’t happen, and it shows that the internal crisis between parties is only taking place between the leaders.

“The policy of developing the youth, especially young women, was not affected at all. That is why I have emphasised to my friends that the ongoing crisis is a crisis of leadership, not of policy or how we are going to help the rakyat […]

“The crisis is just that, but the policies still stand,” she said, while stressing that this was not her own success but the success of the institutions that Pakatan had built.

Because of that, she said the crisis should not be a reason for youths to be deterred from joining politics.

On the contrary, she said youths should join politics and especially Pakatan parties – not to gain political appointments, but for the opportunity for their ideas to be heard, she said.

MALAYSIANSKINI is a series on up-and-coming politicians and activists.

This interview was conducted by Koh Jun Lin and Anne Muhammad.