DATUK Nurulhidayah Ahmad Zahid, daughter of Deputy Prime Minister and UMNO president Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi has been reminded that her fame rested on her father’s shoulders after she ticked off media practitioners for their tendency to reference her as “anak Zahid” (Zahid’s daughter).
The darndest reaction came from one Thinagar Paramasivam who told her that while the media may stop referring her as Zahid’s daughter, “all right-minded Malaysians will always refer you as Zahid’s privileged daughter” as she is bestowed her current post and position due to her father’s influence.
Seconding the view on the comment section of a Malay Mail Facebook post on the UMNO women’s wing leader chiding the media for “erasing her name (on headlines)”, another commenter quipped that “she’s merely (a) rakyat biasa (ordinary citizen) without her father’s money and political clout”.
For context, Nurulhidayah had highlighted her uneasiness of being referenced as “anak Zahid” in a Malaysiakini article (see main image) whereby she took a veiled jab at UMNO former vice-president Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein who had hinted that he would not appeal to lift his six-year suspension from the party.
True to the age-old adage that “people who live in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones”, some commenters bluntly zeroed in on her father’s DNAA (discharge not amounting to acquittal) escape despite the (former) prosecutor having established a prima facie of 47 graft charges against him.
Elsewhere, ex-New Straits Times journalist Hanizah Hashim defended the media on her FB page by describing Nurulhidayah’s unbecoming demeanour as “a nobody who thinks she’s a somebody”.
Such observation invited criticism that Nurulhidayah is “over perasan” (slang meaning “full of oneself”) and “delusional” with one commenter even claiming that “people don’t remember her contribution”.
“Worse still, they “started to get disgusted after she earned her Datukship following her appointment as the parade leader of the askar wataniah (military reserve force of the Malaysian Army) and the slew of political appointments that came her way,” added the commenter.
Another remarked that “she’s one of the reasons why people started hating Zahid for whenever she opens her mouth, people get disgusted”.
“She should be off the radar and do more charitable work to improve her image for doing so would have also improved her father’s image as well. I suppose nobody would have told this to her though”. – July 4, 2024
