Hard Work Courage Hannah Thomas Speaks Of Values Learnt From Dad

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INTERVIEW | Hannah Thomas said her values on working hard and being courageous come from her father, former attorney-general Tommy.
She recounted how he went after disgraced former prime minister Najib Abdul Razak in the 1MDB case.
“Because of his work and his team’s work, many billions of dollars stolen from the Malaysian public were recovered,” she told Malaysiakini.
Another inspiration was Tommy’s litigation work for Orang Asli communities, Hannah - a lawyer herself - added. She had campaigned for a treaty with the First Nations of Australia.
She also learnt to grow “thick skin” against critics by watching how Tommy dealt with his work as the AG.
“Dad definitely showed me the importance of a thick skin.
Former attorney-general Tommy Thomas“He got a lot of hate from the right-wing, but it didn’t faze him because he knew he was doing the right thing, and I tried to take that approach here when we got attacked, especially on Palestine,” she said.
In the Australian election that took place on May 3, Hannah was the Australian Greens party candidate who went up against Prime Minister Anthony Albanese in his own seat of Grayndler in Sydney.
Despite losing, she secured a preference from 33.1 percent of the population in a six-cornered fight, which saw her campaign on a stance that favoured refugees, strong action on the climate crisis, and freedom for Palestine.
“I want to use my time and privilege in a way that makes a difference, and at the moment living in the prime minister's seat, the most effective thing felt like running against him and doing so on a strong, progressive agenda,” she said.
Memories of rallies
Before Hannah migrated to Australia, she had attended the earlier Bersih rallies in Kuala Lumpur that saw police respond with tear gas and water cannons.
The Bersih rally in 2017“They were incredible, radicalising rallies. I thought they were very effective in contributing to a shift in the political landscape and educating people about the extent of corruption and the need to clean things up.
“The rallies I went to in Malaysia were shamefully cracked down on by the police and the government at the time,” she said.
After migrating in 2009, she continued to attend the Bersih rallies in Sydney.
Although she has not followed current events in Malaysia, she expressed disappointment in the political manoeuvring that resulted in the first Pakatan Harapan government’s fall in 2020.
“(It) was unexpected and incredibly painful and still hard to make sense of all these years later for Malaysians and people who care about Malaysia and hold progressive views,” she said.
“It's still a great shame how that (Harapan) government ended,” Hannah added.
A collage of events from the Sheraton Move in 2020 leading up to Parliament’s dissolution in 2022The Sheraton Move was a coup in 2020 where Bersatu defected from the ruling coalition along with several PKR MPs and joined forces with the opposition to form a new coalition government.
The move, which was followed soon by the Covid-19 lockdowns, led Malaysia into two years of political crisis that ended after the 2022 snap general election. - Mkini

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