March 01, 2019
Conversation with a Statesman
Georgetown University is a key institution in the nation’s capital, Washington. Many years before, it was my first orientation to US campus life.
On a rainy day, its president hosted a conversation with star-crossed Malaysian statesman, Anwar Ibrahim, before an overflowing audience.
Anwar Ibrahim is leader of Malaysia’s ruling Pakatan Harapan coalition and president of the People’s Justice Party, who served as Deputy Prime Minister from 1993 to 1998 and, before that, as Finance Minister for 7 years. Newsweek’s “Asian of the Year” for 1998, he subsequently faced dubious corruption and sodomy charges and spent over ten of the past 20 years in solitary confinement. Amnesty International declared him a prisoner of conscience. He received a full pardon after his party won Malaysia’s general election on May 9, 2018.
Anwar has gone through a furnace of incarceration, torture, false accusations, and trumped-up charges. But he has emerged, to cite the poem Invictus, “Bloodied but Unbowed.” And now, through the turning of the wheel of fortune designed by Providence, is poised to lead Malaysia as its next Prime Minister. It shows the fickleness of fortune and of people, along with the compelling imperative of maintaining tenacity under adversity by just not giving up. It is also an indictment of existing Muslim socio-economic conditions wherein plunderers and killers are enthroned while thinkers are pilloried.
On and off, I had spoken on the legal injustice done to Ibrahim and had also written about it. I had been told by his associates then about how many expatriate Muslims in the US had abandoned Anwar Ibrahim, the proclivity being to prostrate before power and not to accost it with Haq.
At the beginning of his remarks, Anwar took time to thank US Catholics for taking up his cause and said that, during the darkness of his imprisonment, it gave him solace to know he was not alone.
His comments resonated with his passion for justice and compassion for the aggrieved. He said that he was a devout practicing Muslim and remains a tireless advocate of inclusivity, diversity, pluralism, and justice for all.
His words of healing and reconciliation were a refreshing break from the existing politicking, which has been characterized by narrow aims, petty ambitions, hypocrisy, and ignorant bigotry.
Anwar stated that colonial mentality mars Muslim governing elites, who have failed in their core responsibility of providing good governance to the people.
While the focus of other discussants was on democratic misdoings in the Muslim world, I raised an issue closer to home of two newly elected US female Muslim congresswomen and how, because of their tackling taboo subjects, they have faced near-unanimous condemnation from the Establishment.
It was significant to see others raise the issue of Uighur mistreatment as a wedge issue between the Muslim world and China, in order to divert attention and downplay the Palestinian plight.
Anwar underlined the hypocrisy of Muslim ruling elites amassing millions and then talking of justice and poverty.
Both the Muslim world and the West need to undergo sustained doses of introspection to curb scenarios where thoughtful dissidents are vilified and imposters glorified.
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