Muslim-West divide is on Anwar's mind : Return of a Malaysian
International Herald Tribune
September 7, 2004
Thomas Fuller

When he was the confident, globe-trotting deputy prime minister of Malaysia, Anwar Ibrahim was often called the modern face of Islam.

Now after six years in prison — and his unexpected release on Thursday — Anwar speaks in a faint, raspy voice, slumped on a chair, but Islam and its place in the world are still what he wants to talk about.

He spent much of his time in prison, he said, contemplating the division between the Islamic and Judeo-Christian worlds, a rift that deepened markedly during his isolation, and he is convinced that both sides must change.

He spoke during an hour-and-a-half interview in his hotel room here on Sunday night, not far from the clinic where he underwent surgery on Monday for a back ailment.

He had harsh criticism for modern Muslim leaders, as well as a plea for more understanding on the part of his many friends in the West.

Muslims were hypocritical for staying silent about Saddam Hussein's brutal rule in Iraq, and in complaining about America's influence in the world but ignoring their own troubles, he said.

"This is the single biggest failure of Muslims at present," he said. "You don't have credible leaders, you don't have a real voice of conscience."

Muslims never blame themselves for their problems, he said. "It's the Americans and the Jews and the Christians," he said. "We are still in a state of denial."

Similarly, however, the United States and other Western countries must understand the roots of terrorism, he said.

"The battle of terrorism is a battle of hearts and minds," he said. "You must deal with and address the Muslims first and challenge them on whether a society devoid of such principles of democracy, civil society and tolerance is legitimately Islamic."

Visibly tired, and displaying only flashes of the light-up-the-room charisma he had while in office, Anwar stumbled over names once very familiar to him, and he found it easier to recall Malaysian prison regulations than figures of his past.

He wore hotel slippers and a back brace, a weakened shadow of the man who six years ago led 50,000 protesters through central Kuala Lumpur in one of the largest anti-government demonstrations in Malaysia's history.

Yet he stuck determinedly to the same calls for change that led the Malaysian government to jail him as a security threat six years ago and later charge him with sodomy. Anwar has long maintained that the sodomy charges were part of a conspiracy against him after his dismissal from government.

Malaysia today should strive to be a liberal voice in the Muslim world, Anwar said.

"It cannot be more of a religious state," he said about the country whose population is about 60 percent Muslim.

He applauded the promises for more openness by Malaysia's prime minister, Abdullah Badawi, who last year took over power from Mahathir bin Mohamad, the long-serving prime minister who fired Anwar.

"I have not excluded the possibility of endorsing whatever positive policy changes that have been embarked by Abdullah," Anwar said.

Asked if he ruled out re-joining the ruling party, he chose his words deliberately and carefully.

"For now," he said. "I don't even give any serious consideration to that."

Yet many questions remain today about Anwar as he considers a political comeback. Can he shed the image of a political chameleon who speaks of tolerance and democracy to a Western audience and of stricter Islamic laws to his fellow Malays? Can he base his future political career on criticizing corruption and authoritarianism when he was once happily part of the system?

Anwar says he will turn to politics, and presumably face these questions, only after his surgery and recovery.

As he sat in his hotel room, his arms were limp and pallid, his face was gaunt, his hair thinner and his goatee peppered gray. He says his back injury was caused in 1998 by a beating he received from the chief of police at the time, Abdul Rahim Noor.

Since being released, he has received a stream of phone calls from a varied group of friends and acquaintances, he said. Among them were Paul Wolfowitz, the U.S. deputy secretary of defense, Paul Martin, the Canadian prime minister, Abdullah Gul, the Turkish foreign minister, and Abdurrahman Wahid, the former president of Indonesia.

During his prison term, his family maintained contacts with Western politicians who supported him. Madeleine Albright, who as U.S. secretary of state spoke out against Anwar's imprisonment, invited one of his daughters to be an observer at the Democratic convention in Boston in July.

Anwar spoke about his years in prison, his small cell, his exercise routines and his strict reading schedule. He described how his family and lawyers smuggled durian, the pungent but arguably addictive tropical fruit, into his cell.

He said his cell was 6 feet by 12 feet, or about 1.8 meters by 3.6 meters, and included a bed, a chair, and a video surveillance camera.

He woke every morning between 4:30 and 5:30 and went to bed just after midnight. During the day he read a mix of classics and contemporary nonfiction.

"I finished the entire collection of Shakespeare four times," he said.

Friends sent him books and someone gave him a subscription to The New Yorker magazine. He read an eclectic list of books on comparative religion and the Chinese classics, as well as contemporary nonfiction like Thomas Friedman's "The Lexus and the Olive Tree."

During the six years of imprisonment he sometimes followed developments of the world outside his prison cell by trading a few words with his guards.

He first heard of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, he said, when a prison attendant one morning mentioned something about bombs in the towers in New York. But he has yet to see the video footage of the airliners striking the buildings. Television, not to mention telephones, Internet and visits by anyone but close family and his lawyers, were banned in prison.

"I did not watch television for the entire six years," Anwar said.

He said he told his wife, Azizah, to compile a small library of videotapes.

"I said, 'There are a few things I need to see: The Sept. 11 video, some clippings from when I was arrested, and of course Fahrenheit 9/11. These are the priorities."

Copyright © 2006 the International Herald Tribune