Anwar’s anecdotes

Former Malaysian Deputy Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim has an advice to people who complain that they have no time to read: Serve jail time.

Six years in prison on trumped -up charges of corruption and sodomy has not diminished Anwar’s wit and sense of humor. Speaking at a forum in Makati organized by De la Salle University College of Business and Economics, Ramon V del Rosario Sr. Graduate School of Business, and Asian Institute of Democracy, Anwar said while in solitary confinement from 1998 to 2004, he was able to read the entire collection of the works of Shakespeare not once but “four-and-a-half” times.

He said he has also read all the writings of Jose Rizal, whom he considers the father of Asian renaissance. To underscore his message of justice, respect for basic human rights, and strengthening of democracy, Anwar borrowed Rizal’s quote: “Humanity will not be redeemed while reason is not free.”

Anwar made his talk engaging by telling anecdotes like the time he invited an obviously-harassed finance minister of another South East Asian country to watch the Leonardo de Caprio-Kate Winslet movie “Titanic.” This was at the height of the Asian economic crisis in 1997.

Anwar declined to name the nationality of the official but one can guess from some of the details he mentioned. The official said, “Why do I have to watch the ‘Titanic’. I’m already on the ‘Titanic,'” referring to his behemoth country whose economy was sinking.

The official told Anwar that he has warned his president, “Slow down, Papa.” But the President said, “No, we are a great nation.” The official sounded the panic call, “Papa, there is an iceberg.”

When the country’s economy was sinking, Anwar said the President’s instruction to his friend was “Save my family and my cronies. Dump the poor to the sea.”

“That’s untenable,” Anwar said as he bewailed the injustice in a situation where the gap between the rich and poor is vast and deep. He criticized the Malaysian government’s decision to increase petroleum prices by 41 percent and diesel by 61 percent as “unconscionable… without regard to the plight of the vast majority of the poor and the marginalized.” Malaysia is a net exporter of oil.

He devoted a large portion of his speech to the post-9/11 war on terror and its complications to the Muslim community. He expressed concern over the mis-impression of Islam as a source of the problem.

He said there is an obsession in identifying “moderate Muslims” while the social inequities that lead to the conflict and instability are left largely ignored.

He said except in Southern Thailand and Southern Philippines, Muslims have co-existed with other races and religions peacefully. That should be the case, he said, citing the situation in Malaysia where a multi-racial, multi-religious” opposition is emerging for the first time to challenge the ruling party.

He said Thailand should address the increasing radicalism of Muslims who are demanding self-rule and resisting the eradication of their dialect. “The eradication of the mother tongue is bound to fail. The situation calls for a solution that cannot be found in the barrel of a gun.”

In Mindanao, he said, “we must unshackle ourselves of the burden of historical stereotyping.” The Muslims in Mindanao have genuine grievances like dispossession of land and economic marginalization.

“Prospect of peace cannot see the light of day unless and until justice prevails. The theory that one can’t fight fire with fire can’t be truer in this regard,” he said.

Anwar urged his government to resume its engagement in the International Monitoring Team that keeps watch over the cease-fire agreement between the Philippine government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front. The Malaysian government, which is brokering the peace talks between the Philippine government and the MILF, started withdrawing its peace keepers in Mindanao last month (to be completed in September) after it sensed that Gloria Arroyo does not have the political will to resolve the issue of ancestral domain.

During the open forum, Anwar was asked if the Muslims are really for peace, why they don’t participate in peacekeeping operations in Iraq, Afghanistan and Sudan.

Anwar pointed out the participation of Malaysian (also Libyan and Brunei) peacekeepers in Mindanao. As to Iraq, he asked, “How do you get into Iraq?”

He said Americans must get out of Iraq. He said someone had raised to him the possibility of a civil war if the Americans leave Iraq. His answer: “Why, there’s no civil war there now?”

In Afghanistan, he stressed that he disagrees with the Talibans, who are ultra-fundamentalists. But he pointed out that the Talibans, like Iraq’s Saddam Hussein, were the creations of the Americans.

He said we should learn from history that no system, no society has endured foreign occupation.

The war on terror, he said, has created a lot of misperceptions and paranoia. He related his conversations with a friend who asked him if he believed that the Americans with all their sophisticated communication facilities and weapons can’t find Al Qaeda’s Osama bin Laden. Anwar answered, “Yes.” His friend disagreed, “They know where bin Laden is but they don’t get him in order that they will have reasons to kill more Muslims.”