COMMENT | How does Anwar want to be remembered?

COMMENT | Now that Anwar Ibrahim has reached the pinnacle of political success, how does he want to be remembered? And how will he be remembered?

Is it for his Malaysia Madani? Madani Islam? Speech at the United Nations? Recent Time magazine interview?

Here in Malaysia, he is the subject of discussion in family get-togethers, coffee shop cakap-cakap, boardroom meetings, and media programmes. He appears in the hopes, fears, and even dreams and nightmares of ordinary Malaysians.

Is he a genuine or imposter reformist? Or is he just being true to form as some reformasi veterans say? The quintessential chameleon extraordinaire?

Of this we can be sure. Anwar is looking at the mirror every morning before he begins the campaign round. What does he see in the mirror?

Does he recall Shakespeare’s quote about life from Macbeth:

“Life’s but a walking shadow; a poor player, that struts and frets his hour upon the stage, and then is heard no more: it is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.”

How do others see him?

Uncompromising? Resolute? Courageous? Run of the mill? Unexceptional?

His biggest challenge is his performance on the Malay Muslim stage.

Can he be open, straightforward, forthright, unflinching, and honest in conveying the reality and truth about how and why the community is in the doldrums? Or will he be seen as pandering like other Malay leaders before him?

Even if he cannot be the transformative leader the nation is badly missing, can he be the transformative figure that the Malay Muslim community needs? For this to happen, he will have to deal with the religious elephant in the Malaysian room.

Anwar and Islam: Abroad and at home

Anwar in his recent UNGA address noted:

“We are concerned over the emergence of a ‘new form of racism’ characterised by xenophobia, negative profiling, and stereotyping of Muslims.

“This is manifested in an alarming trend of hatred, intolerance, and acts of violence against Muslims and their sanctities… Inaction in the face of such blatant provocation to religion is simply irresponsible and sends a dangerous message to humanity.”

What he raised was chillingly prophetic in relation to what is happening in Gaza, and perhaps spreading to the larger Muslim world soon.

All religions, despite the good they do, can be both opium and gasoline. That gasoline today is manifested in the form of rockets and the ignition of the flames of hate and destruction wrought on innocent communities in the tragedy taking place in the Middle East and elsewhere in the world where religion continues to be the catalyst for war on behalf of different Gods.

When religion is seen or posited to have all the answers to life here today and in the hereafter and becomes the weapon of “hatred” and “intolerance”, the outcome is invariably disastrous.

Our situation, thankfully, is different and far away from that in Israel and Palestine. See the weekend reading note below.

But Anwar cannot and should not wait for religious “xenophobia, negative profiling, and stereotyping” to continue unchecked.

Perhaps secular is the wrong word to use in a politically correct Malaysia, even a haram one as some would describe it.

But the need to draw a firm unambiguous line on the role of religion in the modern state, and to ensure that it is not misappropriated and mainstreamed into public policy and practice as has been ongoing in Malaysia, especially in the last three decades, is needed more than ever.

A strengthened and rejuvenated secular Malaysia, or however it is to be called, should be Anwar’s legacy for the present and younger generation.

No pussyfooting or prevaricating on this.

No doubt, it will be welcomed by the non-Muslim communities. But it has the potential to bring the greatest gain to the Malay and Muslim community especially the youth as has happened in other Islamic societies when there has been a separation of religion and the state and civic life.

Zionist terrorism

Weekend reading on the roots of the horrendous tragedy taking place in Gaza: State of Terror: How Terrorism Created Modern Israel by Thomas Suarez.

Synopsis: “Why has the so-called ‘conflict’ in Palestine endured for over a century, with no resolution in sight?

“Tapping a trove of source documents heretofore poorly explored, Suarez challenges the prevailing narrative of a clash between Arabs and Jews as depicted by the mass media.

“He demonstrates historically what to honest and informed observers is obvious from the present reality: that the entire tragic history is the violent takeover of Palestine by a European settler movement that couched its goals in pretences of messianic entitlement Zionism.

“Suarez details a shocking campaign of Zionist terrorism in the 1940s and 1950s that targeted anyone in the way of its goals, whether the British government, the indigenous Palestinians, or Jews.

“Indeed, Suárez dismisses Zionism’s very raison d’etre safe haven for Jews as a cynical fraud, exposing the racial-nationalist movement as itself consummately anti-Semitic.

“Zionism pursued its political goals at the expense of, not for the benefit of, persecuted Jews. Today’s seemingly intractable quagmire is Zionism's unfinished business, an Israeli state driven by unrequited territorial designs and the dream of ethnic ‘purity’.

“At its root, the ‘conflict’ is neither complicated nor unsolvable, but ending it will require stripping Zionism of its false narrative. Suarez attempts this by laying bare the historical record.”

LIM TECK GHEE is a former senior official with the United Nations and World Bank. This article has been developed from one that initially appeared here.

The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of Malaysiakini.

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