Anwar Ibrihim at the Cosmos Club --Photo copyright Kyi May Kaung
Iron gate at Cosmos Club, Washington DC.Photo copyright Kyi May Kaung.
At an Asian Voices Seminar at the select Cosmos Club in Washington DC, on June 8th, 2007, sponsored by the Sasakawa Peace Foundation, USA, former Deputy PM of Malaysia Anwar Ibrihim spoke out strongly for democracy and for Burma and imprisoned democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
Mr. Ibrihim was recently Distinguished Visiting Professor in the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University, and Visiting Fellow, St. Anthony’s College, Oxford University. Previously, he was Distinguished Visiting Fellow at SAIS (School of Advanced International Studies) in Washington DC.
He began his notable political career in Malaysia in 1982 when he was elected to Malaysia’s Parliament and subsequently was Minister of Youth, Minister of Education, Minister of Finance and Deputy P.M. He founded the Youth Movement of Malaysia in 1971 and was its president for 10 years. His wife, Dr. Wan Azizah, heads the Parti Keadilan Rakyat Party.
In 1998, Newsweek International named Mr. Ibrihim “Asian of the Year.” In 1998, he was imprisoned by Mahathir Mohammad’s government on trumped up charges which included sodomy. A Wikipedia article on-line gives details of his case. The prosecution was said to have alleged that the alleged sodomy took place in a building that did not exist at the time, and the judge Augustine Paul who first wrote the judgement was promoted after doing so. Wikipedia (p. 8 of 16) states that “The persecution . . . of Anwar has widely been considered to have homophobic overtones, although Anwar himself is married and has several children and no evidence indicates that he is gay.”
“In a speech during the proceedings against him, Anwar explained what he believed to be the primary motive behind his persecution. He told the court, ‘I objected to the use of massive public funds to rescue the failed businesses of his (Mahathir’s) children and cronies.
“Both Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch expressed some doubts about the fairness of the trials. A.I. subsequently designated Anwar as a prisoner of conscience.”
This was during the Asian financial crisis of 1997, for the countries which till then had been known as the Asian Tigers, but were now wounded and bandaged tigers, as depicted in a cartoon at the time. Anwar Ibrihim as Finance Minister supported the IMF plan for recovery which involved economic restructuring and opening up the economy to greater foreign investment and competition. Ibrihim instituted an austerity program that cut government spending, which affected some of Mahathir’s mega projects.
In 2004, an appeals court reversed the conviction and he was released.
In the gilt and mirrored upstairs room of the Cosmos Club, with its heavily baroque walls and ceilings, Mr. Ibrihim’s presentation after a buffet lunch deplored the retrogressions from democracy that he was seeing in S.E. Asia. The other 2 speakers, Jose Luis Gascon of the Philippines, and a political scientist from Thailand who requested anonymity, both seconded Mr. Ibrihim’s impressions that democracy is not doing well in S.E. Asia right now. The session was moderated by Catharin Dalpino, Visiting Associate Professor at the Edmund Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University. Prof. Dalpino teaches S.E. Asian politics, security and international relations.
My question to Mr. Anwar Ibrihim, which I did not get to ask (because it was answered anyway) was – “If democracy is doing so badly in the other countries of S.E. Asia, what about Burma?”
John Brandon of the Asia Foundation also asked Mr. Ibrihim, “You spoke of the failure of ASEAN to take effective measures on Burma. What are those?”
Mr. Ibrihim replied, “Why don’t we at ASEAN condemn the (Burmese) junta for mistreating Aung San Suu Kyi? We need to take a strong position, and not allow a dictatorship to treat its own people as slaves.” He said that all the foreign investors doing business in Burma were “all cronies (of the Burmese junta) from the ASEAN countries.” He also added that in Burma, “tens of thousands of people are being treated as slaves, and there is mass abuse of human rights.”
He then went on to say that in S.E. Asia, “a soft democracy” with a consistent, coherent voice may be more important. In the case of Burma, he said, it is a failure of the governments in ASEAN, stuck as they are in the obsolete notion of constructive engagement.
Then, much to the amusement of the fifty or so seminar attendees, he added, “All that’s taking place (in Burma) is construction by the military government, there is no constructive engagement.” He said in the case of Burma there is no simple solution. It took the EU and the USA to compel ASEAN to use more courage. Mr. Ibrihim re-iterated that a new approach was needed “so that the Mahathirs and Lee Kuan Yews of this world will not say ‘democracy is bad for S.E. Asia.’”
Mr. Ibrihim said, “You can write anything I said,” when I asked him for permission to quote his remarks. He smiled broadly when I mentioned that our mutual mentor, Dr. Josef Silverstein, Professor Emeritus Rutgers University and recognized “Dean” of Burma Studies, often mentioned his name.
Mr. Anwar Ibrihim currently resides in Malaysia where he serves as advisor to the People’s Justice Party and is a prominent leader in the opposition.
See also an op-ed written by Mr. Ibrihim to the Asian Wall Street Journal.
Ibrihim, Anwar, “Destructive Engagement” Asian Wall Street Journal, June 15, 2005. Also on Burmanet.
Kyi May Kaung is a freelance writer and research analyst based in the greater Washington DC area. For the last 10 years she has regularly written commentaries on Burma and S.E. Asia.
