Laman Pilihanraya Umum Malaysia Ke 11

No one person is the solution

Oleh: Arfa’eza A Aziz, Malaysiakini, Sep 29, 04 1:09pm

Ex-deputy prime minister Anwar Ibrahim has responded by e-mail to questions from malaysiakini as he recuperates from back surgery in Munich, Germany.

Malaysiakini: Many quarters have welcomed your commitment to struggle for reform including creating more democratic space and equal economic opportunities through some sort of a ‘rainbow coalition’. Could you please elaborate how you plan to contribute towards achieving these goals.

Anwar: The challenge for Malaysia is to fulfill our promise as a united country. We have to give meaning and substance to reform, (and to form a) mature and a democratic multicultural nation where all our citizens have opportunity to contribute in a secure and open, vibrant society that is prosperous and delivers the benefits of prosperity to all.

As a nation we are a ‘rainbow coalition’ - my commitment is to work with all opposition parties and all groups and even to work with the government when they are doing the right things.

Perhaps the greatest task for us all is to accept the challenge of the future. To use what freedoms we have to the utmost. If we accept the entrenched system of government direction, elitism, cronyism, nepotism as the way of doing business we make ourselves dependents, accepting crumbs from the table, we make ourselves timid and less than we can and should be.

Real reform is challenging these attitudes in ourselves. It is realising that the longer we accept such practices the more it will inhibit our genuine development and growth. We can and we must do better. I will continue to raise my voice, to challenge and cooperate for sustainable solutions but we have to be mature enough to realise no one person is the solution we are part of the solution.

It is time to find new ways of joining together to work for a better, more equitable, open, accountable and enterprising future - that is what democratic reform means. Democracy belongs to all of us, we all have to work to make its promise real.

Speaking on reforms, there are claims that Malaysians shouldn’t place much hope in you due to your perceived failure to deliver reform during your 16-year stint in the Barisan Nasional government.

I believe I have spent the last six years demonstrating the limits of what can be achieved by fighting from within the system. We have all seen how much naked power exists and how ruthless it can be. Do you really think it was that easy to simply alter it from within as just one person? I took the issues of open government, transparency and tackling corruption very, very seriously - and the results are equally clear.

There are regrets, it would be folly not to acknowledge (this). I have had time to reflect carefully on the past. But, on the other hand, there are achievements, directions set and gains and made that one can be proud of. Quality education, based on openness to ideas yet with a strong moral core that encourages better mutual understanding of the common values we share and need to develop to make a Malaysia a better society.

(We must) work to tackle and eradicate hardcore poverty; to ensure the provision of low-cost housing so that all Malaysians can have the basic tools to secure and work for a better life. Opening ranks of those who received contracts beyond the narrow circle of beneficiaries, in the name of ‘bumiputera policy’, so that enterprise is distributive, inclusive and utilises the talents and abilities of all.

Your criticism against repressive laws in Malaysia is mainly confined to the Internal Security Act and the Official Secrets Act. What is your stand on other similarly repressive laws like Printing Presses and Publications Act, Sedition Act, and Universities and University Colleges Act?

I think I have made it abundantly clear that you cannot be a little bit democratic. An open, responsible vibrant society cannot exist without the free flow of information and ideas. A free press, the freedom to debate peacefully, to express dissent to argue for changes are all inter-connected.

Malaysiakini itself is a response to get around to the limits imposed. But we have to go further and dismantle the structures of control that are exercised by those in power to curtail and limit our freedom. We are not a society of children; we all have to see the connections between the controls exercised upon us and have confidence in ourselves.

We cannot let scare mongering, manipulation and vested interest of the powerful deny us. We have to secure the basic reforms and freedoms across the board to fulfill the promise of the mature, united, open, democratic society we are ready and fully capable of being. I see the connections only too clearly and giving substance and meaning to reform across the whole range of issues is my purpose and commitment for the future.

Prior to your sacking from the government, you had - in your capacity as finance minister - said that IMF policies were needed to rescue Malaysia from the free fall of the 1997 East Asian economic crisis. Since then, experts, and even the IMF, have lauded (former premier) Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s policies - including capital controls - as having been the right step in dealing with the crisis.

I think this is a major misconception that needs to be cleared up. The argument was not pro- or anti-IMF. It was about the reasons behind the facade of the currency restrictions and the closing of the Malaysian economy. I could not, and would not, agree to the facade being used to refinance, bail out and further entrench a narrow circle of cronies to the detriment of the economy as a whole and the welfare of the most vulnerable in our society.

I believed then and I believe now that the motives and action taken behind the facade were wrong and for the long-term health and growth prospects of the Malaysian economy. Making my stance into a supposed endorsement of the IMF would be further from the real issues. It is a smokescreen to divert everyone from asking the important questions and taking a clear look at what had happened in the last six years.

I acknowledge the strategic short-term benefits the policy brought - but how have they been used? They were used to create a black hole in the heart of the Malaysia economy that we will be paying for and suffering from, for years to come. We have entrenched an economy that is good for the few not the many.

We did not need the IMF to weather the storm of the Asian economic crisis. We did need creative destruction of the flaws we had built into the working of the Malaysian economy from which we continue to suffer. The creative destruction was not an endorsement of the wrongheaded ‘one size fits all’ strictures of the IMF prescription but of the corrupt, counter produce and unproductive defects that I believed then and now, deform the enterprise and prospects of the Malaysian economy for the vast majority of the Malaysian people.

We are neither as prosperous nor competitive as we could and should be and that is the real issue, that is what we should be debating and thinking about now.

Several quarters have claimed that you have remained ambiguous with regard to your political future. Some have labelled you a ‘political chameleon’. In particular, how committed will you be to the opposition and are you entertaining any thought of returning to Umno after 2008?

I have tried throughout my life to remain constant to my ideals, to my belief in democracy, in poverty eradication, in developing a more open, tolerant and united society that enriches the lives of all citizens with justice and equity, that retains its spiritual values to guide its moral conscience in doing right and caring for the human dignity of all.

I hope over time I have listened and learnt, and sometimes that means using new ideas. And sometimes to bring the same message to different audiences you have to use different approaches, different language of ideas to make the same message relevant and comprehensible - that is not being a chameleon - that is working to be effective.

I remain loyal to my core principles, I am rededicated to my core principles. I seek to recommit myself to working for them in the most effective way in the circumstances and conditions of today.

I seek to work for a better Malaysia, in a better world through open democracy, in a vibrant society founded on justice and respect for the human dignity and rights of each person that gives everyone the opportunity achieve their full potential and contribute as much as they are able to the common good.

Times change and different times make their own demands but what is meaningful - values and objectives are the anchors - is be constant to my core principles, the moral compass that I set my course by. I only hope to be more effective in the future and to make my consistency of purpose clearer to everyone by the actions and endeavours I undertake.

Six years ago, you were a heartbeat away from being prime minister. Do you ever see yourself as being PM in the future? Or have you given up on your ambition of becoming PM?

It is the Malaysians people who determine who their prime minister will be. I am content to apply myself to the tasks I have outlined and leave the future to the Malaysian people.

Some would claim that if you choose to lead the opposition, your chances of becoming PM would be very slim. Tengku Razaleigh failed to do so through his Parti Semangat 46.

Once again, it is for the member of the opposition to choose their leader. It is not and cannot be my choice, where’s the open democracy in that?

Furthermore, the opposition already has leaders and I must pay tribute to (Dr) Wan Azizah (Wan Ismail) for the work she had done in forming and leading Keadilan (now known as Parti Keadilan Rakyat). It was not a party formed about and for the purpose of one person, to be summoned and directed at the beck and call of one person - it was precisely to get away from such practices that it came unto being. It will not, I hope and sincerely believe, change course now.

I look forward to working with all opposition parties particularly PAS and DAP. I will listen and learn from them all, as I will give my views openly to all. What happens in the future will then be decided openly by the Malaysian people - that’s the kind of democratic, united people we must strive to be come.

When the Federal Court freed you of sodomy, you said that it was a sign of judicial independence. But then when your review application for the corruption charge was denied, you said the court was not free from the influence of the executive. How do you see judicial independence in Malaysia as reflected by your two cases.

The logic of the judgment by the Federal Court was denied by its resort to innuendo - exactly the kind of innuendo they rejected in overturning the conviction. The logic of the Federal Court ruling clearly undermines the entirety of the corruption conviction - it is no corruption to talk to a police officer and as an innocent man express one’s innocence

There were rumours that you were given special privileges while in prison such as the use of a mobile phone and specially-catered food. Is there any truth to this?

I suggest you question the prison guards to establish the truth on these matters, I can honestly say I did not feel privileged to be an inmate of Sungai Buloh, though I was humbled and honoured by the human decency shown to me by inmates and prison guards alike.

I would not recommend the experience of being assaulted in solitary confinement and under 24-hour surveillance to anyone however. And I would not like, even those who believe such nonsensical rumours, to have to find out from experience what treatment I received.

How has six years in prison changed you? What’s the difference between the old Anwar and the new Anwar?

I hope I have not only endured and survived but matured in the last six years. That’s what we all should be doing, growing and human beings bringing the best out of the experiences life give us.

Prison is not the place I would select or recommend but it certainly gives one time to think.

I have also been deeply moved for in the last six years, so many people have worked, prayed and supported me. I have been enriched by the love and the support of my family to whom I owe the highest praise and dedication for all they have suffered and endured. I have been overwhelmed by the thoughtfulness, kindness and commitment of so many people that has sustained me over the last six years.

I hope I can live up to and repay them by being the very best I can. But since my release, I have found such a clamour of expectations I rather think several super-heroes could not fulfill such expectations, let alone one Anwar.

All I hope to do from now on is live up to the principles I believe in, work to give meaning and substance to the reforms I believe are necessary at home and abroad, and most of all invite all like minded people to work with to achieve these objectives. Making genuine advances cannot be the work of one man. It is a task we can only attempt and compete together with mutual respect, united and tolerant of each other.

There is talk on plans for you to head an internationally-based think tank.

I am still exploring the possibilities. The fate of all countries is inter-connected and affected by the volatile global situation We have to be part of thinking about, planning and acting for international peace, security and prosperity with justice and human dignity for all.

I would like to play a part in bringing together people from many countries who are searching for new solutions that will move towards a better future for everyone. We have to look beyond the limitations of today’s problems. If I can help bring together new engaged communities of debate then I must do so.

This is something that is being urged on me by friends at home and abroad. I am absolutely clear that this is not a diversion or distraction from the issues at home in Malaysia but central to constructing a better future for Malaysia, by listening, thinking and engaging with enterprising, constructive, forward looking ideas wherever they come from.

My commitment is to ensure they have practical purpose for Malaysia and improving its future, as well as making a positive contribution to improving the international situation.