A dialogue between Anwar Ibrahim, currently Malaysia’s prime minister-in-waiting and Yang Razil Kassim from The S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies has been published.
The dialogue highlights about New Malaysia. According to Anwar, he wants Malaysia to be more mature regarding democracy yet he didn’t deny the fact that there have been many issues left unresolved to fulfil the prerequisites for Malaysia to mature as a democracy.
Such as the problem of corruption, judicial independence, and challenges to reinforce the institutions of governance. Despite these challenges, Anwar said he was happy enough with the progress made by media in Malaysia who are more interactive nowadays but remain critical of the ruling government.
During the discussion, it seemed a bit difficult to dig Anwar’s thoughts deeper on his view regarding his vision as an upcoming Prime Minister, “Yes at the right time, I will say it. Of course, I got to do what I have to do. But for now, my task is to support the present prime minister”, he answered diplomatically when being asked to articulate his view, as written on the dialogue.
Anwar also promised to include some brightest new generations to be part of his team once he officially takes the role as prime minister, even he was so proud to say there have been young leaders responsible for key roles in Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) currently.
Unlike when he answered previous questions, Anwar became very clear in answering further questions regarding the position of Malaysia in the region. According to his view, Malaysia should strengthen its relationship with neighbouring countries especially Singapore.
With the return of Tun Mahathir as a prime minister whose works, according to popular opinion, resurrect past difficulties between Malaysia and Singapore relations, Anwar believes that Mahathir is not the one to be entirely blamed. Anwar also carefully pointed out, under the then-prime minister Najib, flaws were quite obvious too.
Later on, he also implicitly encouraged public that Mahathir’s actions in raising issues of Kuala Lumpur-Singapore High-Speed Railway and water price were somewhat right. He preferred to move on and continue the task to establish better relations beyond those issues.