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ALI: You’ve said Malaysia needs its own “Malaysian Spring.” Should the United States and Western powers help or should they abstain from interfering?
ReplyDeleteANWAR: The US is admired when it has a consistent stance for supporting freedom and democracy; not in its ambivalence of preaching democracy but then at the same time supporting corrupt semi-authoritarian and authoritarian regimes. I don’t call for direct intervention, but the U.S. must remain consistent in the support for those who call for democratic reform.
ALI: Before your very public break with the elected government, you were the deputy prime minister to Mahathir Mohamed. Considering you invested so much of your political career supporting the rule of the elites, how can you be the spokesman and role model for solving corruption and political cronyism?
ANWAR: With humility, I cannot absolve myself from all the excesses of the past regime particularly when I was involved with the Mahathir [Mohamed] government [Ibrahim was Mohamed’s Deputy Prime Minister from 1993 to 1998 until he was sacked from his post]. But if you look at the facts, during all my tenure, they cannot produce one piece of evidence of any type that I engaged in illegal concession, contracts, or money squandered compared to the members of the ruling clique.
Secondly, I initiated religious dialogues conducting a series of programs promoting democracy and social justice. And the support of an independent anti-corruption commission, the most controversial legislation, was created by me. And that was the last straw that led to my sacking. I had to pay the price because I promoted the reform agenda within the ruling establishment and this was not tolerated.
GE13 EXCLUSIVE: Interview with Anwar Ibrahim http://on-msn.com/12Zrs1z via @mymsnnews ... ALI: You’ve said Malaysia needs its own “Malaysian Spring.” Should the United States and Western powers help or should they abstain from interfering?
ReplyDeleteANWAR: The US is admired when it has a consistent stance for supporting freedom and democracy; not in its ambivalence of preaching democracy but then at the same time supporting corrupt semi-authoritarian and authoritarian regimes. I don’t call for direct intervention, but the U.S. must remain consistent in the support for those who call for democratic reform.
ALI: Before your very public break with the elected government, you were the deputy prime minister to Mahathir Mohamed. Considering you invested so much of your political career supporting the rule of the elites, how can you be the spokesman and role model for solving corruption and political cronyism?
ANWAR: With humility, I cannot absolve myself from all the excesses of the past regime particularly when I was involved with the Mahathir [Mohamed] government [Ibrahim was Mohamed’s Deputy Prime Minister from 1993 to 1998 until he was sacked from his post]. But if you look at the facts, during all my tenure, they cannot produce one piece of evidence of any type that I engaged in illegal concession, contracts, or money squandered compared to the members of the ruling clique.
Secondly, I initiated religious dialogues conducting a series of programs promoting democracy and social justice. And the support of an independent anti-corruption commission, the most controversial legislation, was created by me. And that was the last straw that led to my sacking. I had to pay the price because I promoted the reform agenda within the ruling establishment and this was not tolerated.