@msiadecides interviewed Anwar Ibrahim yesterday at his home.
These are excerpts and views from @anwaribrahim interview
Pix by @acinoseth
“There will a new dawn for Malaysia. There will be a new breed of Malaysians who think Malaysian.” -@anwaribrahim
“This has got to sink in mindset of all leaders of PH. They don’t support because of leaders, they support because they want a change” - @anwaribrahim
“You do not need to entirely disregarded a race. Any country would be doomed that if the party disregards any race. There is a difference between concern for racial sentiments and racism promoted and bred in the old regime.” -@anwaribrahim
“Affirmative action should stay. The race policies should be removed. Affirmative action, as long as you have poverty, inequality and gross inequality.
“It has to be changed. The system breeds inequality, contracts are given to a few.” -@anwaribrahim
“Without PAS in the coalition, it has become less complex. Because Malay parties like Amanah and Bersatu are not seen to be racist or extremist” - @anwaribrahim
“My job is to monitor, I’m not going to join the cabinet. I’m going to monitor cabinet ministers performance and so called advisors” -@anwaribrahim
“Najib’s design is that if you incarcerate Anwar you try and malign Mahathir, you will kill two birds in one stone. His tragedy is that the two birds combined and took the stone and threw it back at him. That’s precisely what happened” -Anwar
“I would like to spend my time with my kids and grandchildren. They need to be with me. I hope to continue about my passion. Talking about democracy and Islam in universities” - @anwaribrahim
“I can’t be living in Los Angeles. I’m a Kampung boy. There was an offer from UN, it was not small but I turned it down” - @anwaribrahim
“I quarrelled with him on many serious issues. But then I met him I told him.I said to him, I was “so loyal to you”. He said “ya la baik dengan you”. But,I said when we fight, it is war and it is a rough battle but now look, we are back
“You can see he is quite sentimental about it too. You can imagine that the time I really was close to him, so it comes back. It wasn’t difficult at all.” - @anwaribrahim
“That is my role to assist Mahathir. Not to oppose but to consult if there is no consensus.” -@anwaribrahim
“You see Rafizi, Siva, Tian, Izzah not easy people to handle. Semua keras kepala. They have their strength. They are bright, they have strong views and want some consistency in policies. They tend to argue.” - @anwaribrahim
“He is like that. He will be critical even with me. He can be very rough. That is why his name is Rough-Fizi. But that guy works so hard. He can garner so much support from the Malays, Chinese and Indians.” - @anwaribrahim
“It is a quite a complementary force, he is amazing. His projection happened to be sadly true. Most people quite disagreed. All the surveys indicated a tough hung parliament sort of resort but he was right.” - @anwaribrahim
“You are not for Islam but you are for shariah. Look at the Indonesia experience, you are trying to break the country. What is your priority? “ -@anwaribrahim
“Why deny me any seat. People say if you contest, there will be a power struggle. You are mad is it? I was denied an opportunity to contest, I was unjustly incarcerated but my friends are now saying don’t contest.” - @anwaribrahim
“I’m no longer an opposition leader, I’m part of the government. My speeches are not as fiery as before” - @anwaribrahim
“I was elated but you must realise you must be civil. I don’t care about the attention. It is my duty to reply to it civil manner” - @anwaribrahim