Page 95 - Bloomberg Businessweek - November 19, 2018

Bloomberg Businessweek The Year Ahead 2019 Politics

Interview Anwar Ibrahim

other in private, we try to erase the nasty part.

And you trust him when he says you will
become prime minister in about two years?

I don’t want to talk about it. You know why?
He should be given a free hand. We’ve been
used to a system of government for the last 60
years, and Mahathir was familiar with that sys-
tem. But he has embarked on a new Malaysia,
and he should be given all the support possible.
“When we
One of the biggest crises Malaysia has faced, do chat with
1MDB, is still being investigated. What contrib- each other
uted to such an injustice? in private,
we try to erase
It’s a failure of governance. The enforcement the nasty part”
agencies were all in the payroll of the leader-
ship. Worse, international financial institutions
that we depended on, leaders in western gov-
ernment harping on democracy and freedom
and justice, they were complicit to the crime. 63

▷ After two jail sentences and How has time behind bars changed you as a
decades of waiting, a founder of man and as a leader?
Malaysia’s democratic opposition
has a chance to transform the country I’m not that old, but you age. You read more,
you understand more, you reflect more in
prison. You observe the treatment of Malays,
One election does not make a democracy. Chinese, Indian, foreigners. Naturally my pas-
sion for justice is far stronger. My belief in
Precisely, we acknowledge that. It is the duty democracy is far stronger.
of the leadership of this new government to
ensure that we build institutions strong enough, You talk about democracy, but you have policy
formidable enough, that nothing would allow that favors ethnic Malaysians. Do you envision
authoritarianism in the guise of democracy. a time when that policy is no longer in place?

But it took an alliance with Dr. Mahathir Moha- It will take time for the Malays to accept. For
mad, who put you in jail for a very long time, for the last 50 years, they’ve been indoctrinated
you to realize that. What made you do that? with this policy to survive. Now we say that in
order to survive, the economy has to grow.
These are post-normal times, so it is not odd to We have to make changes in policy to effect
embrace working together. change, but at the same time we will not forget
the poor and the marginalized.
How would you describe your relationship with
Dr. Mahathir currently? What’s your vision for Malaysia?

You want a politically correct answer? This Strengthening the institutions. We’ll rid this
was one of the nastiest battles in modern country of bigotry and propel the economy.
times in Malaysia. People will be cynical or Because without growth, we can’t talk about
suspicious. But when we do chat with each the stability of justice. <BW> �Haslinda Amin