Malaysian Prime Minister Dato' Seri Anwar Ibrahim delivered a rich, unscripted, and profound speech at the CTCorp Leadership Forum in Jakarta (9/1/2023). The event was sponsored by his loyal friend Chairul Tanjung by inviting many elite Indonesian figures ranging from ministers, former ministers, intellectuals, businessmen, and so on.
There were many things that Anwar discussed, including his life story of being imprisoned for more than 10 years due to political differences, his ideas regarding the state, democracy, economy, including things that some people consider simple but are actually important, namely morals, knowledge, and the values of a nation.
Anwar Ibrahim's magnetism has at least several things. First, his life story is not easy. He was once a high-ranking official, then went to prison and now rose again to become prime minister. Life stories like this are rare, except for a handful of people on earth. That story is the first and extraordinary attraction of his figure.
Second, Anwar is a persistent "supporter of da'wah". He is known to be close to Islamic activists of the Indonesian-Malaysian kind. Activism and intellectualism in the context of national leadership. So, he is not only an activist, but also an intellectual and leader for his nation. What he thinks about: implementing Islamic values to become ishlah (improvement) for society; lifting up the oppressed.
Third, Anwar is a rich book reader. In prison, as he admitted, he read thousands of books of various types. At the event, Anwar quoted several influential books with relevant contexts. It might be a bit excessive if a netizen commented, "I feel like I'm studying for a PhD at Oxford", but listening to Anwar's presentation is indeed enlightening, eye-opening, and at the same time awakening.
Fourth, Anwar fights for the oppressed. He cares about investors--not anti-investors--but he wants to create justice at the level of the majority of the people. This idea is similar to what Kiai Ma'ruf Amin is fighting for when he said that "big businessmen support small businessmen." This means that all people--whether rich or not--must support each other, especially the rich so that they support the poor so that the poor can 'move up a class.' Listening to Anwar Ibrahim's speech was enlightening in my opinion. We were very enlightened because we listened to an influential figure in Malaysia who had gone through difficult times behind bars. His sincerity in serving the community was very apparent in his speech from beginning to end.
We hope that Anwar Ibrahim's leadership will further strengthen relations between Indonesia and Malaysia, complete various unfinished homework, and support each other in making Indonesia's chairmanship in ASEAN a success in 2023.
YANUARDI SYUKUR is an Indonesian writer who is also a lecturer, editor, researcher and speaker at various conferences and expert resource person on several Indonesian television stations and ministries. He has participated in various international programs in Malaysia, Thailand, Australia, the United States, as well as Ukraine. He is an anthropologist at Khairun University who is interested in various global issues. He is currently also active as Vice Chairman of the Islamic and Middle East Research Center (IMERC) of the University of Indonesia and is active in the Commission on Foreign Relations and International Cooperation of the Indonesian Ulama Council. E-mail: yanuardisyukur@gmail.com.
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