I AM greatly saddened by the circumstances of your resignation from the IIU. You’ve been a central pillar in the intellectual life of the university, the physical development of the Gombak campus and the initial planning of the Kuantan Medical Campus.
But I know you as a man of forbearance and wisdom, and I trust you recognise that the machinations of a desperate despot and his handful of courtiers do not reflect the real sentiments of the citizenry.
Thus, the venom of a contemptuous few cannot obliterate your indelible imprint on the university.
The week your resignation was announced, IIU students, staff and graduates swarmed the courthouse just to let me know their regrets over your impending departure and how grateful they were to you for all that you had done for the university.
It is gratifying to note that there is such popular acclaim for you within the university, notably for your dedication, diligence and magnanimity. In the process, naturally, I got harassed for university funding requirements.
In the quiet solitude of prison, I’m able to recollect vividly our meetings in Riyadh beginning more than 20 years ago. In spite of our shared ideals, we were always engaged in heated debates on the issues of wasilah (way of reform) and fiqh awlawiyyat (order of priorities). Unfamiliar as I was with loud Arab rhetoric, I had to force a readjustment of my subdued mannerisms – in other words, my Malayness – just so I could be heard.
But, each time, it was the diplomatic mastery of Dr Ahmad Totonji that brought about an amicable end to our debates. You were always adamant in putting across your view that islah and societal reform could be meaningfully achieved only through education and knowledge or, more precisely, in the realm of thought.
It's amazing how consistent you have been, expounding those very ideas in The Crisis of the Muslim Mind, which you published years later.
You maintain there that, even as we marvel at the brilliance of Salahuddin al-Ayyubi's reign, we cannot ignore the importance of the scholastic tradition and educational reform preceding it.
I have chosen the path of societal reform and, in so doing, I often have had to sacrifice that just balance I have always wanted to maintain between contemplation and action.
Through ABIM (Angkatan Belia Islam Malaysia), student and youth movements, and later in government, I have tried to generate public awareness (taw’iyya) of the crucial importance of ensuring al-adl wal-ihsan (justice and virtue/equity) in all human affairs.
It is true that I have often been conciliatory, and at times, I have been criticised by colleagues and Islamists and social activists and the opposition, who insisted that not all of such compromises could be rationalised in the name of hikmah, or wisdom (In fact, I intimated to you some time ago of my growing disenchantment and frustrations at the excesses of the government, [Tun] Dr Mahathir [Mohamad]’s abhorrence of criticism, his mega enterprises and delusions of grandeur).
However, I had to draw the line when transgressions went beyond acceptable boundaries, when corruption had become pervasive and rampant, when religious laws and ulamas were belittled and abused, when public funds were plundered to enrich families and cronies, and when there was travesty of justice and the rule of law trampled.
Of course, I am paying a high price for sticking to my convictions. Nor am I alone in facing the rage of an aging dictator. Unfortunately, my family and friends have to suffer along with me.
Some have been arrested, tortured, or otherwise harassed by the Special Branch. My experience in detention in 1974 taught me that it would be totally unacceptable merely to survive as a conformist while having to endure corruption and oppression.
Alternatively, having to pursue a reform agenda as a competent critic is certainly challenging and beset with obstacles.
Nonetheless, it is beyond my worst expectations that Dr Mahathir could act in such a desperate, despicable manner – to allege that I am guilty of acts of treason (foreign agent), sexual misconduct, corruption, even explored the possibility that I was involved in a complicity to murder.
And the fitnah and mihnah continue unabated, with vilification by the government-controlled media.
Since you left, the inspector-general of police Tan Sri Rahim Noor has resigned and Dr Mahathir has relinquished his role as minister of home affairs.
But I intend to proceed with a civil suit against him and the IGP for the physical assault, for being stripped naked, and the inhuman treatment under police custody.
A lesson must be learnt. Citizens cannot be subjected to brutal physical abuse and ridicule.
Nevertheless, like you, I have no regrets. I'm trying to keep myself busy – with prayers and du’a, tadarrus and reading.
I have not overlooked the importance of education and the intellectual tradition in bringing about reform.
My love for scholarly discourse and passion for literature I have tried to share with the public, even in dry budget speeches in Parliament, in the hope of introducing the great minds to the uninitiated.
Thus, while trying to justify the need for reform or the reduction of taxes, for instance, I used to slip in quotes from Ibn Khaldun. I concur with Mortimer Adler in his attempt to popularise philosophy.
When I assumed the office of minister of education, I had to persuade you to immediately travel to Kuala Lumpur as IIU’s new rector. Sensing your initial reluctance, I had to prick your conscience by reminding you how you had been pontificating over the issue of education and the Islamisation of knowledge, and that you now had the moral responsibility to assist in the actualisation of the ideals. And not a word about pay or perks.
You ended up receiving a salary substantially lower than the remuneration you were used to as a professor in Riyadh.
But I must say without hesitation that it was indeed a worthy sacrifice. Despite the limitations and constraints of the system, and with the help of selected colleagues, you have expanded its academic programme, initiated a new university culture (and caused some resentment in the process), advanced staff and academic training schemes, increased substantially the intake of both local and foreign students and embarked upon an ambitious and impressive physical development of the new campus.
Upon reflection, we do realise how arduous and perplexing was the task. The predominant attitude regarding education then was utilitarian. Educational institutions were seen as factories to churn out graduates with the necessary skills and expertise to meet the demands of industry. While it is right to expect universities to match the requirements of industry, one should never lose sight of the fundamental aim of education, which is to cultivate the love of learning and scholarship.
It is, therefore, incumbent upon the leadership of institutions of learning to play a catalytic role in intellectual and societal reform. I remember recommending that all vice-chancellors read A Nation At Risk, the report of the decline of education in the United States, and Allan Bloom’s The Closing of the American Mind, exhorting for a more intellectually profound educational tradition and the relevance of morality in education.
I soon began to realise, as minister of education, that there would be resistance unless universities were led by competent academics and managed as a university; not as a school or corporation.
The university requires a resolute and firm leadership to withstand the dictates of political masters wanting to colour education purely as a propaganda tool or to serve the requirements of corporate tsars.
Otherwise, we will see an intellectually sterile leadership succumbing to all possible dictates of the system, preventing discourse, criticism and public dialogue, which would in turn breed mediocre academics and students.
This reminds me how, as a young activist exasperated by the increasing number of restrictions on academic freedom and dissenting voices on campus, I alluded to the “sacred cow” Ivan Illich speaks of in his devastating rebuke of the educational system.
It is impossible to envisage dynamism, intellectual inquiry and the mushrooming of ideas under an oppressive, intolerant regime. Even in the Islamic education system, what has been paraded as “traditional” has gone wide of the mark of true tradition and is, in fact, nothing more than an “obsolete, truncated system”, as Fazlur Rahman so convincingly argues in his Islam and modernism.
We must restore the spirit of inquiry and that of tasamuh, the tolerance of differing views. We must explore new avenues whilst remaining firmly rooted in authentic tradition. This is precisely why I have encouraged intellectual discourse among young academics. They must have some familiarity with philosophy whilst being, for instance, computer literate and academically qualified in their various disciplines.
I reiterate my profound gratitude and appreciation for your impressive performance. I commend you for being able to manage against the odds and particularly for exercising your utmost patience with me. Yes, I constantly react to students’ complaints and the frustrations of some members of the academic staff.
Where criticisms are legitimate, we have to be magnanimous as you have consistently shown. But when we notice racist overtones to deny the fact that the very existence of the university was to serve Malaysians and the ummah, then you are right to react firmly.
Our universalistic approach of assimilating knowledge from both the East and West, while remaining rooted in the our tradition and Islam, must be built upon. The IIU is clear testimony to our resolve to maintain our independence.
You would understand why some quarters in the ruling elite resent this philosophy and approach. Throughout recent history, we encounter the so-called nationalists with strong anti-Western rhetoric, but who remain captive to the Western mindset, either in their understanding or the issues of faith, morality and values or in their notion of laws, governance or development.
And we must have the courage to condemn atrocities perpetrated by any power – the Serbs in Bosnia Herzegovina, Israel in Palestine or, recently, the United States in Iraq.
But we should not remain naïve, to be duped by dictators and desperate regimes to deflect from the real issues and the wrath of their own people. Dr Mahathir is again using the foreign bogey and their perceived threat as a ploy to camouflage excesses and corruption.
We Malaysians fought the colonial powers because of their oppression and plunder. Surely, we would not want these powers to be replaced by indigenous oppressors and squanderers.
As I have indicated in The Asian Renaissance (1996): “It would be a tragedy indeed if this hard-earned freedom were to result merely in the substitution of a foreign oppressor with a domestic one” (p.62).
The foreign bogey is not anything new. Neither is it unique to Malaysia. Mussolini used it to dominate the Italians. He was followed by Hitler. In fact, all dictators past and present like nothing more than to maintain the perception of an ongoing threat. When they are finally defeated, they are found to have amassed enormous amounts of wealth, the accumulation of years of plunder.
Yes, we were all baffled initially at the extent of acrimony and rancour (of my charges). But we soon realised that fitnah and mihnah by the perpetrators knew no bounds.
Did I have a choice? Should I fear retribution and fabricated charges? Without hesitation and with a clear conscience, I will continue to struggle.
Yes, it is somewhat arduous, seemingly insurmountable. But we have seen the spontaneity of support, overwhelming and expressing genuine concern. They know of the moral standards of the leadership, the hypocritical lifestyles and the vices, which abound among those discussing morality. They are aware of the billions amassed by leaders who are close confidantes of the leadership and who continue to be rewarded.
They are not oblivious to the bailout of children and cronies. The mega projects, the majestic palaces are just too conspicuous to be erased.
They have heard tape recordings of speeches abusing ulamas and denigrating religious laws and values. And now, more evidence of conspiracy at the highest level to assassinate me politically seems to be surfacing.
These are but temporary aberrations; the dawn of a new Malaysia cannot be far off. Insha Allah, justice will come, truth will prevail, wickedness and treachery will be exposed and I shall be vindicated. – The Vibes, September 10, 2021
Anwar Ibrahim
Sg Buloh Prison
Ramadhan 23, 1419
January 11, 1999
