AI in Cambridge

Disclaimer: This article does not affiliate me to any political party or persons who are.

Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, Malaysia's former Deputy Prime Minister was invited by the Cambridge Union to give a talk on "Asia in the World: Examining Economic Growth and Social Justice in the 21st Century" this evening.

Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim at The Chamber, Cambridge Union

It certainly was thought-provoking and absolutely marvellous to be able to hear from the "other side of the story", especially from someone who once had so much power in the country and suddenly lost it all overnight. He went through six-years of jail sentence and became a "political martyr" as some people may call him.

He was very critical about the past administration. It was certainly a good platform to hear about his take on the cause of his political fight in Malaysia and the "untold" stories that unfolded in 1998 till present. Revelations...yum yum...

Tengku Azela raised a question which caught me by surprise while taking a video during the Q&A. She asked if there were Malaysian intelligence in the talk because some students in other universities were apparently instructed to refrain from talks given by the oppositions. Students on government scholarships were "advised" to refrain from going. It's terrible if it's true.

So, isn't it clear and understandable now for my unusual opening remark for this particular article?

The short clip that I took captured the interesting bit of the talk. Among those that deserve mentioning:

"I want Malaysia to be proud of its universities"

"I want Universiti Malaya to be the premier university in the entire Commonwealth"

"Now, we're a bit better than Zimbabwe" (most likely pun intended)

"I've moved to Segambut..." (I used to go there for my dose of seafood noodles..hahaha)

"....were told by the High Commission to withdraw. So they go, although they came"

When it was time for personal questions I asked Datuk Seri:



"Datuk Seri, in your time as the DPM, you had so much power in the country and were likely to implement changes more effectively than you are now. What have you done to stop all these bad things from happening; the claim of nepotism, cronyism and corruption in the coalition party which you were once part of? Obviously, you didn't want to be the unpopular one.**truncated**
Datuk Seri replied: "Well, I had tried but obviously these were not obvious then. I was the one who created the Anti-Corruption Agency, the one who tried to remove the Internal Security Act and....**truncated**

I asked again: "You were seen as the political martyr in Malaysia. You went through 6 years in jail and paradoxically Malaysians have benefited alot from your predicament. There was a huge revelation by you in the political scene and your removal from the government is really, ahem, I would say, "not that bad after all". I guess, we wouldn't have gotten to the level of details about the government if you were still the DPM. **truncated**

Datuk Seri replied: "**smile** 6 years of suffering, assault and torture in solitary confinement were all worth it..." **truncated**

Cheers!

And more photo opportunities...



Disclaimer again: I'm only a technician for the mic that Datuk Seri was using, I don't know anything. I am only a by-stander, please don't blame me for reporting the truth. Please don't take my iPod, please.