Understanding Anwar from the Islamic international relations lens

September 10, 2024

JAKARTA – The mere mention of Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim will conjure up images of an “Islamicist”. While there is validity in this optic, not unlike all things in life, there has to be a certain degree of moderation that goes into pigeon-holing a leader of a trading nation such as Malaysia.

Getting Anwar right, especially when he has met with president-elect of Indonesia, Prabowo Subianto, twice over the last few months in Putrajaya, is also of critical importance to Indonesia’s foreign policy community. Indeed, Anwar will be attending the inauguration of Prabowo as president on Oct. 20 in Jakarta.

Just as Prabowo was once described as a “green general”—green representing Islam—of the Indonesian Military, unpacking the worldview of Anwar would help Malaysia and Indonesia build a stronger relationship with or without any Islamic element in the background.

One of the best ways to have a sense of the intellectual make-up of Anwar is to delve into the views of his closest confidants, or those whom Anwar respects immensely for their scholarship. One of them is Osman Bakar, the chair of Al-Ghazali in Epistemology and Comparative Civilizational Studies at the Institute of Islamic Thought and Civilization (ISTAC) in Malaysia.

As Osman affirmed, “Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim was not merely a youth leader of the World Muslim Assembly of Youth [WAMY], which is an entity based in Saudi Arabia, but one who was a key member of the Belgium-based World Assembly of Youth [WAY] too.”

In the eyes of Osman, Anwar has always attempted to be relevant in the Islamic world and the conventional mold of the Westphalian nation states. Indonesia can assess him not only as a pivotal figure in the Islamic world, but in the