PM: We must support a system that frees people from oppression
KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia will not waiver from its stand to free Palestine as a Muslim country and help to rebuild Gaza, says Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim.
Malaysia will also not change its stand to help in rebuilding efforts, despite criticism from certain quarters, said the Prime Minister.
He told reporters this after launching the book “A Malik Bennabi Reader” and opening the International Institute of Futures Studies at the International Institute of Islamic Thought and Civilisation – International Islamic University of Malaysia (Istac-IIUM) here yesterday.
He had been criticised recently after announcing on Jan 29 that Malaysia will build a school, hospital, and mosque as part of its initial contribution to rebuild Gaza.
Some have criticised the plan, arguing that the government should prioritise addressing domestic issues first before committing to the reconstruction of Gaza.
Earlier, in his speech, Anwar said that although modern science and technology were supposed to uplift humanity, they have been used to create displacement and genocide.
“Modern science and technology are forces meant to uplift humanity but these have been perverted into instruments of domination.
“Nowhere is this clearer today than in Palestine, where the tiresome and mendacious claim of defending “the only democracy in the Middle East” is wielded as a shield to justify the dispossession of an entire people,” said Anwar to an audience of academicians and diplomats.
He added that the author Malik Bennabi had argued that colonisation is not by brute force alone.
“Bennabi’s homeland, Algeria, paid a heavy price for its freedom – one and a half million martyrs. Yet his vision was never shackled to one land alone. He saw the struggles of Muslims across Asia and Africa as shared struggles. And he spoke not just for them but for all of humanity.
“Bennabi understood that colonialism was not merely an external imposition – it was also an internal ailment, made possible by the weaknesses within colonised societies.” Anwar said.
“Domination was not sustained by brute force alone. It was nourished by intellectual inertia, political stagnation and social fragmentation. True liberation, was not simply about casting off foreign rule – it was about renewing the very foundations of society.
“Bennabi called for a holistic revival where societies had to dismantle both the mindset of subjugation and the physical structures of imperial control, Anwar said.
Modern societies have been endowed with tremendous power over the natural and human worlds, yet their ethical development has failed to keep pace, which then breeds dehumanisation, he said.
“True liberation is not merely political or economic. A society that grants political rights yet leaves its people in economic servitude is not truly free. Nor is a society that ensures material security while suppressing intellectual and political freedom.
“This is the essence of Islamic democracy: a system that frees people not only from external oppression but from internal servitude.
“This is as much an injunction to bear responsibility for one’s actions, and a commandment for accountability without which democracy becomes a mere platitude. Hence, our Madani framework of governance places paramount importance on democratic accountability,” said Anwar.
