After I read the book, I remembered what our adept Egyptian professor Dr. Hamid Rabia`e (may God rest his soul) told us 20 years ago when we were young students at the Faculty of Economics and Political Sciences at Cairo University. He concluded that throughout the course of human history, whenever the thinker and politician combine into one person, the thinker part eventually becomes spiritually or physically dead. Anwar Ibrahim was dismissed from his position, tried, imprisoned, and spiritually killed less than two years from the publication of his book—events that prove my late professor’s conclusion.

The Asian Renaissance was published in 1996 when its author Dr. Anwar Ibrahim was still Malaysia’s deputy prime minister, its minister of finance, and one of the engineers of the development policies which led Malaysia to vanquish poverty in less than three decades and become one of the Asian Tigers. Perhaps his harmonious relationship with Prime Minister Mahathir Mohammed was one of the secrets underlying Malaysia’s rapid success. Anwar Ibrahim, however, was soon afflicted with the ordeal of imprisonment.

No sooner had the book been published, than a conflict arose between the author and the prime minister, who was an intergenerational politician. This invaluable book was neglected, forgotten, and overlooked, despite the fact that it bears many mature visions that can be applied to the present circumstances of our Muslim world and unveils some shining aspects of Muslim thought. In addition, the book provides evidence that it is of benefit to the whole world through dealing with a number of important issues and problems pertaining to Southeast Asian countries, especially those that made big leaps towards economic prosperity and political settlement but underwent painful relapses during the last quarter of the twentieth century.

In his book, Dr. Anwar Ibrahim defends the viewpoint that an organic relationship must exist between the economic and the socio-ethical dimensions of progress or the development process, referred to in Islamic cultural and political speech as Renaissance. He supports his view with a great deal of evidence, asserting the assumption that economic aspects have nothing to do with other aspects, especially the socioeconomic ones, is baseless in Asian heritage.

We feel that it is incumbent upon us to shed light on this important book and point out its most important intellectual and political questions through an intensive reading of its nine chapters, which deserve much contemplation and discussion. We will deal with the following points:

According to Anwar Ibrahim, the Asian Renaissance is:

The revival of the arts and sciences under the influence of classical models based on strong moral and religious foundations; a cultural resurgence dominated by a reflowering of art, literature, and architecture and advancements in science and technology.

In other words, the Asian Renaissance, from his perspective, means comprehensive civilizational rehabilitation for the Asian continent so as to restore its self-confidence, make it capable of learning from the Western civilizations and add new achievements of its own. In this framework, the economic prosperity would become only one facet of the Asian awakening.

From the social perspective, the cornerstone of the Asian Renaissance is the religious Asian human being. The solid, philosophical nucleus of that Renaissance is the safeguarding of human dignity, recognition of diversity, openness to the world, learning from nations’ experiences and a constant dream of a better life for all humankind, without egoism.

Anwar Ibrahim compares between the cognitive foundations upon which the modern European Renaissance was established and the foundations of the Asian Renaissance. He concludes that the intrinsic difference between the two is that the Asian Renaissance is founded on cognitive and ethical bases drawn from religion and the deep-rooted heritage of the Asian peoples. Unlike the European individual, the Asian individual is religious at heart, and that is why the revivification of faith and the stress on religious and cultural diversity are the most important constituents of the contemporary Asian Renaissance.

Asia’s Renaissance is based on an integral cognitive, philosophical foundation whose cornerstone is that the Asian societies are replete with faith and love; love for knowledge, learning, justice, mercy, tolerance, mutual respect, freedom, and responsibility. In the light of this complex theoretical framework, we read Anwar Ibrahim’s ideas and conceptions about the elements of the Asian Renaissance. These include the civil society with its Asian particularity, the linking between politics, economy, and morals, the defining of the Asian Renaissance’s attitude toward the East, the West, and the so-called clash of civilizations, and we read the lineaments of the desired future under the umbrella of that Renaissance.

Anwar Ibrahim believes that a strong civil society is an indispensable infrastructure for the process of building a comprehensive civilization. The essence of that building would be that the people would become more aware of their rights, braver in defending their basic freedoms, and more honest in fulfilling their duties. At the same time, all these are essential for the advancement of the civil society itself.

The author focuses on the Asian vision of the civil society and asserts that the Asian concept of that society differs fundamentally from the Western concept derived from the philosophy of Enlightenment. Whilst religion and the civil society are two extreme opposites in the Western conception, religion is the solid core of the Asian civil society, with its cultural and sociopolitical manifestations and activities. “The civil society we desire,” he states, “is a society based on principles, high morals, the law, and the recognition of diversity and multiculturalism, a society in which organizations develop to meet the citizens’ needs, not to practice tyranny over those citizens.”

Besides, it is necessary—in his opinion—to refine the inherited Asian traditions from all the factors of backwardness, on top of which are tyranny, persecution and all forms of despotism and social exploitation. But what are the essential values that define the features of the rising Asian civil society?

According to Anwar Ibrahim, a coherent system of values distinguishes the Asian civil society, that the basis for this system is the human dignity, and that safeguarding that dignity is possible only within a real democratic system. He also believes that democracy makes no sense unless it goes hand in hand with expanding the public and individual freedoms, spreading out development, promoting general welfare, distributing wealth fairly, and checking performance on the different levels of responsibility. He elaborates that in order to establish a strong civil society, a developed and flourishing economy must exist, which in turn requires social and political settlement. Such settlement will never be attained in an atmosphere of poverty, increasing grievances and the continuous widening of the gap between the rich and the poor.

The human dignity has to be established in the civil society through the principle of justice. The most important characteristic of the rising civil society is its ability to found juridical organizations to protect civil rights and maintain citizens’ liberties. As there is no law without justice, there is no justice without the rule of law. This concept involves three main principles:

1. The priority of establishing a regulating law so as to prevent the government from exercising absolute power over the citizen.

2. Citizens are equal before the law.

3. The rights and freedoms of citizens are guaranteed by the common laws, not by the constitutional declarations which are usually temporary.

If justice is the vibrant heart of the rising civil society—as perceived and propagated by Anwar Ibrahim—the danger lurking for this heart would be the inability to develop the judicial organization which fairly imposes the rule of law. It is not sufficient that the law itself be fair but it has to be fairly enforced as well as “there is nothing worse than enforcing fair laws in an unfair manner.”

The Malaysian thinker bitterly criticizes the Southeast Asian countries for not advancing their juridical organizations to the extent of the advancement of their socioeconomic conditions. He particularly refers to the influence exerted over the judges by the colossal multinational corporations to secure their interests; a status quo which renders justice in those countries—including Malaysia—an illusion and a false slogan that can never be realized. Judges have to exercise their judicial authority according to the rule of the law, not according to the rule of the individual, whatever their power, rank, or sway in society might be.

Nothing threatens any Renaissance project worse than the obstacles of political authoritarianism, social injustice, and financial and moral corruption. This is the trinity against which Anwar Ibrahim warns in great detail, undressing its secret and public techniques and tactics. He affirms that authoritarianism, injustice, and corruption are linked rings whose first leads to its last and vice versa. He insists that it is imperative to strictly counteract and overwhelm that trinity.

Anwar Ibrahim perceives that authoritarianism has historic roots and present-day socioeconomic backgrounds that help it survive. Nevertheless, he particularly focuses on the idea that the inherent Asian culture calls for fighting authoritarianism and never surrendering to it. In this context, he refers to the works of Asia’s great intellectuals and philosophers, both ancient and contemporary. He also believes that democracy is the cure for authoritarianism. To him, the saying that the people are not qualified to practice democracy is like telling a child that he cannot go to school because he is ignorant.

Democracy—which must be devoid of what clashes with our beliefs, values and ethics—creates a becoming atmosphere for practicing collective and individual freedoms, undermines the authoritarian whims, and helps society thrive in peace, tolerance, and mutual respect among the different communities and sects.

Injustice, from his point of view (and ours), neutralizes everything beautiful in life: injustice negates justice, freedom, and human dignity, and it is the pasturage of oppressors whether they are rulers or ruled.

In the Renaissance society, it is not acceptable that any individual, group, community, or minority feels aggrieved, oppressed, or cast aside for whatever claim. Organizations, practices, and ideas should be employed so as to avoid complaints and to lay down the foundations of justice, equality, and equal opportunities.

The achievements of economic progress should be recruited in fighting off poverty, oppression, and social marginalization, from which many women, children, and workers suffer. It is embarrassing that economic progress is associated with the fact that, according to the 1990 statistics, 170 million persons in Southeast Asian countries live below the poverty line, that 100 million boys and girls are deprived of education, that one third of children under five suffer from malnutrition and that every year, one million children under the age of five die.

Corruption is the worst obstacle obstructing the Renaissance process because corruption nurtures both authoritarianism and injustice. In Ibrahim’s view, corruption can be in the administration, in the conscience, and in the ethics. Corruption can be on the individual, communal, and organizational levels. Any attempt to tolerate corruption on the pretense that it is “an inevitable evil” must be strictly aborted at once. The author believes that no excuse should be given for not taking serious measures against corruption through the law and socioeconomic reforms. Those initially responsible for the corruption must submit to investigation and trial before a courageous and impartial judiciary.

With this decisive and crystal-clear attitude against corruption, Anwar Ibrahim unmasked his rivals, who together, launched a fierce war against him until they—most ironically—brought him up on charges of corruption, which he had always called to be fought, vanquished and removed from the way of Renaissance!

The future embodies an essential part of Anwar Ibrahim’s vision. The author focuses on Asia’s future within its Renaissance and on Asia’s relationships with the world. He attaches importance to the future of the Islamic nation and what it should be like in the new century. He states:

What we anticipate for Asia in the next century is that it will become a major participant in the development of human civilization. The most important of things it can provide is the laying down of the principles of tolerance with the other, mercy in dealing with the weak and deprived, and revering the sanctity of the family as a cornerstone in the edifice of a refined human life.

Within this conception, Asia can present to the world its distinctive cultural production which would point out its individuality and, at the same time, repress the passive effect of globalization upheld by the present dominant Western powers.

In Ibrahim’s opinion, the quicker the Asian awakening moves on in its right path, the sooner the West and East will meet in fruitful cultural dialogues and will better realize the universality of the human community. Ibrahim does not agree with the views presaging a clash of civilizations and asserts that the new world order must first take root in the reality of collectivism, recognize universal multiculturalism, and add ethics to politics and economy. The attempt of shaping a world order based on power or dominance means crushing the weak for the sake of the strong, and the ever ongoing suffering of humanity.

The Asia of the future should not look at the world from the perspective of power relations. The Atlantic community and the Western powers in general should not look to Asia as a competitor or an obstacle against the West’s ambitions to control the world. Instead, a feeling of the unity of human fate must prevail: “In the middle of the next century, this feeling will become deeper and more widespread.”

We also believe, as the author does, that the future of the Muslim nation in the new world will be defined in the first place by healthy thinking, good planning, and tangible accomplishments, not by flamboyant rhetoric or abstract ambitions hovering in the sky of ideals.

Muslims have to respond to the call of knowledge and science so that they can achieve progress. It was knowledge that enabled Europe to control and humiliate the Muslim world and plunder its riches. Knowledge is the greatest of pleasures and ignorance is the most deadly of pains. In the future, the intellect must rule the heart, so that we can see things from a practical perspective and smartly set our priorities.

That was a condensed reading of Dr. Anwar Ibrahim’s thoughts presented in his book, The Asian Renaissance, which he wrote and published before he went through the ordeal of trial and imprisonment. Perhaps he knows that one of the painful facts persistent throughout human history is that positive politics is a world without ethics, a world ruled by power and led by interests to the realms of power, money, and influence. As a thinker-politician, perhaps he may also know that everything is possible in the world of positive politics: rising to the top, falling to the bottom, noble deeds along with acts of villainy, integrity mingled with corruption, and despotism wrapped in the cloak of freedom.

One of the eternal paradoxes in the world of politics is the schism between the thinker and the politician or between the man of theory and the man of practice. The former hunts for the validity of the concept and the purity of the vision, whilst the latter is primarily concerned about work, dealing with the problems at hand, and exercising the authority of do and do not.

Although both the thinker and the politician are indispensable for each other, history and the experiences of nations have long proved that they remain separate entities, each feared and regarded attentively by the other. It has also been a fact across history that whoever wanted to become a simultaneous thinker-politician has been spiritually or physically killed.

Anwar Ibrahim, with his open-mindedness, ascended to the top of his country’s pyramid of power before the intergenerational politician instituted legal proceedings against him. But Anwar Ibrahim had chosen his path and committed himself to defend what he believed in. He made that clear before the ordeal:

I have no regrets for the road not taken because the one that I took has led me to a challenging and fulfilling public life. And it is in this domain that I will continue to actively and fully participate in the realization of the higher ideals of life.

This quote incites us to contemplate and critically reexamination the efforts made to achieve the Renaissance of our Muslim nation, taking into account the tremendous challenges that envelop us simultaneously from the inside and the outside.

* The Asian Renaissance by Anwar Ibrahim, published in 159 mid-sized pages by Times Books International: Singapore-Kuala Lumpur 1996.

** An expert at the National Center for Social and Criminal Research–Egypt.