News analysis After a substantive summit, PM Anwar eyes real change

When Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim was asked about the parade of international leaders he would be welcoming to the Asean Summit, he responded: "Can you see my eyes?"

- Shannon Teoh

KUALA LUMPUR -

He began a group interview squinting through a lazy right eye on May 25 when regional leaders—as well as those from the Middle East and China—started to arrive in Kuala Lumpur for a series of meetings that would end on May 27.

But as the interview with select regional press outlets, including The Straits Times, progressed, Datuk Seri Anwar seemed to grow more ebullient despite the lack of rest that was apparent on his face—the result of a hectic schedule since mid-May that has seen him travel to Russia and fight fires domestically, including a damaging party election and an ongoing dispute over petroleum rights with Sarawak.

The 30-minute interview was squeezed between not just bilateral meetings with his Lao and Vietnamese counterparts, but also a meeting with renowned economist and sustainability advocate Jeffrey Sachs.

The pace of the 46th Asean Summit and related meetings on May 26 and 27 was even more relentless, with delegations moving briskly through their schedules at the Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre.

Nonetheless, the summit saw Malaysia's leader in his element. From his days as a student activist, and then as an opposition figure, Mr Anwar has always enjoyed rubbing shoulders with global figures, no matter if they are politicians, intellectuals or freedom fighters.

Little surprise then, that the Premier was not just playing host, but also elevating the Asean chairmanship to that of a convenor, using it as a platform to grab a seat in an ongoing global geopolitical realignment.

The inaugural Asean-Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC)-China Summit, for example, is exactly the type of South-South cooperation that Mr Anwar has envisioned as a counterbalance to the status quo dictated by Western powers.