首相安华当下达到了政治巅峰，他希望如何被人们记住？他将如何被人们铭记？
是昌明大马？昌明伊斯兰教？在联合国演讲？或最近接受《时代》杂志采访？
在马来西亚，首相安华的执政表现是家庭聚会、咖啡店闲聊、董事会会议和媒体节目中讨论的话题。他出现在马来西亚民众的希望、恐惧，甚至是梦境和噩梦之中。
他是真诚还是冒充的改革主义者？或者他只是像一些改革老兵所说，只有改革之形？典型的卓越变色龙？
对此我们可以确定的是。安华每天早上展开造势活动前都会照镜子。他在镜子里看到的自己会是什么样子？
他还记得莎士比亚在《马克白》中关于人生的名言吗？
“生命不过是个行走的影子；一个可怜的演奏家，在舞台上趾高气扬、烦躁不安，然后就再也听不到了：这是一个白痴讲述的故事，充满了喧嚣和愤怒，却毫无意义。”
别人怎么看他？
不妥协？坚决？勇敢？毫无惊喜？平淡无奇？还是巨大的失望？
安华最大挑战是如何争取马来穆斯林支持。他能否开诚布公、坦率、坚定、诚实地传达马来社会为何和如何落后的现实和真相？还是他会为了讨好马来社会而否认事实？
他能否让马来社会审视自己的失败和弱点，或者像他之前的其他马来领导人一样，将责任转移到“外来者”和其他马来西亚人身上？
即使安华不能成为国家严重所缺的改革领袖，他能否成为马来穆斯林社会需要的改革人物──或至少是进步领袖。为此，他将不得不应对马来西亚房间里的宗教大象。
安华和伊斯兰
安华在最近的联合国大会演讲中指出：
我们对一种以仇外心理、对穆斯林的负面定性和成见为特征的“新形式种族主义”出现感到担忧。这也体现在令人震惊的针对穆斯林及清真寺的仇恨、不容忍和暴力行为的趋势中……。面对如此公然挑衅宗教的行为，不采取行动是不负责任的行为，并向人类传达了危险的讯息
安华所表达的内容，几近预言似的与近日加萨地带、以色列所发生的事件，以及可能很快扩散到更广泛中东地区现象，惊人地相似。
世界各地出现的伊斯兰恐惧症需要被谴责。在这方面，以色列在加沙地带进行的军事行动，也许是近年来世界上见过的最严重的反人类罪行之一。尽管西方媒体继续聚焦于哈马斯在这轮暴力事件中扮演的恐怖角色，但他们忽略了巴勒斯坦建国的正当原因，以及以色列对巴勒斯坦人长期歧视和压迫的历史。
所有明智的人，只要了解巴勒斯坦人为生存权而斗争的真实历史，都应该毫无保留地谴责影响加沙平民的军事行动，并为公正和平、建立巴勒斯坦国，以及解决该僵局的两国并存解决方案发声。
我们也需要意识到宗教在引发中东和世界其他地方看似无止尽的战争中所扮演的角色。所有宗教，尽管有其良好一面，但也可以是鸦片和火药桶。今天，当宗教因不同信仰而成了战争催化剂时，这火药桶变成“火箭”般形式引爆出更大破坏力，点燃仇恨之火，对无辜社区造成破坏。
当宗教被视为或被假定拥有当今和未来生活的所有答案，并成为“仇恨”和“不宽容”的武器时，其结果必然是灾难性的。
马来西亚的处境与以色列和巴勒斯坦的情况不同且相距甚远。
但安华不能也不应该继续放纵更多宗教上的“仇外心理、负面形象和成见”无节制地蔓延下去。
也许世俗这个用词在马来西亚是政治不正确的，因为几乎所有政客都试图讨好马来人和穆斯林多数群体。一些政客甚至声称世俗是一个被禁的用词。
但是，现代国家需要对宗教的作用划定坚定、明确的界限，确保宗教不会像过去三十年般被不当利用并纳入公共政策和实践的主流，这比以往任何时候都更迫切。
一个更强大和复兴的世俗马来西亚，或者无论它如何称呼，应该是安华留给当代和年轻一代的政治遗产。在这一点上不应有任何含糊或模棱两可。
这将受到非穆斯林社会的欢迎。但这更有可能为马来人和穆斯林社会带来最大的好处，就像其他伊斯兰社会把宗教和国家与公民生活分开时所发生的那样。
林德宜《安华，以巴冲突与大马前景》原文：PMX Anwar, War in Israel and Gaza and Malaysia’s Future
Now that Anwar has reached the pinnacle of political success, how does he want to be remembered? And how will he be remembered?
Is it for his Malaysia Madani? Madani Islam? Speech at the United Nations? Recent Time magazine interview?
Here in Malaysia, he is the subject of discussion in family get-togethers, coffee shop cakap cakap, boardroom meetings, and media programmes. He appears in the hopes, fears, and even dreams and nightmares of ordinary Malaysians.
Is he a genuine or imposter reformist? Or is he just being true to form as some reformasi veterans say? The quintessential chameleon extraordinaire?
Of this we can be sure. Anwar is looking at the mirror every morning before he begins the campaign round. What does he see in the mirror?
Does he recall Shakespeare’s quote about life from Macbeth:
“Life's but a walking shadow; a poor player, that struts and frets his hour upon the stage, and then is heard no more: it is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.”
How do others see him?
Uncompromising? Resolute? Courageous? Run of the mill? Unexceptional? Or A Great Disappointment?
His biggest challenge is his performance on the Malay Muslim stage. Can he be open, straight forward, forthright, unflinching and honest in conveying the reality and truth about how and why the community is in the doldrums? Or will he be pandering and in denial?
Can he get the community to look into the mirror of its own failings and weaknesses or like other Malay leaders before him shift the mirror of blame away to focus on the ‘pendatang’ and other Malaysians?
Even if he cannot be the transformative leader that the nation is badly missing, can he be the transformative figure - or minimally the progressive leader - that the Malay Muslim community needs. For this to happen, he will have to deal with the religious elephant in the Malaysian room.
Anwar and Islam: Abroad And At Home
Anwar in his recent UNGA address noted
We are concerned over the emergence of a “new form of racism” characterised by xenophobia, negative profiling and stereotyping of Muslims. This is manifested in an alarming trend of hatred, intolerance, and acts of violence against Muslims and their sanctities …. Inaction in the face of such blatant provocation to a religion is simply irresponsible and sends a dangerous message to humanity
What he articulated was chillingly prophetic in relation to what is happening in Gaza, Israel and perhaps spreading to the larger Middle East soon.
Islamophobia which has developed around the world needs to be condemned. In this respect, the Israeli military campaign ongoing in Gaza is perhaps the worst instance that the world has seen of a crime against humanity in recent times. Although Western media continues to focus on Hamas terrorist role in this latest round of violence, they have also ignored the just cause of Palestinian statehood and the long history of Israeli discrimination and oppression against the Palestinians.
All right thinking people who know the true history of the Palestinian struggle for the right to survive should unreservedly condemn the military action impacting on ther civilian population of Gaza and raise their voices for a just peace, the creation of a Palestinian state and a two state solution to the political situation there. .
We also need to be aware of the role of religion in precipitating what appears to be the endless war in the Middle East and elsewhere in the world. All religions, despite the good they do, can be both opium and gasoline. That gasoline today is manifested in the form of rockets and the ignition of the flames of hate and destruction wrought on innocent communities when religion becomes the catalyst for war on behalf of different Gods.
When religion is seen or posited to have all the answers to life today and in the hereafter and becomes the weapon of “hatred” and “intolerance”, the outcome is invariably disastrous.
The situation in Malaysia is different and far away from that in Israel and Palestine.
But Anwar cannot and should not wait for more religious “xenophobia, negative profiling and stereotyping” to continue unchecked.
Perhaps secular is the wrong word to use in a politically correct Malaysia where almost all politicians try to play the game of appeasing the Malay and Muslim majority. Some politicians even claim that secular is a haram word.
But the need to draw a firm unambiguous line on the role of religion in the modern state, and to ensure that it is not misappropriated and mainstreamed into public policy and practice as has been ongoing in Malaysia in the last three decades, is needed more than ever.
A strengthened and rejuvenated secular Malaysia, or however it is to be called, should be Anwar’s legacy for the present and younger generation.
No pussyfooting or prevericating on this.
It will be welcomed by the non-Muslim communities. But it has the potential to bring the greatest gain to the Malay and Muslim community as has happened in other Islamic societies when there has been a separation of religion and the state and civic life.
