KUALA LUMPUR, May 23 — Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim has sought to allay non-Muslims’ fears of Islamisation, in an interview with Oriental Daily.

The Pakatan Harapan (PH) de facto leader lamented that the discourse regarding the issue has been hijacked by "extremists”.

"Islamisation is a controversial term because Muslims will say what’s wrong with getting Muslims to be better Muslims. The problem now is that it has been hijacked by the extremists and those with a narrow understanding of Islam,” he told the Chinese daily.

"So you have all these issues of new laws to be promoted and propagated in Parliament without any educated discussions. This has been exacerbated due to Umno’s willingness to collaborate with these people.

"There are bound to be differences of opinion but when it comes down to the crunch, do we have the mandate? Yes, we have and, of course, we will be just. And we will also stop racism and corruption,” he added.

Anwar has been accused of sparking off the Islamisation of Malaysia and its governance with his entry into politics around three decades ago.

G25 member Tawfik Ismail was recently quoted as saying Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad and Anwar had then practised so-called "Islamofacism” back then in a bid to hedge against Islamist party PAS.

Anwar also promised reforms when it comes to "crumbling” institutions, such as independence of the judiciary, media freedom, enforcement agencies, fair, free and just elections.

"So that’s the major task but to me, other than all these institutions, the most important of all is, of course, economic policy,” he said.

"Pro-growth, pro-market but at the same time, we cannot ignore the plights of the poor and the genuine concerns of the population at large over the increasing commodity prices which are affecting their quality of life. We need to do something to lighten their burden and alleviate their hardships.”