KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 19 ― Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim is scheduled to meet China’s national leaders in Beijing next week, during which he plans to raise concerns over the treatment of Uighur Muslims there.
According to the Nikkei Asian Review, Anwar will push for greater recognition of the religious minority’s rights and will be briefed about the recently-exposed mass detention of Uighur Muslims.
“The concern is, of course, their rights to religion and movement. Our position is not to condone any form of violence, either by the society or the state,” Anwar, 71, was quoted saying in the report.
China is under criticism for allegedly detaining up to a million Muslim Chinese in the Xinjiang province, some without charge for infractions like refusing to provide DNA samples, speaking in a minority language, or arguing with officials.
The Asian superpower denies the alleged mistreatment and insists that Uighur offenders were absorbed into vocational education and training programmes as part of its countermeasures against growing extremism in the western region of the country.
Malaysia recently freed 11 ethnic Uighur Muslims who had been detained in February and sent them to Turkey, despite requests from China to hand them over to Beijing.
When asked if he supported the move, Anwar said, “If we find their case legitimate, we should assist them.”
Despite his plan to broach the topic sensitive to Beijing, Anwar added that his trip there will also be to rebuild trade relations that have soured after Malaysia pushed back on US$20 billion (RM83.15 billion) worth of contracts over high costs and dubious payment structure.
The politician presented as the next prime minister of Malaysia said China was keen to learn his views of the future, hence the invitation for him to speak on “Malaysia's rule of law and China-Malaysia's future” at the Renmin University of China.
“I would emphasise the need to have an effective, strong bilateral relationship,” said Anwar, adding that he will ask Beijing to look beyond construction work and instead make substantive investments and technology transfers.
Anwar also told Nikkei that he was growing closer to Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad now, adding that the two met regularly.
“The rapport is very good now. We met on Monday and today I am meeting him again before he presents his speech in the Parliament,” he was quoted as saying.
Anwar formally returned to active politics on Monday when he was sworn in as the Port Dickson MP following his victory in the by-election there last Saturday.
