I never meant to belittle Anwar's great work, says Hamas rep

I never meant to belittle Anwar's great work, says Hamas rep


Muslim Imran, a member of Hamas' international bureau, clarified that he had no intentions of belittling Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim and his administration.

He was responding to certain quarters using his comments in the Keluar Sekejap podcast to criticise the Pakatan Harapan chairperson.

“I have noticed that in the last few days, some of my comments in the Keluar Sekejap interview have been taken out of context and politicised, causing some unnecessary misunderstanding.

“When I spoke about my expectations from the Malaysian government and prime minister, it was in response to a question about how I felt, whether I was happy with the official response or not,” he said in a video posted on Twitter.

“I merely expressed my expectations of Malaysia, its government and its leaders. I never meant or intended to belittle the great work of Anwar and his government,” he added.

Muslim, who is the founding director of Asia Middle East Center (Amec), said he has known Anwar for a long time and never doubted his commitment to the Palestinian cause.

“I know he is committed to the Palestinian struggle from his younger days in Abim (Muslim Islamic Youth Movement) until he became the prime minister.

“I believe he continues to support Palestine, his efforts in the last few hours were important in pushing back the Western narrative and Western pressure on the international community,” he went on, acknowledging Anwar’s effort of expressing the latter’s solidarity for Palestinians to the Hamas leadership.

When quizzed on Malaysia’s official response, Muslim replied: “I would agree that Malaysia has always been consistent on the Palestinian issue since the 1960s but I believe Malaysia can do more, to be honest.”

He recalled his brief meeting with Anwar in 2021 when the latter was still an opposition leader.

“At the end of the meeting, I handed over a letter… He told me to ‘imagine how much we can do for Palestine if I become prime minister’… I met his excellency (Anwar) last Ramadhan… again, I reminded him of this (what Anwar said in 2021).

“I told him… You are now the prime minister and we have high expectations. He said ‘Insya-Allah, we will do something’,” Muslim said.

“But the government has been preoccupied with domestic politics and other concerns for a year or so. Until now, one week after the Israel attack, the response isn’t what Malaysia is capable of doing,” he added.

‘Malaysia can do more’

Muslim then recounted former premier Najib Abdul Razak’s visit to Gaza in 2013 and how former premier Dr Mahathir Mohamad “unequivocally condemned Israel and demanded (then US) president (Donald) Trump to resign in 2020”.

He also recalled former premier Muhyiddin Yassin’s phone call to Hamas senior political leader Ismail Haniyeh during the previous conflict in Gaza.

“I expect Anwar to at least make a phone call to Ismail Haniyeh, or maybe (Palestinian president) Mahmud Abbas, or maybe foreign minister (Zambry Abd Kadir) could go to the Middle East.

“I am not in a position to tell leaders what to do. At the end of the day, they have their own political calculations. But I have expectations as a friend of Malaysia because I know the Malaysian people are in favour of our freedom,” he added.

Noting that Malaysia is trusted more in the Middle East than many other countries, Muslim made it clear that he was not asking for military assistance.

“I don’t want you to send your troops to fight in Palestine. The Palestinians have not asked anybody to do so.

“But (US president Joe) Biden called (Israeli prime minister Benjamin) Netanyahu five times since the start of the attacks,” he added.