Anwar’s brave new world

Murray Hunter

Anwar’s brave new world

Inclusive elitism as a strategy

Aug 15, 2024


When one looks at Anwar Ibrahim’s support for the Muslim Brotherhood, exemplified by Malaysia’s giving material aid to Hamas, the World Economic Forum (WEF), the US, and expression to join BRICS, one could easily see paradoxes here.

However, this may not necessarily be the case. There is an integral web between all the above movements, organizations and alliances.

Indeed, there is a relationship between the World Economic Forum (WEF) and the Muslim Brotherhood. One doesn’t even have to go too far to see that members of the Muslim Brotherhood have spoken at WEF meetings in Davos on many occasions. One gets the impression there is some admiration from the WEF leadership for the ability of the Muslim Brotherhood to gain power and control their societies. This has been labelled by The Washington Post columnist David Ignatius as the phenomenon of “inclusive elitism”.

The Muslim Brotherhood is alive and well within the WEF. Amr Darrag, a member of the Muslim Brotherhood’s Political Committee, is a high profile member of the WEF. The president of Turkey Recap Tayyip Erdogan is a member of the WEF. Erdogan has temporarily boycotted WEF meetings over the Palestine issue. Qatar, a strong supporter of the Muslim Brotherhood holds WEF forums on a regular basis. The speaker of the Tunisian Assembly Rached Ghannouchi, co-founder of the Ennahdha Muslim Democratic Party is also a member of the WEF.

There are a number of people within the Muslim Brotherhood and its affiliates as members of the WEF. So, its not surprising Anwar Ibrahim’s cabinet also has almost a dozen WEF members.

Thus, there should be no surprises at Anwar’s enthusiasm to support BlackRock’s involvement within the Malaysian economy. BlackRock is a strategic partner of the WEF and closely connected with the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), which supported him on the long journey to power.


One would expect BRICS to be the nemesis of the WEF and US corporate capitalism. However, the leadership of the WEF look towards and respect China, often imitating strategy. Digital technology and surveillance, social credit scoring, integration of government and corporations, and emulating the lockdowns during the Covid era, are just a few.

President Xi Jinping is a valued contributor to the WEF. A major WEF conference was recently held in Dalian last June. For Anwar, BRICS is a natural step in this new integrated world order.

At one level, US-China détente is a mythical playing field, with many other levels left unexposed to the dis-concerning person. BlackRock has many finds in China. According to the SCMP, BlackRock along with other major equity firms have channelled ‘billions’ to Chinese companies, including state owned companies. This transposes defence issues.

The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) was accused by legacy media as being a failure and ‘debt trap’ for third world countries. However, the BlackRock-GIP combination is seen by financial analysts as a complement to BRI, not a competitor. This partly explains Anwar’s staunch support for BlackRock-GIP investment in Malaysia Airports Holdings Berhad (MAHB).

Over the last decade, the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) has worked hard to create the above environment. The deeper parts of NED intelligentsia fully understand the nexus explained above.


This goes some way in explaining the government’s sudden interest in Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG), which is virtually a branding created by BlackRock. The control of the media, which has now been achieved through Malaysia’s news portals, and tight control over social media are Sino-WEF strands. The erosion of democracy is consistent with elitism ideas of the CCP-WEF. Corporations and government know best. Events like the force eviction and demolition of homes of residents at Kampong Sungai Baru to benefit a corporation is a testimony to this ideology. Just as in China and what is beginning to happen in Europe, the police are now also playing the role as thought police, to accompany the authoritarian form of government now practiced.

This is how all the pieces of the puzzle all fit in for Anwar’s vision of Malaysia. There are no paradoxes here. This is inclusive elitism.