Meeting Anwar Ibrahim

This is probably a once in a lifetime meeting - seeing Anwar Ibrahim face to face, and hearing him speak.

He was in Stanford yesterday to speak on "Democracy and the Muslim World", and this talk was co-sponsored by Southeast Asia Forum (under the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies) and Stanford's Center on Democracy, Development, and the Rule of Law.

This is an excerpt from the email sent out to invite all to attend the talk:

"Bio note: Anwar Ibrahim is currently a visiting professor at Georgetown University's School of Foreign Service. Since his release, he has also held lectureships at St. Anthony's College (Oxford) and the School of Advanced International Studies (Johns Hopkins). He has advised the World Bank on questions of governance and accountability. Recently he was appointed honorary president of AccountAbility, a London-based organization that advocates socially responsible business practices."

In his 1/2 hr talk and the subsequent 1/2 hr Q&A session, he spoke on "....the 5 pillars of principles in Islam teachings, and how Muslim countries like Pakistan and Indonesia are already advocates of democracy (freedom of individuals) even in the 1930s to 1950s, where free and fair elections were held....".

Although I have never been truly interested in politics, this was an interesting experience.