Tamil Nadu chief minister C Joseph Vijay is a “new voice of reason”, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim has said. The PM praised Vijay’s focus on principles, values and good governance but said sustaining those standards in power would be a challenge.
In an interview with Chennai-based Thanthi TV, Anwar was asked about his assessment of CM Vijay ’s governance so far. He, though, acknowledged that governing was not simple and that a leader had to deal with several competing pressures. “It’s not as simple. There are a lot of forces that need to be disciplined or made to understand.
“I see him as a new voice of reason, of principles, of values, of good governance,” Anwar Ibrahim said. But thus far, he’s started well, but he should be able to sustain that well,” the Malaysian prime minister said.
The Malaysian prime minister said Vijay’s office tried to adjust his schedule, but the Tamil Nadu chief minister had prior commitments while Anwar had a limited window between his visits to New Delhi, Kerala and the Maldives, The Edge Malaysia reported. Anwar Ibrahim drew on his own experience in government to explain the challenges Vijay could face. He added that governments also have to navigate pressure from different communities and groups. Congress shared pictures of Rahul and Priyanka with the Malaysian prime minister from the breakfast meeting.
He said that discussions around governance could quickly become entangled with issues such as security, race and religion. “I’m not saying that because, similarly, my limited experience now that we’re in the government, it’s not as simple as it seems because you talk about governance, they talk about the security of the race, or the impact on the Muslims,” he said. “Then you have the Hindu pressure, but you have to deal with it because it is a more complex system than we can envisage,” Anwar said.
