SHNEAKO - April 17, 2026


SNEAKO Interviews The Prime Minister of Malaysia ｜ Anwar Ibrahim “PMX”

Topics
ban on Israelis in Malaysia
Hosted by
Nicolas Kenn De Balinthazy
Mentioned
Anwar Ibrahim Sari Patana Ayatollah Khomeini Tao Madinah Macron Hamza
SNEAKO X Professor Jiang X Dave Smith ｜ Unity Amidst Chaos - Full Panel Discussion Malaysia IRL Stream Day 2 🇲🇾

Episode Stats


Length

26 minutes

Words per minute

125.11

Word count

3,298

Sentence count

260

Harmful content

Hate speech

27

sentences flagged


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

In this episode, we talk to the Prime Minister of Malaysia, Anwar Ibrahim, about his visit to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and his experience as a Muslim-American living in the United States. We also talk about the Israeli ban on Israelis visiting Malaysia, and what it means to be a Muslim in the modern world.

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
Topics generated with Qwen2.5-3B-Instruct.
Hosts, guests, and mentioned names generated with spaCy (en_core_web_sm), reconciled against Wikidata.
00:00:00.000 As-salamu alaykum.
00:00:02.160 Heard a lot of great things about you.
00:00:04.100 You've been here for some time now?
00:00:05.800 I just arrived a few hours ago.
00:00:11.400 Yeah, why do you think the United States
00:00:13.520 has such a strong relationship with Israel?
00:00:15.620 Because I just learned that Israelis are banned
00:00:17.840 from visiting Malaysia, if I'm not mistaken. 0.85
00:00:20.280 We do not recognize, precisely because...
00:00:23.660 You don't recognize Israel as a state?
00:00:24.780 No. Well, we do. It's de facto, yes. 0.97
00:00:27.500 Right.
00:00:27.680 But the issue is the atrocities continue.
00:00:31.860 I mean, how do you recognize a state that colonized the other states?
00:00:35.500 I mean, effectively, Palestine and Gaza have been colonized.
00:00:39.200 Yes.
00:00:39.660 You asked me why am I here. 1.00
00:00:41.160 It's because right now, although Islam is the fastest growing religion in the world,
00:00:45.040 we are more divided, I think, than we've ever been.
00:00:48.020 And we don't have the same unity.
00:00:50.140 We don't have the same caliphate.
00:00:51.040 And then Sunni, Shia, they talk about Hanafi, Sufi.
00:00:53.880 And the Arab states, they say that they're in war with Iran.
00:00:56.420 And so right now, I think it's important, especially as an American, to come to your beautiful country and speak to someone like you and find some unity.
00:01:03.160 How do you think the Muslim world, beyond just Malaysia, how could we find more unity right now?
00:01:09.000 Today, we're meeting with the Prime Minister of Malaysia, Anwar Ibrahim.
00:01:13.540 So it's a huge interview, and it's Friday prayer. We're going to go pray. Welcome to Malaysia.
00:01:19.500 So is it true that they ban Israelis from Malaysia? 1.00
00:01:22.980 Yeah, sure. Alhamdulillah. 1.00
00:01:26.420 That's the car that I drove in Spain, out there in Mallorca, it's that BMW.
00:01:50.420 Stay behind me, stay behind me.
00:01:56.420 Yo, look at these kids, look at the kids, right at the Adon is Aura, right at the Adon
00:02:25.420 As-salamu alaykum. Great to meet you. Datul City. Great to meet you. I've heard a lot of great things about you.
00:02:40.840 You've been here for some time now?
00:02:42.380 I just arrived a few hours ago.
00:02:45.260 From?
00:02:45.940 From New York.
00:02:47.460 Long flight.
00:02:49.400 Thank you.
00:02:50.520 Thank you for having me in your country.
00:02:51.880 Thank you.
00:02:52.220 Nice to meet you, my friend.
00:03:06.380 Join me and do it.
00:03:07.580 I would love to.
00:03:08.800 Okay.
00:03:12.440 What's up, bro? 0.88
00:03:13.780 Are you Saudi? 1.00
00:03:14.960 No, no, bro.
00:03:15.860 What are you? 0.99
00:03:16.980 You're Jordanian?
00:03:17.960 As-salamu alaykum.
00:03:18.680 Great to meet you.
00:03:19.840 Hi, Hamza.
00:03:20.360 How you doing?
00:03:20.920 Sorry.
00:03:22.220 Can I get a picture, please?
00:03:25.600 You got me yelled at, bro.
00:03:30.160 Nice to meet you.
00:03:31.380 Thank you so much.
00:03:37.160 Hi.
00:03:38.460 Hi.
00:03:40.340 Hi.
00:03:41.500 Hi.
00:03:43.300 Sneeko.
00:03:45.760 I'm from New York.
00:03:47.740 Ooh.
00:03:48.500 Where are you from?
00:03:50.740 Malaysia.
00:03:51.640 Nice.
00:03:52.220 good. Datut Siri? Yes. Yes. How do you say happy in Malaysian? The Tao. Do you know this? Do you know
00:04:04.940 six, seven. Easy. I'm from America. What city? Are you from Kuala Lumpur?
00:04:22.220 Yes? How old are you?
00:04:27.580 Very good.
00:04:42.560 Okay.
00:04:44.080 As-salamu alaykum. Thank you so much.
00:04:46.160 Come in the car. Okay, okay.
00:04:47.740 Come in the car. Okay.
00:04:50.780 Okay.
00:04:52.220 Okay, let me grab the phone.
00:04:58.300 Come on, wait, wait, wait, come on, man.
00:05:03.700 Oh, is it just me?
00:05:04.620 I'll just hold this.
00:05:05.780 Okay.
00:05:06.600 Yeah, that's right.
00:05:07.260 Assalamualaikum. 0.99
00:05:11.800 Yeah, I'm coming. 1.00
00:05:13.320 They fall into my office.
00:05:14.540 Okay.
00:05:18.100 Okay.
00:05:21.100 Assalamualaikum.
00:05:22.220 it was hot there is it always like that for you it's good to speak to the
00:05:32.280 children. Can I say hello? Do you mind? Thank you for letting me in here.
00:06:02.280 Is this where you usually go for Joma?
00:06:10.080 If I function from here, my office, then I'll choose, I take turns, I don't, and normally
00:06:20.800 I go to the, not the main mosque, the main mosque, very official, very nice, you go to
00:06:27.460 the suburbs, the suburban areas. You can change and people talk to you. You are the kids from the
00:06:33.940 school. Yeah. With the college of the school. All teachers present. So it's a joke here.
00:06:42.260 Monitor this. Because the students, they express very frankly, whether they're
00:06:49.620 shorty of teachers or state of the laboratories. I always say that you clean your own laboratories.
00:06:56.420 You clean their own bathrooms.
00:06:59.160 Yes.
00:07:00.120 It's cool to see because right now in America,
00:07:01.860 there's all this chaos.
00:07:03.120 And I can't imagine seeing a world leader like that
00:07:05.780 interact with the people and be amongst his citizens
00:07:08.780 the way we just saw with you.
00:07:10.300 It's nice to see because there's all this chaos right now
00:07:13.220 in the world.
00:07:15.120 I think it's also a universe of phenomena
00:07:18.020 that trust emphases particularly critical leaders
00:07:20.960 because of clear convictions
00:07:24.300 I mean, look at the situation in the attack against Iran and now the destruction in Gaza
00:07:34.300 and now Lebanon, you see.
00:07:36.300 But they generally trust everything.
00:07:40.300 Of course, if I follow strictly the protocol and the security, I can't do that.
00:07:45.300 Right.
00:07:46.300 There is only one thing, I can understand the concern of the security, because it's beyond them, but then I don't come from the elite force, so I come from...
00:08:03.300 Are you from Kuala Lumpur?
00:08:04.300 Well, originally I'm from Benang, in the north.
00:08:07.300 Then I grew up here with the first year from the student days and the Da'wah Bodies and the student in Islamic movement.
00:08:21.300 I've been involved for a long time. I think that have taught me.
00:08:25.300 I don't think that there are constraints once you're in the office.
00:08:32.300 You can function as a society, civil society.
00:08:41.300 So your first trip to Malaysia?
00:08:43.300 First time here.
00:08:44.300 Oh, good.
00:08:45.300 I've been to the Philippines when I was eight years old.
00:08:47.300 Oh, right, right, right.
00:08:48.300 But I think the Filipinos and the Malaysians look a little bit alike. 1.00
00:08:51.300 Yeah, usually the Malays talk. 0.94
00:08:53.300 They come from the Malay world or the Malay African-American.
00:08:57.300 Malaysia, Indonesia, Brunei, even Singapore.
00:09:01.620 I mean, from the original Malaysia talk.
00:09:03.540 But here, of course, we have ethnic Chinese, ethnic Indians.
00:09:07.060 I heard, and there's a lot of different ethnic groups.
00:09:08.740 Yeah.
00:09:10.180 But you seem very loved here.
00:09:11.260 What is the secret to getting the people on your side?
00:09:15.380 You become yourself.
00:09:17.100 I'm a lot.
00:09:18.020 You can see with the social media, a lot of people hate me, too.
00:09:21.460 I haven't seen any now.
00:09:24.020 like like now the crisis um gas and yeah it's going up because the strait of hummus is closed
00:09:33.940 really no but we are fortunate because we maintain we engage so i uh last month i spoke to the
00:09:39.620 president of iran and said and he immediately cleared so two of our tankers are already here
00:09:46.020 arrived oh two tankers came in from the strait yes so they're working though people are allowed to get
00:09:50.660 oil from the Strait of Hormuz that aren't working with designers yes but but now
00:09:56.340 the Americans taking over that they've been there's no certainty as I said
00:10:01.260 President Macron has contacted me last night to ask me to join that meeting
00:10:06.500 essentially to for the right of navigation but that's not the end of the
00:10:13.460 story. I mean, you should also then express your opposition to any attempt to attack and
00:10:20.700 give as Israelis and Americans did in Iran. 0.69
00:10:26.080 Yeah. Why do you think the United States has such a strong relationship with Israel?
00:10:30.620 Because I just learned that Israelis are banned from visiting Malaysia, if I'm not mistaken.
00:10:35.760 We do not recognize precisely because...
00:10:39.080 We don't recognize Israel as a state. 1.00
00:10:40.560 Well, we do. I mean, it's de facto, yes. 1.00
00:10:42.960 Right.
00:10:43.460 But the issue is the atrocities continue.
00:10:48.940 I mean, how do you recognize a state that colonizes the other states?
00:10:52.580 I mean, effectively, Palestine and Gaza have been colonized.
00:10:57.220 Yes.
00:10:57.660 And so we oppose colonization.
00:11:01.360 All is formed.
00:11:02.660 And we do, therefore, cannot control that.
00:11:05.620 There's no indication that Israel is adjusting to some foreign policy.
00:11:11.460 No, they keep expanding.
00:11:12.260 they go into lebanon displacing more people the atrocities you know unrival is like the barbaric
00:11:19.860 so barbaric that's called the days of the barbarians it's a beautiful motion yes it 0.91
00:11:24.900 seemed like in the hutba he was speaking a lot about phalistine yes the khutbah actually made 0.80
00:11:28.980 this reference they need to be united and we pray for the christianians and uh so they did i mean
00:11:38.100 The state normally do have some influence and I think it is good that they did that.
00:11:49.100 But also related to the need for unity, tolerance, because it is a multilateral country with a large number of Chinese and ethnic Indians.
00:12:00.100 And some of the tribal groups, either enemies or Christians. 0.97
00:12:07.100 I thought this was a masjid. It's not. It seems like it's your office.
00:12:10.940 Oh, yeah, yeah.
00:12:12.380 Oops.
00:12:14.380 What do you call this building?
00:12:16.680 It is the Prime Minister's office, but it's Sari Patana.
00:12:22.600 Sari Patana.
00:12:23.400 I inherited this.
00:12:24.620 Oh, okay.
00:12:25.900 This is completed in 1998.
00:12:28.720 Then I was in prison.
00:12:30.640 Yeah, I heard there were saying that you were in prison.
00:12:32.540 many times, many total of almost 10 and a half years.
00:12:37.720 So from prison to prime minister, that's gangster.
00:12:47.240 I would love to, yeah, however much time.
00:12:54.940 But why did you decide to come here?
00:12:56.800 Because I love, I want to unite the UMA.
00:12:58.760 So I'll explain briefly.
00:12:59.540 I just came back from Bosnia, and before then I went to Medina.
00:13:04.660 I want people to be united right now, especially with what's happening in Iran.
00:13:14.200 Try my best, chat.
00:13:22.700 As-salamu alaykum.
00:13:23.380 As-salamu alaykum.
00:13:24.380 I'm very fortunate in this place, you see the beauty, beauty, it's beautiful here.
00:13:38.380 Wow.
00:13:39.380 Of course, sometimes you get to see the halakha and the Eid prayer, of course.
00:13:52.380 it's absolutely beautiful from here wow
00:14:12.300 we just uh had a reception welcome from australia yesterday of who prime minister of australia of
00:14:20.380 Australia okay yeah everyone needs oil everyone needs the oil do you mind do you mind holding
00:14:33.500 this for me no you can oh it's okay again thank you so much I appreciate it yeah it's live
00:14:43.420 so what is that the main export is it is it spices from Malaysia what
00:14:47.180 No, ours is a semi-conductor.
00:14:50.940 Semi-conductor?
00:14:51.640 Yes, it's huge.
00:14:53.360 Really?
00:14:53.860 Yes.
00:14:55.560 Because we learn a number of data centers, AI,
00:14:58.480 is new.
00:14:59.280 Traditionally, it's rubber and team.
00:15:01.420 That was 50, 60 years ago.
00:15:04.100 Then industrial development, and we shifted now.
00:15:08.480 Of course, we have control, but only 50% for all the state.
00:15:12.800 The rest, we have this premium that we export.
00:15:17.180 but shortly we still have to import and we have a refinery here in Malaysia for domestic
00:15:25.180 environments.
00:15:26.180 Your English is really good.
00:15:28.180 Yeah.
00:15:29.180 It's the second language of Malaysia, correct?
00:15:31.180 Yes.
00:15:32.180 Okay.
00:15:33.180 All I know so far is Datutsuri.
00:15:36.180 That's the way they told me to call you.
00:15:38.180 Anwar. 0.98
00:15:39.180 This is the Arabic title.
00:15:43.180 But you're humble.
00:15:46.180 You know, the kids call me.
00:15:48.040 Some of them call me, Anwar, Anwar.
00:15:50.840 Some call me PMX.
00:15:53.340 PMX.
00:15:53.800 The 10th Prime Minister.
00:15:55.020 So the students go, PMX.
00:15:56.900 I say what it was.
00:15:58.160 PMX sounds like a rapper.
00:15:59.520 It's a little bit like DMX.
00:16:01.300 So I don't know who started that when I became Prime Minister.
00:16:04.200 Then we became PMX.
00:16:05.500 Then we became PMX.
00:16:07.700 So it's a newer state.
00:16:08.820 So it became independent in the 50s?
00:16:10.660 1957.
00:16:11.420 57.
00:16:13.080 That's very new.
00:16:13.620 57, among developing countries in Asia, India, Pakistan, 47, uh, Indonesia, 45.
00:16:21.380 And so I was a bit behind, but then we, we managed to focus on the economy
00:16:28.460 and the sense of unity.
00:16:30.420 This country is done very peaceful.
00:16:33.180 Yeah.
00:16:33.420 It seems like it.
00:16:34.100 Yeah.
00:16:34.380 It's by the fact that we have, you know, a large number of ethnic
00:16:37.500 Chinese and Indian states.
00:16:39.340 Take us along.
00:16:40.180 What's the secret to the success?
00:16:41.900 How do you keep the peace in Malaysia?
00:16:44.560 I think we preach tolerance and allow them to practice religion.
00:16:50.140 You can see churches all over, Hindu temples, all over.
00:16:53.940 We do allow them, but then Islam is the official religion in the country.
00:16:58.520 But there's no Sharia in Malaysia?
00:17:00.360 No. I mean, of course, Sharia in a limited sense for Muslims, yes.
00:17:05.020 in for for muslims and then um uh gradually people have to understand and there's still
00:17:18.300 we have to understand even jurisprudence because we go through stages people to understand you have
00:17:23.980 the historians you have to accept the democracy you can push down the throats of people but
00:17:32.540 we have to educate that that is the idea hopefully so would you be the next caliph
00:17:41.820 no i already love they love pmx how about i don't have the ambition i'm doing i'm doing the best i
00:17:48.380 can uh i think uh with it all through all these storms for decades and so let me do my best
00:18:00.620 You ask me why am I here? 1.00
00:18:08.220 It's because right now, although Islam is the fastest growing religion in the world, 0.60
00:18:13.180 we are more divided, I think, than we've ever been. 0.65
00:18:16.180 And we don't have the same unity, we don't have the same caliphate, and then Sunni, Shia,
00:18:20.300 they talk about Hanafi, Sufi, this stuff.
00:18:23.420 And the Arab states, they say that they're in war with Iran.
00:18:26.220 And so right now, I think it's important, especially as an American, to come to your
00:18:29.400 beautiful country speak to someone like you and find some unity how do you think the the most
00:18:34.440 more beyond just malaysia how could we find more unity right now we have to engage we have to
00:18:40.040 educate um there's my level of consciousness and they have to understand islam and not just preach
00:18:47.960 but you know it's it's um you have to fully appreciate the message and this one ideally
00:18:56.760 universal message uh acceptance you just start somewhere the family the society there's a
00:19:04.520 educational reform of you know the country will be strong united economically formidable to be
00:19:12.040 able to then you know please as an example you know how non-muslims even muslims becomes a 1.00
00:19:17.880 rather dissolution when you see this like with the islamic states or islamic muslim countries
00:19:23.800 it's poor it's corrupt it's you know marginalized groups and communities minorities so you have a 0.82
00:19:31.880 mission and to me it's effective now yeah you can prove that we can be peaceful we can still move 1.00
00:19:39.400 but this is what we call our state our country my political philosophy is madani
00:19:43.560 madani yes kind of like in new york we have mamdani yeah very close yeah i need to call him
00:19:49.240 one of these do you like him yeah yeah follow of course yes i follow my my daughter used to be in
00:19:54.920 colombia university new york university yeah yeah he's a great supporter he's uh he's doing a great
00:20:00.840 job so far but what does madani mean is from the term uh city marina of the of the state um established
00:20:10.040 by the prophet muhammad which means you have the basis of faith you believe but there's also a
00:20:16.440 system that is just that's tolerant uh empower the people but at the same time uh you have order
00:20:24.760 And so I think, uh, it's an example of how Madinah was constructed as a state.
00:20:32.280 And in the unity, you said that you allow Hindu temples and you allow others to, uh,
00:20:37.880 so is there any protests? Is there, of course, you set up a mosque near the vicinity of Hindu
00:20:45.960 temple, there will be protests and there's a, so, but you see, it must be order. You follow rules.
00:20:52.040 if there is a large hindi hindu community in that area you must accept
00:20:57.080 the large muslim community and of course majority are muslims over 65 64 percent are muslims so
00:21:03.160 naturally you have more mos but the hindus must be allowed to practice their own religion as 0.63
00:21:09.640 churches too it's much rooming among the christians and in the provinces where the
00:21:16.760 questions are there slightly much more say 40 50 50 percent we have to accommodate
00:21:24.360 there will never be satisfaction with all these protests so but you have to accept that fact
00:21:33.800 not easier than that well it looks great so far and i've also heard that you you met uh
00:21:40.600 ayatollah khamenei before he was assassinated and i think there's a lot of misunderstandings
00:21:45.240 about him especially in my country in america they love to say that he's a evil person and he's
00:21:49.880 assassinating people what was he like well um no and also the other iranian leaders of course i've
00:21:57.240 met i've been there but a long time ago after khomeini took over and i was one of the right
00:22:02.760 earlier from the delegation no no the grandfather no no no yeah the homie the original leader i mean
00:22:14.040 the original yeah yeah yeah my team was we went in delegation long before i joined the government
00:22:21.240 um and then um i met again you know uh successes well i we don't necessarily agree with everything
00:22:29.240 they say what they do nobody does but but i think they should be given a chance you have to give
00:22:35.000 credit in terms of level of education, economic development, level of technology.
00:22:44.600 I've seen in the recent time shock everybody.
00:22:47.000 I'm not surprised. 0.81
00:22:48.520 I've seen from places like Khoum, Isfahan, Tehran, those days.
00:22:53.160 And I can understand the focus on education, research and science.
00:22:59.160 Yeah, they have a really high education scores and the amount of young girls that
00:23:03.080 graduating science in iran is extremely high how was it in malaysia well we are focusing focusing
00:23:08.600 and and i'm glad to say that you know we're doing much more about this ruben yeah why i don't know
00:23:14.840 for some reason i had the perception in america that malaysia they're saying oh the sika's going
00:23:18.840 to a third world country yeah and you see it's absolutely beautiful why do i have that misunderstanding
00:23:24.280 there's a you know the american mindset is very condescending you know no it's true
00:23:29.880 I used to teach at Georgetown for some years.
00:23:33.880 What did you teach?
00:23:35.880 Governance and also then part of Islam in Southeast Asia just to get them,
00:23:41.880 the American students to understand the difference.
00:23:44.880 But I moved to almost all the universities in the States,
00:23:48.880 all the new universities in the few years.
00:23:51.880 But this is general perception, this ignorance of the other, you see.
00:23:58.880 and i remember it's not only you you know because uh when president trump came i had to host him
00:24:04.160 you hosted trump here yes and uh and uh um drove him in the beast from the airport to the cities
00:24:13.120 40 minutes yeah and he was surprised it's beautiful roads look at those buildings they're modern
00:24:19.920 buildings my god this is he's just shocked he had the same reaction yeah he's a real estate guy so
00:24:26.800 he was extremely impressed yeah the building so i guess yeah because you know the the thinking is
00:24:32.800 that once you go somewhere else they make you think that there are some remote banana republic
00:24:38.880 somewhere all right oh thank you so much i appreciate do you mind can i take a photo
00:24:44.560 with you yeah yeah yeah please yeah this was great thank you so much for your time probably took more
00:24:49.600 than me thank you thank you okay thank you so much thank you
00:25:12.000 i will go to indonesia inshallah in four days after malaysia yeah it is
00:25:16.800 If you know where to go, the best place is, we'll see.
00:25:23.800 There you are.
00:25:46.800 One, two, three, okay.
00:25:48.800 Thank you.
00:25:50.800 Thank you.
00:25:52.800 Thank you so much for your time.
00:25:54.800 Thank you again.
00:25:56.800 PMX. Thank you so much.
00:25:58.800 It was a pleasure.
00:26:00.800 Kids call me, I know, I know, some PMX.
00:26:02.800 I say whatever.
00:26:04.800 They mean well.
00:26:06.800 I entertain them just so you can see them rushing.
00:26:08.800 They love when you gave six, I don't know.
00:26:10.800 I did that.
00:26:12.800 Okay, assalamualaikum.
00:26:14.800 Thank you, thank you, thank you. Thank you so much, sir.
00:26:19.600 Salamu alaikum, sir. Salamu alaikum, thank you.