SHNEAKO - April 17, 2026SNEAKO Interviews The Prime Minister of Malaysia ｜ Anwar Ibrahim “PMX”
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Summary
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
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Because I just learned that Israelis are banned
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from visiting Malaysia, if I'm not mistaken.
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I mean, how do you recognize a state that colonized the other states?
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I mean, effectively, Palestine and Gaza have been colonized.
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It's because right now, although Islam is the fastest growing religion in the world,
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we are more divided, I think, than we've ever been.
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And then Sunni, Shia, they talk about Hanafi, Sufi.
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And the Arab states, they say that they're in war with Iran.
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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.
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How do you think the Muslim world, beyond just Malaysia, how could we find more unity right now?
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Today, we're meeting with the Prime Minister of Malaysia, Anwar Ibrahim.
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So it's a huge interview, and it's Friday prayer. We're going to go pray. Welcome to Malaysia.
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So is it true that they ban Israelis from Malaysia?
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That's the car that I drove in Spain, out there in Mallorca, it's that BMW.
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Yo, look at these kids, look at the kids, right at the Adon is Aura, right at the Adon
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As-salamu alaykum. Great to meet you. Datul City. Great to meet you. I've heard a lot of great things about you.
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good. Datut Siri? Yes. Yes. How do you say happy in Malaysian? The Tao. Do you know this? Do you know
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six, seven. Easy. I'm from America. What city? Are you from Kuala Lumpur?
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it was hot there is it always like that for you it's good to speak to the
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children. Can I say hello? Do you mind? Thank you for letting me in here.
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If I function from here, my office, then I'll choose, I take turns, I don't, and normally
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I go to the, not the main mosque, the main mosque, very official, very nice, you go to
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the suburbs, the suburban areas. You can change and people talk to you. You are the kids from the
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school. Yeah. With the college of the school. All teachers present. So it's a joke here.
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Monitor this. Because the students, they express very frankly, whether they're
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shorty of teachers or state of the laboratories. I always say that you clean your own laboratories.
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And I can't imagine seeing a world leader like that
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interact with the people and be amongst his citizens
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It's nice to see because there's all this chaos right now
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that trust emphases particularly critical leaders
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I mean, look at the situation in the attack against Iran and now the destruction in Gaza
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Of course, if I follow strictly the protocol and the security, I can't do that.
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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...
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Well, originally I'm from Benang, in the north.
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Then I grew up here with the first year from the student days and the Da'wah Bodies and the student in Islamic movement.
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I've been involved for a long time. I think that have taught me.
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I don't think that there are constraints once you're in the office.
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I've been to the Philippines when I was eight years old.
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But I think the Filipinos and the Malaysians look a little bit alike.
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They come from the Malay world or the Malay African-American.
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But here, of course, we have ethnic Chinese, ethnic Indians.
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I heard, and there's a lot of different ethnic groups.
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What is the secret to getting the people on your side?
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You can see with the social media, a lot of people hate me, too.
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like like now the crisis um gas and yeah it's going up because the strait of hummus is closed
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really no but we are fortunate because we maintain we engage so i uh last month i spoke to the
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president of iran and said and he immediately cleared so two of our tankers are already here
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arrived oh two tankers came in from the strait yes so they're working though people are allowed to get
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oil from the Strait of Hormuz that aren't working with designers yes but but now
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the Americans taking over that they've been there's no certainty as I said
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President Macron has contacted me last night to ask me to join that meeting
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essentially to for the right of navigation but that's not the end of the
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story. I mean, you should also then express your opposition to any attempt to attack and
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give as Israelis and Americans did in Iran.
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Yeah. Why do you think the United States has such a strong relationship with Israel?
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Because I just learned that Israelis are banned from visiting Malaysia, if I'm not mistaken.
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I mean, how do you recognize a state that colonizes the other states?
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I mean, effectively, Palestine and Gaza have been colonized.
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There's no indication that Israel is adjusting to some foreign policy.
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they go into lebanon displacing more people the atrocities you know unrival is like the barbaric
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so barbaric that's called the days of the barbarians it's a beautiful motion yes it
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seemed like in the hutba he was speaking a lot about phalistine yes the khutbah actually made
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this reference they need to be united and we pray for the christianians and uh so they did i mean
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The state normally do have some influence and I think it is good that they did that.
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But also related to the need for unity, tolerance, because it is a multilateral country with a large number of Chinese and ethnic Indians.
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And some of the tribal groups, either enemies or Christians.
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I thought this was a masjid. It's not. It seems like it's your office.
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It is the Prime Minister's office, but it's Sari Patana.
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Yeah, I heard there were saying that you were in prison.
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many times, many total of almost 10 and a half years.
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So from prison to prime minister, that's gangster.
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I just came back from Bosnia, and before then I went to Medina.
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I want people to be united right now, especially with what's happening in Iran.
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I'm very fortunate in this place, you see the beauty, beauty, it's beautiful here.
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Of course, sometimes you get to see the halakha and the Eid prayer, of course.
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we just uh had a reception welcome from australia yesterday of who prime minister of australia of
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Australia okay yeah everyone needs oil everyone needs the oil do you mind do you mind holding
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this for me no you can oh it's okay again thank you so much I appreciate it yeah it's live
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so what is that the main export is it is it spices from Malaysia what
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Then industrial development, and we shifted now.
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Of course, we have control, but only 50% for all the state.
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but shortly we still have to import and we have a refinery here in Malaysia for domestic
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So I don't know who started that when I became Prime Minister.
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57, among developing countries in Asia, India, Pakistan, 47, uh, Indonesia, 45.
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And so I was a bit behind, but then we, we managed to focus on the economy
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It's by the fact that we have, you know, a large number of ethnic
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I think we preach tolerance and allow them to practice religion.
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You can see churches all over, Hindu temples, all over.
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We do allow them, but then Islam is the official religion in the country.
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No. I mean, of course, Sharia in a limited sense for Muslims, yes.
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in for for muslims and then um uh gradually people have to understand and there's still
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we have to understand even jurisprudence because we go through stages people to understand you have
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the historians you have to accept the democracy you can push down the throats of people but
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we have to educate that that is the idea hopefully so would you be the next caliph
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no i already love they love pmx how about i don't have the ambition i'm doing i'm doing the best i
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can uh i think uh with it all through all these storms for decades and so let me do my best
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It's because right now, although Islam is the fastest growing religion in the world,
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we are more divided, I think, than we've ever been.
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And we don't have the same unity, we don't have the same caliphate, and then Sunni, Shia,
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And the Arab states, they say that they're in war with Iran.
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And so right now, I think it's important, especially as an American, to come to your
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beautiful country speak to someone like you and find some unity how do you think the the most
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more beyond just malaysia how could we find more unity right now we have to engage we have to
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educate um there's my level of consciousness and they have to understand islam and not just preach
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but you know it's it's um you have to fully appreciate the message and this one ideally
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universal message uh acceptance you just start somewhere the family the society there's a
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educational reform of you know the country will be strong united economically formidable to be
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able to then you know please as an example you know how non-muslims even muslims becomes a
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rather dissolution when you see this like with the islamic states or islamic muslim countries
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it's poor it's corrupt it's you know marginalized groups and communities minorities so you have a
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mission and to me it's effective now yeah you can prove that we can be peaceful we can still move
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but this is what we call our state our country my political philosophy is madani
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madani yes kind of like in new york we have mamdani yeah very close yeah i need to call him
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one of these do you like him yeah yeah follow of course yes i follow my my daughter used to be in
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colombia university new york university yeah yeah he's a great supporter he's uh he's doing a great
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job so far but what does madani mean is from the term uh city marina of the of the state um established
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by the prophet muhammad which means you have the basis of faith you believe but there's also a
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system that is just that's tolerant uh empower the people but at the same time uh you have order
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And so I think, uh, it's an example of how Madinah was constructed as a state.
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And in the unity, you said that you allow Hindu temples and you allow others to, uh,
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so is there any protests? Is there, of course, you set up a mosque near the vicinity of Hindu
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temple, there will be protests and there's a, so, but you see, it must be order. You follow rules.
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if there is a large hindi hindu community in that area you must accept
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the large muslim community and of course majority are muslims over 65 64 percent are muslims so
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naturally you have more mos but the hindus must be allowed to practice their own religion as
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churches too it's much rooming among the christians and in the provinces where the
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questions are there slightly much more say 40 50 50 percent we have to accommodate
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there will never be satisfaction with all these protests so but you have to accept that fact
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not easier than that well it looks great so far and i've also heard that you you met uh
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ayatollah khamenei before he was assassinated and i think there's a lot of misunderstandings
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about him especially in my country in america they love to say that he's a evil person and he's
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assassinating people what was he like well um no and also the other iranian leaders of course i've
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met i've been there but a long time ago after khomeini took over and i was one of the right
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earlier from the delegation no no the grandfather no no no yeah the homie the original leader i mean
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the original yeah yeah yeah my team was we went in delegation long before i joined the government
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um and then um i met again you know uh successes well i we don't necessarily agree with everything
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they say what they do nobody does but but i think they should be given a chance you have to give
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credit in terms of level of education, economic development, level of technology.
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I've seen from places like Khoum, Isfahan, Tehran, those days.
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And I can understand the focus on education, research and science.
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Yeah, they have a really high education scores and the amount of young girls that
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graduating science in iran is extremely high how was it in malaysia well we are focusing focusing
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and and i'm glad to say that you know we're doing much more about this ruben yeah why i don't know
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for some reason i had the perception in america that malaysia they're saying oh the sika's going
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to a third world country yeah and you see it's absolutely beautiful why do i have that misunderstanding
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there's a you know the american mindset is very condescending you know no it's true
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Governance and also then part of Islam in Southeast Asia just to get them,
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the American students to understand the difference.
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But I moved to almost all the universities in the States,
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But this is general perception, this ignorance of the other, you see.
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and i remember it's not only you you know because uh when president trump came i had to host him
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you hosted trump here yes and uh and uh um drove him in the beast from the airport to the cities
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40 minutes yeah and he was surprised it's beautiful roads look at those buildings they're modern
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buildings my god this is he's just shocked he had the same reaction yeah he's a real estate guy so
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he was extremely impressed yeah the building so i guess yeah because you know the the thinking is
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that once you go somewhere else they make you think that there are some remote banana republic
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somewhere all right oh thank you so much i appreciate do you mind can i take a photo
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with you yeah yeah yeah please yeah this was great thank you so much for your time probably took more
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than me thank you thank you okay thank you so much thank you
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i will go to indonesia inshallah in four days after malaysia yeah it is
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If you know where to go, the best place is, we'll see.
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I entertain them just so you can see them rushing.
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Thank you, thank you, thank you. Thank you so much, sir.
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Salamu alaikum, sir. Salamu alaikum, thank you.