LETTERS: Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim’s ‘Rethinking Ourselves: Justice, Reform, and Ignorance in Postnormal Times’ is not merely a collection of political reflections but also an intellectual text that attempts to reinterpret the meaning of humanity, morality and power.
His central concepts — justice, reform and ignorance — operate not as political slogans but as semiotic emblems of moral consciousness. In the opening section, he asserts that “justice is the measure of humanity”.
Beneath its intellectual tone, the book carries the pulse of personal history and lived experience. In one section, Anwar writes, “reform is a struggle that begins within the self”.
The chapter on ignorance offers perhaps the most penetrating insight into his moral philosophy. He writes, “ignorance today is no longer the absence of knowledge, but the refusal to engage with it”.
Here, ignorance functions not as a lack of information but as a semiotic condition — a willful rejection of meaning and responsibility.
Anwar stresses that such chosen ignorance is sustained through media spectacle, propaganda and hedonism — forces that obscure ethical reflection.
In one of the later chapters, he observes that humankind now “lives in the abundance of information but the emptiness of value”. This diagnosis captures the essence of the post-truth age — a world in which anything can appear true without ethical grounding.
The book unfolds like a blend of philosophical meditation, memoir and moral discourse. Yet beneath its gentle prose lies an intellectual firmness. Anwar does not write to charm; he writes to awaken thought.
Yet Anwar’s distinctiveness lies in his courage to bring moral philosophy into the arena of politics — an act rarely attempted by contemporary leaders.
In a world governed by image and perception, ‘Rethinking Ourselves’ serves as a reminder that politics without morality is merely the simulacrum of power.
ISMAIL HASHIM YAHYA
Kuala Lumpur
© New Straits Times Press (M) Bhd
