Shakespeare’s role in inspiring one of South East Asia’s most controversial political prisoners will feature at a congress hosted by The University of Queensland next month.
Former Deputy Prime Minister of Malaysia, Professor Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, will be a keynote speaker at the VIII World Shakespeare Congress.
A voice for moderate and progressive Islam, Dr Ibrahim read the complete works of Shakespeare four times during the six years that he spent in solitary confinement in a tiny Malaysian prison cell.
Dr Ibrahim was convicted and imprisoned on charges of abuse of power and misconduct in 1998. He was released in September 2004 after the Malaysian Federal Court threw out the misconduct conviction.
“I see Shakespeare as a major figure of international and humanitarian dimension,” Dr Ibrahim said.
“In the solitude of my prison cell clearly Shakespeare appeared to me as a brilliant genius of all times and for all cultures.
“I am in debt to Shakespeare in that sense because I was able to fly away from that small constraint of those four walls during incarceration to become this major spectator of this classic work of that great genius.”
Click here to listen to an interview with Dr Ibrahim.
UQ Executive Dean of the Faculty of Arts, Professor Richard Fotheringham, said it was significant that Dr Ibrahim was a keynote speaker at the first Congress to be staged in the southern hemisphere in the congress’s 30-year history.
“Dr Ibrahim uses Shakespeare as a way to describe some very important sharing that we have between western religions and eastern religions, in particular between Christianity and the Islamic world,” Professor Fotheringham said.
“Because of this he is able to bridge the cultural divide.
“That is so very important to us in the early 21st century.”
Professor Fotheringham, who is also the Congress convenor, said Dr Ibrahim’s knowledge of Shakespeare would bring a new level of understanding to the Bard’s works in the 21st Century.
“The Congresses are only held every five years so it’s the first since the disastrous events of September 11, 2001,” Professor Fotheringham said.
“Of course that’s drawn attention to the role of Shakespeare in the cultures that speak Arabic and believe in the Muslim faith.
“We have a lot of Islamic neighbors in our region, and it’s very important that we talk to them on common cultural ground. Shakespeare helps provide that ground, as he has become the world’s author.”
Dr Ibrahim will also give a public lecture on Islam and Democracy at UQ on July 20 t 9.30am.
Just a year before he was incarcerated Dr Ibrahim was expected to take over the Malaysian leadership and succeed the then Prime Minister Mahathir Mohammad.
The two leaders disagreed over economic policy during the Asian financial crisis.
In September 1998, Dr Ibrahim led a demonstration in Kuala Lumpur demanding reform and was arrested and detained under the Malaysian Security Act.
In 1999 he was sentenced to six years for abuse of power and in 2000 he was found guilty on a second charge, of misconduct, and sentenced for an additional nine years, to be served consecutively.
Dr Ibrahim is now a Distinguished Visiting Professor in the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University. Since 2004 he has also held lecturing positions at St Anthony’s College at Oxford and at the School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University. He is a consultant to the World Bank on governance and accountability and in March 2006 he was appointed as Honorary President of the London-based group AccountAbility.
His recent speaking engagements include a Presidential Fellows Lecture at the World Bank, a keynote address at the World Movement for Democracy Forum in Istanbul, a Plenary Address at the Jeddah Economic Forum with former United States Vice-President Al Gore, and a keynote address for the Institute of Social and Ethical Accountability in London.
Dr Ibrahim will make a keynote address to the VIII World Shakespeare Congress at 9am on Wednesday July 19 at the Brisbane City Hall.
Other VIII World Congress keynote speakers will include Queensland-born author (and UQ alumnus) David Malouf, internationally-recognised Australian stage director Gale Edwards, the University of Pennsylvania’s Professor Ania Loomba and the University of Auckland’s Professor Michael Neill.
The VIII World Shakespeare Congress will be held at Brisbane City Hall, July 16-21.
Information on the VIII World Shakespeare Congress: www.shakespeare2006.net
Media inquiries: Melissa Western, Senior Program Manager, VIII World Shakespeare Congress (+61 7 3365 1125, melissa.western@uq.edu.au) or Fiona Kennedy at UQ Communications (+61 7 3365 1088 or 0413 380 012).
