“Anwar will become the prime minister of Malaysia one day.”

One day, Abdul Kudus believes, Anwar will lead the nation. — Picture by Choo Choy May

By Clara Chooi

HULU SELANGOR, April 9 — At 70, Abdul Kudus Omar, even with his thinning shock of white hair, cuts a slim, trim and youthful figure.

His eyes, now crinkled at the corners, tell of stories long past and experiences that, although sometimes bitter, have also become the potion of life that has kept him fuelled throughout the years.

To Abdul Kudus, it is not the number of years in one’s life that matters — it is how much life one injects into those years that really counts. And for the grandfather of 11, the very essence of that life was his unfaltering faith and belief in the struggles of one man — Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim.

Ironically, Abdul Kudus’ friendship with the fiery opposition leader, dating as far back as 1974, had sparked off from a rather bizarre setting — in the interrogation room of the Bukit Aman police headquarters.

Then a corporal with the force’s Special Branch unit, Abdul Kudus who is today the division chairman for PKR Tanjung Karang, was tasked with interrogating the young student leader Anwar, who had been detained — for the first time — under the Internal Security Act (ISA) for rallying against rural poverty and hunger.

“It was a 60-day long interrogation. I was assigned to the duty with two others but I did most of the questioning for the others often found ways to get out of it,” Abdul Kudus told The Malaysian Insider in an exclusive interview here this week. [more]