Former deputy prime minister Anwar Ibrahim was chirpy as usual when met by Rentakini at his home in Kuala Lumpur recently.

He was briefly in Malaysia for a nationwide whirl-wind tour while taking a break from his teaching duties as visiting professor in Georgetown University, Washington DC.

Anwar requested that he not be photographed - he had a rather 'bad haircut' while in Washington, he quipped. As he was rushing off for another engagement, he gave Rentakini 10 minutes - enough for us to ask him these ground-breaking questions.