Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim paid tribute former Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh saying “Goodbye, my mitra, my bhai, Manmohan”, while remembering their shared times.
Dr Manmohan Singh passed away Thursday night at All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in Delhi at age of 92.
Ibrahim called Singh a friend and a key figure in India’s economic transformation. He also recalled working with Singh in the 1990s when both were finance ministers.
“The weight of grief bears down on me at the news of the passing of my honoured and cherished friend: Dr Manmohan Singh. Obituaries, essays, and books plenty there will surely be about this great man, celebrating him as the architect of India’s economic reforms. As Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh was the midwife of India’s emergence as one of the world’s economic giants,” Ibrahim posted on X.
Then reflecting on their shared time together as finance ministers of their respective countries, he added, “I had the rare privilege of witnessing the early years of these transformative policies first-hand while we both served as finance ministers during the 1990s. We shared a fervent commitment to the war against corruption — even collaborating on unravelling a major case.”
Ibrahim also shared a personal anecdote involving Dr Singh’s offer of scholarships for his children during his imprisonment. “To me, he will be all that and much more. Not many people know this, and it is time that I share it with Malaysians: during the years of my incarceration, he extended a kindness that he didn’t have to — one that was neither politically expedient nor, as one can imagine, appreciated by the Malaysian government at that time. Yet, true to his character, he did it anyway. He offered scholarships for my children, particularly my son, Ihsan. Although I had declined the gracious offer, such a gesture undoubtedly showed his extraordinary humanity and generosity, demonstrative, as the Bard would have it, of a man so full of “the milk of human kindness”,” said Ibrahim.
Further reflecting the support from Manmohan Singh during his incarceration, the Malaysia PM said, “In those dark days, as I navigated the labyrinth of imprisonment, he stood by me as a true friend. Such acts of quiet magnanimity defined him, and they will remain etched in my heart forever.”
Singh was born on September 26, 1932. He served as India’s prime minister from 2004 to 2014. He was also the governor of the Reserve Bank of India from 1982 to 1985.