He has been speaking and writing on global issues related to people and development and his research and writings have been published in a number of journals and newspapers. Anis was a columnist for Utusan Malaysia from March 1994 - September 1998.

AYY is a Doctoral candidate at the National University of Malaysia. His PhD research work is in the area of Integrity and Culture. Professionally, Anis is interested in area of Human Development, in particular areas of poverty reduction, democratic governance, and ICT for development.  

AYY has served at the United Nations Volunteers Headquarters in Bonn, Germany, was formerly Assistant Resident Representative of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Malaysia, and later became the Founding Director of Political Sector at the Malaysian Institute of Integrity (MII). 

The outcome of his work with UNDP and MII was highly recognised, resulting in his appointment by the Prime Minister of Malaysia as a Member of the Advisory Panel of the Malaysian Anti Corruption Commission (MACC). He was also appointed in 2010 as a Member of the Advisory Panel of the Research and Training Institute of National Integration, the research arm of the Department of National Unity and Integration by the Minister in charge of National Unity.  At the end of 2010, he was appointed by the Minister of Domestic Trade, Cooperatives and Consumerism as a Member of the National Consumers Council for 2011-2012.

He is currently Principal Research Fellow at the Institute of Ethnic Studies (KiTA), National University of Malaysia (Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia).