![]() ![]() ![]() “I sense the people’s strong desire for change and to see Malaysia progress in a new direction,” Anwar said before last week’s polls. He never fulfilled that pact, and their alliance collapsed after 22 months. Mahathir became prime minister for the second time, with an agreement to hand over the premiership to Anwar later. They scored a historic victory against UMNO and Najib, who is now serving a 12-year jail term for corruption. That led to another unexpected and more turbulent reconciliation between Anwar and Mahathir – in an effort to oust the prime minister, Najib Razak, who was linked to the multibillion-dollar scandal at the state fund 1MDB. In 2016, 92-year-old Mahathir surprised the country when he decided to run for election again. Anwar returned to parliament months later in a byelection. He was given a royal pardon in 2018, and these claims were also condemned as politically motivated. Photos of Anwar with a black eye, inflicted in prison by Malaysia’s then police chief, were published in newspapers around the world, turning him into a symbol for a struggle that adopted the battle cry of “reformasi”, or reforms. Homosexuality is criminalised in Muslim-majority Malaysia, with laws strictly enforced and offences carrying a jail term of up to 20 years. The sentence was widely criticised by foreign governments and human rights groups as trumped up and politically motivated. He was sentenced to six years in jail for corruption, with a nine-year prison term added for the sodomy charge the following year. In 1999 Anwar faced charges of sodomy and corruption, which he has always denied. Some observers say Anwar had been too impatient to become prime minister, slighting his patron.Īnwar then led public protests against the Barisan Nasional (National Front) coalition through his movement for change, for which he coined the name Reformasi. Their protege-mentor relationship broke down over the economy and Mahathir removed him from his position as deputy prime minister in 1998. His star rose, and the suave young politician became finance minister and then deputy prime minister in the early 1990s under the then premier, Mahathir Mohamad, bringing a youthful counterbalance to the wily political veteran.ĭuring Mahathir’s tenure, Anwar was instrumental in Malaysia’s response to the 1997 Asian financial crisis. In 1982, he was recruited into the United Malays National Organisation (UMNO), the party then in the middle of its 60-year domination of Malaysian politics. His father, Ibrahim Abdul Rahman, was a former member of parliament and his mother, Che Yan Hussein, was a political organiser in the northern state of Penang, in what was then part of the British empire.Ī firebrand youth activist during his student days, Anwar has spoken of his admiration for the Philippine revolutionary hero José Rizal, describing him as “a true Asian renaissance man”.Īnwar’s political career began with Malaysia’s Islamic youth movement, Angkatan Belia Islam Malaysia (ABIM). He was named as prime minister by Malaysia’s king after days of political deadlock resulting from an inconclusive election.Īnwar was born into a political family in August 1947. ![]()
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