Anwar Ibrahim: The Malaysian opposition leader who finally made it
Anwar Ibrahim is Malaysia's new prime minister
Anwar Ibrahim, an opposition leader who never seemed to be able to give up that position, was named Malaysia's prime minister on Thursday. Having gone through a rollercoaster political ride of 25 years, Ibrahim is the country's fourth leader in as many years.
A firebrand student activist
Anwar was once a firebrand student activist and in the late 1990s was the finance minister and deputy prime minister to Mahathir Mohamad. However, the two could not see eye-to-eye over the handling of the 1997-98 Asian financial crisis, following which Mahathir sacked Anwar.
Corruption and sodomy charges
He was also expelled from the party, the United Malays National Organisation (UMNO), and charged with corruption and sodomy. Since Malaysia is a largely Islamic nation, sodomy is viewed as the highest of crimes. Ibrahim was sentenced to six years in jail for corruption in 1999. The following year, he was handed an additional nine years for the sodomy charge.
Aftermath of the sentence
Calls for democratic reforms took over the streets of Malaysia as Anwar claimed he was being politically persecuted. In 2004, the Malaysian Supreme Court overturned Anwar's sodomy conviction and ordered him freed.
Anwar and Mahathir came together against Najib Razak
Anwar and Mahathir joined hands for the 2018 elections. Mahathir came out of retirement to challenge incumbent Najib Razak, who was caught in the billion-dollar 1MDB financial scandal. Together they scored a historic victory against UMNO and Najib, who is currently in jail serving a 12-year jail term for corruption.
But Anwar lost the race for PM again
Mahathir became the prime minister for a second time and the two entered an agreement to hand over the position to Anwar later. However, Mahathir never complied with the deal, leading to the alliance collapsing within 22 months.
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