Destiny fulfilled: Anwar Ibrahim is finally the Prime Minister of Malaysia

After the most exciting General Election in Malaysian history where multiple alliances battle each other for control of the Dewan Rakyat (Malaysian Parliament) – an election where we see a record 945 candidates battling for just 222 parliamentary seats (amongst them, 108 are independent candidates) – the final results ended with a hung parliament with Opposition Leader, Anwar Ibrahim’s Pakatan Harapan (PH) coalition securing the biggest share of the seats at 82 seats of the 222 (112 seats is required to form a majority).

Finally, after intervention by the Yang di-Pertuan Agong (Malaysian King) after consulting with the Conference of Rulers of Malaysia, Anwar is finally declared to be Malaysian’s 10th Prime Minister and was sworn-in just after 5pm local time on 24 November 2022.

This marks end of the long journey Anwar Ibrahim took, to finally take his “rightful” place as the Prime Minister of Malaysia after from being the likely candidate to be the next Prime Minister as the Deputy Prime Minister under former Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamed’s cabinet, to getting fired from the Cabinet, accused of sodomy, expelled from the ruling party then, the United Malays National Organisation (UMNO) in Sept 1998.

The 1998 Newsweek “Asian of the Year”, 1991 Euromoney top four Finance Minister in the world and 1996 AsiaMoney Finance Minister of the Year did not take the political assault lying down. Anwar and his supporters launched the Reformasi movement (Reformation) in 1998, that then led to the formation of a new multiracial-based political party called “Parti Keadilan Nasional” (National Justice Party) – a party that evolved over the years to now be known as Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR), would later lead the Opposition coalition known as Pakatan Rakyat along with other major Opposition parties including DAP and PAS.

However, the former widely praised Finance Minister did not managed to escape the political plotting against him, as he was sentenced to 9 years jail on charges of corruption and sodomy.

5 years into the jail term, he was released from solitary confinement after the Federal Court overturned the sodomy conviction. But his corruption verdict was upheld, which bans him from political activities for 5 more years after release from prison – further delaying his return to politics until April 2008.

While he was banned from politics and while he was in jail, his wife, Wan Azizah assumed position of political leadership of PKR.

Finally in August 2008, Anwar is back into the political realm by wining the Permatang Pauh by-election winning 31195 votes out of 47,000 votes cast in the district, taking over the seat previously held by his wife, which seat fell vacant after the resignation from the Parliament by Wan Azizah – essentially marks the handing over of power and authority to the rightful head of the party, both symbolically and actually.

Anwar assumed the position of the Leader of the Opposition from 2008 to 2015.

In 2015, Anwar was however sent by to prison for yet another Sodomy charge, which charges disrupted Anwar’s plans to contest in 2014 Kajang by-election to become Selangor’s Chief Minister. With his imprisonment, the coalition Pakatan Rakyat was dissolved. PKR then formed the new opposition coalition with its allies called the Pakatan Harapan (PH).

Anwar has always denied the sodomy charges.

In the 2018 General Elections, Anwar’s PH did the unimaginable by allying with his former nemesis, Mahathir Mohamed’s Malaysian United Indigenous Party (BERSATU) to fight “enemy number one” of Malaysia: Prime Minister Najib Razak – who was embroiled in the worst corruption scandal in the history of Malaysia, surrounding the state investment fund, 1 Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB). Anwar is still in prison at this time.

Mahathir himself was fighting the political fight of his life (we wrote about this in 2018: “Mahathir”, the Pakatan’s regressive gamble).

The deal between Mahathir and Anwar was that, Mahathir will ensure a smooth transition of power from the ruling party Barisan Nasional (whom had been in power since independence) to Pakatan Harapan, then transfer the prime ministership to Anwar, 2 years later. This is a widely known gentleman’s agreement that was entirely torn to pieces despite the initial humbleness and sincerity from the former Prime Minister to honor it at the beginning of Mahathir’s 2nd stint as Prime Minister.

Pakatan Harapan broke the 60 years rule of Barisan Nasional and became the ruling party, with Mahathir the Prime Minister (again) and Wan Azizah (Anwar’s wife) assuming Deputy Prime Minister. With the victory, Anwar was given a full royal pardon and was release from prison in May 2018 and was designated as “Prime Minister-in-waiting”. Anwar returns to Parliament after winning the Port Dickson by-election in October 2018. Anwar stayed as a backbencher trusting Mahathir to run the country until the time is ripe.

But by 2020, under increasing pressure and calls for Mahathir to honor his promises to hand over power to Anwar, which is looking increasing unlikely with Mahathir’s rhetoric and perceived grasp on power, Mahathir’s party broke off from Pakatan Harapan to form a new group called Perikatan Nasional with several Barisan Nasional members and defections from PKR, betraying his promise to handover power to Anwar. This marks the fall of the Pakatan Harapan government.

Mahathir then later tried to pull off a “I feel so emo so I gonna resign, but I expect you to hold me back and ask me to continue” resignation move, in an attempt to reaffirm his power and control of his leadership over the political realm – but the entire plot went off script, with a very chaotic and confusing 5 day drama that ended in a surprising result: Mahathir’s number 2 subverted Mahathir’s plans, and Muhyiddin Yassin was appointed as the new Prime Minister in the middle of the pandemic under the Perikatan Nasional flag (which we had to note, basically a return of Barisan Nasional as the ruling coalition at this point – subverting democratic will).

Finally after yet another 2 years wait, Anwar could finally contest again, this time round, he can run the General Election contest in person, without looming sodomy charges, without subversive partners (remains to be seen though) and with 82 seats out of 222 and parties (to be clarified) that is willing to join PH in a coalition parliament (refereed by the Malaysian King behind closed doors).

Anwar, after almost 24 years since he was kicked out of Mahathir’s government, finally returns to the cabinet (for the first time since he was Deputy Prime Minister) and this time round, as the Prime Minister of Malaysia.

The road ahead remain tumultuous, as Muhyiddin continued to insist that he had the support of a majority to form his own government – which we shall only know the results of when the Malaysian Parliament swears in and a vote of confidence session on the 19 December 2022 – in what would probably be the last hurdle to Anwar’s effective Prime Ministership.

For now, a new PM is in town.