Anwar Ibrahim

At 77 years old, Anwar Ibrahim has this physical status:

Early political career (1982–1998)

Anwar, the founding chief and second president of an Islamic youth group called Angkatan Belia Islam Malaysia (ABIM), joined the United Malays National Organisation (UMNO), led by Mahathir Mohamad, who had been prime minister in 1981.

Anwar gained acclaim to high-ranking positions in 1983; his first ministerial office was in 1983; after that, he headed the Agriculture Ministry in 1984 before becoming Minister of Education in 1986.

Anwar introduced a variety of reforms in the national school curriculum during his tenure as Education Minister. One of his major changes was to rename the national language from Bahasa Malaysia to Bahasa Melayu. Non-Malays opposed the change because it would cause the younger generation to be cut from the national language if they were to the Malays rather than Malaysians. Anwar was elected as the 25th President of UNESCO's General Conference as the education minister. Anwar Ibrahim was appointed as the second President of Malaysia's International Islamic University in 1988. According to former Education Minister Zaid Ibrahim, Anwar was an Islamist who "assistified the entire government system" and played a significant role in the reform of the education system in the 1980s.

Anwar was appointed Minister of Finance in 1991. His influence as Finance Minister was immediate; Malaysian prosperity and economic growth were on full throttle during his tenure as Prime Minister; Following his appointment as Finance Minister, Euromoney named him as a top-four finance minister, and in 1996, Asiamoney named him Finance Minister of the Year. Anwar, a deputy prime minister and finance minister, was praised for leading Malaysia through the period of instability in the aftermath of the 1997 Asian financial crisis. He endorsed free-market principles and highlighted Malaysia's closeness to industry and politics. He argued for greater accountability, refused to provide government bail-outs, and instituted widespread budget cuts. Anwar was elected chairman of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) from March 1998 to September 1998.

After winning the Deputy Presidency of UMNO against Ghafar Baba in 1993, he was often promised to replace Mahathir as prime minister, as he frequently alluded in public to his "son-father" relationship with Mahathir. By then, rumors surrounding Anwar's ascension to the position of Deputy Prime Minister Theresa May had been rife.

Mahathir had appointed Anwar to be acting Prime Minister when he took a two-month break in May 1997. Anwar had taken radical steps in Mahathir's absence, which directly contradicted Mahathir's policies, to reform the country's control system. Often at the center of the conflict were questions like how Malaysia would respond to a financial crisis. Despite this, the relationship with Mahathir had begun to deteriorate towards the end of the 1990s, partly as a result of their differing views on governance.

Mahathir was angered by the war's frontal attack on what he described as the widespread culture of nepotism and cronyism within UMNO (and the upper coalition as a whole), as well as his attempts to destabilize the government's protectionist policies that Mahathir had initiated. Anwar described "cronyism" as a major source of misappropriation and misappropriation of funds in the region.

Anwar, who was in the midst of the 1997 Asian Financial Crisis, endorsed the IMF's programme as a finance minister. He also introduced an austerity package that cut government spending by 18%, reduced ministerial salaries, and delayed major projects. Despite being a pillar of Mahathir's growth plan, "mega projects" were greatly delayed.

Although many Malaysian firms faced bankruptcy, Anwar said: "There is no question of any bailout." The banks will be able to shield themselves, and the government will not intervene." Anwar argued for a free-market response to the crisis, which included foreign investment and trade liberalisation. Mahathir blamed currency speculators like George Soros for the crisis, which resulted in increased currency control and tighter oversight of foreign investment.

Anwar was named as the "Asian of the Year" in 1998 by Newsweek magazine. However, Anwar and Mahathir's relations came to a halt during the quadrennial UMNO General Assembly last year. UMNO's Youth Wing, headed by Anwar's associate Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, announced that it would launch a discussion on "cronyism and nepotism." A book by Khalid Jafri, "50 Dalil Kenapa Anwar Tidak Boleh Jadi Prime Minister") ("50 Reasons Why Anwar Cannot Be Prime Minister") was circulated at the General Assembly, containing graphic accusations of misogyny, as well as accusations of wrongdoing against Anwar. Khalid Jafri, the ex-editor of the government-controlled newspaper Utusan Malaysia and former editor-in-chief of a failed magazine, Harian National, was a failure. Anwar obtained a court order to stop the book from being published further, and commenced a lawsuit against the author for defamation. The book's author was charged with malicious publication of inaccurate information by the police. The police were ordered to investigate the allegations' veracity.

Anwar was dismissed from the Cabinet on September 2, 1998, and many sources indicate that he was under scrutiny for sodomy, an offence in Malaysia. He was banned from UMNO the next day. Anwar was arrested on September 20, 1998, and detained without charge under the country's controversial Internal Security Act (ISA). Mahathir, the Home Minister at the time, was also the Prime Minister at the time. Anwar was charged with misconduct for reportedly interfering with the police probe into him weeks later. Anwar was beaten by Rahim Noor, then Inspector General of Police, when he was in police detention in 1998. After being taken to Court for the first time, the public and media saw his black eye firsthand. Mahathir remarked that it might have been a self-inflicted injury that had honed public sympathy. In 2000, Rahim was found guilty of assault and jailed for two months. He expressed his regret for Anwar and paid undisclosed damages. A mattress that was allegedly stained with Anwar's semen was shown to the court as DNA evidence of Anwar's sexual crimes during the trial. Anwar denied having anything to do with the mattress, but DNA tests revealed it was positive. During the trial, Lim Kong Boon, a DNA chemist, testified that DNA obtained from 10 of 13 semen stains on the mattress matches Anwar's DNA. After being arrested in police detention, the defense team suspected that DNA samples could have been obtained from Anwar to frame Anwar; however, High Court Judge Augustine Paul accepted that DNA results.

The Supreme Court finally delivered its decision in April 1999, sentenceing Anwar to six years in jail for deceitful conduct and sodomy. He was sentenced to nine months in jail for sodomy, a crime he was sentenced to serve after serving his six-year term for corruption two months later. The international community had largely discredited his appeal and conviction. The trial proceedings, according to Amnesty International, "exposed a pattern of political abuse of key state organizations, including the police, public prosecutors' office, and the judiciary," and declared Anwar a prisoner of conscience, despite the fact that he had been detained in order to discredit him as a political opponent.

On September 2, 2004, the Federal Court reversed his conviction and Anwar was released from solitary confinement.

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