Anwar's comeback

Anwar's comeback

Posted by Raja Petra

Monday, 10 March 2008

He leads unified opposition to big win, and there's talk of him being PM By Zakir Hussain, THE STRAITS TIMES TEN years after being booted out from office, Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim is poised to make the mother of all political comebacks. 'It is a new dawn for Malaysia,' the 60-year-old former deputy prime minister said after opposition parties denied the ruling Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition a two-thirds majority in Parliament and wrested four states from it. He could have been speaking about his future. Datuk Seri Anwar has emerged as a de facto leader of the opposition. He was instrumental in brokering a deal between Parti Islam SeMalaysia (PAS) and the Democratic Action Party (DAP) - two parties mutually suspicious of each other - to avoid three-way fights. The success of the coalition of opposition parties, including Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR), has given his standing a major boost. He is now seen as the only politician who can unify the opposition into a coherent and credible force. And that, in turn, has fuelled talk of him as a future prime minister. 'He played a major role in the opposition's success...He delivered a powerful blow to the ruling party,' Dr Mohamad Agus Yusoff of Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia told AFP. 'He could one day become the prime minister. If the Barisan remains weak, we could see it being toppled in the next polls.' But first, he has to get elected as a Member of Parliament. In answer to questions about his future, Datuk Seri Anwar has said he is 'in no hurry to get into Parliament'. 'I have 31 seats to consider which Keadilan won,' he said yesterday, referring to the party his wife leads. Datuk Seri Anwar is barred from standing for election until next month - the result of a conviction in 1999 for corruption, a charge which he says was politically motivated. But he has said he could re-enter Parliament through a by-election. And his wife, Datin Seri Wan Azizah Wan Ismail, who regained her seat in Penang with a bigger majority, has indicated she may step down to trigger just such an election. His comeback as head of the opposition would be the latest milestone in a career that has had major turns. A Penang native, Datuk Seri Anwar first drew notice as a fiery student leader with a strong following. He was tapped by then Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad to join Umno. In 1982, he won a seat from his hometown Permatang Pauh, and his political career took a meteoric rise. Datuk Seri Anwar was elected Umno Youth chief in 1984, and was vice-president in 1986. He was put in charge of various ministries before being appointed finance minister in 1991 and deputy prime minister in 1993. His fall from grace was just as rapid - and brutal. In 1998, Datuk Seri Anwar was sacked by his mentor over allegations of sexual misconduct and abuse of power. In the run-up to that, tensions had grown between the two over matters such as how to manage the economy in the wake of the Asian financial crisis. In 1999, Datuk Seri Anwar was convicted on four corruption counts and sentenced to six years in jail, triggering violent street protests for four days. In 2000, he was sentenced to nine years in jail for sodomy - a charge from which he was acquitted in 2004. Since his release, Datuk Seri Anwar has been a visiting professor at Georgetown and Johns Hopkins universities in the United States, and at Oxford in Britain. More recently, he has spent more time at home as adviser to PKR, campaigning across the country on its behalf. Umno leaders have vilified his moral record and more recently, his track record in government - to little effect. 'He has, in a dramatic way, shut up all the Umno leaders, Abdullah and Najib included, who have dismissed him as irrelevant,' said Mr Yang Razali Kassim, senior fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies. But Datuk Seri Anwar's climb back to the post many of his supporters believe was rightfully his may not be so swift. Political analyst Shamsul Amri Baharuddin said the opposition would have to forge an alliance and create a two-party system in order to build a future for itself. He told AFP: 'Only then will Anwar have a chance to become a prime minister, and maybe he could be a prime minister in the next 10 years.' Set as f