Anwar bin Ibrahim who born 10 August 1947 is a Malaysian politician who has been the 10th and current Prime Minister of Malaysia since 2022.
He served as the 12th and 16th Leader of the Opposition from 2008 to 2015, and again from 2020 to 2022. He has been the chairman of the Pakatan Harapan (PH) coalition since 2020, the second President of the People’s Justice Party (PKR) since 2018 and the Member of Parliament (MP) for Tambun since November 2022.
He also served as Deputy Prime Minister and in many other Cabinet positions in the Barisan Nasional (BN) administration under former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad from 1982 to his removal in 1998.
Anwar Ibrahim’s Early Life
A University of Malaya graduate, Anwar served as president of the National Union of Malaysian Muslim Students as well as Angkatan Belia Islam Malaysia (ABIM) or Muslim Youth Union of Malaysia before joining the United Malays National Organisation (UMNO) then the dominant party in the long-ruling Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition.
Anwar held several cabinet positions in successive governments in the 1980s and 1990s. He was the deputy prime minister as well as finance minister during the 1990s and was prominent in Malaysia’s response to the 1997 Asian financial crisis.
In 1998, he was removed from all posts by prime minister Mahathir Mohamad and went on to spearhead the Reformasi movement against the government. Anwar was jailed in April 1999 on charges of corruption and sodomy until his release in 2004 after his conviction was overturned. He made a comeback as leader of the opposition from 2008 to 2015.
He merged opposition parties into the Pakatan Rakyat (PR) coalition, which unsuccessfully contested in the 2008 and 2013 general elections. He disputed the results of the 2013 elections and led a protest in response.
In 2014, Anwar’s attempt to become Selangor head of government in the 2014 Kajang Move led to a nine-month political crisis, which ended when he was sentenced to another five years in prison after a second sodomy conviction in 2015.
While still in prison, Anwar re-joined Mahathir Mohamad in the new Pakatan Harapan (PH) coalition in absentia, which went on to win the 2018 general election. Mahathir outlined a plan for Anwar to take over from himself as prime minister after an unspecified interim period.
Anwar received a royal pardon from Yang di-Pertuan Agong Muhammad V and was released from prison in May 2018. He returned to parliament in the 2018 Port Dickson by-election while his wife Wan Azizah Wan Ismail served as the deputy prime Minister in the PH administration.
The collapse of the coalition during the 2020–22 Malaysian political crisis led to the new Perikatan Nasional (PN) coalition under Muhyiddin Yassin being sworn in and Anwar becoming leader of the opposition for the second time in May 2020.
Anwar Ibrahim Rises to Power
After leading Pakatan Harapan to win a plurality of seats at the 2022 Malaysian general election, Anwar was sworn in as the tenth Prime Minister of Malaysia on 24 November 2022. On 2 December 2022, Anwar appointed various members of parliament from Pakatan Harapan, Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS), and UMNO to serve as ministers in the cabinet of the newly formed unity government.
Anwar named himself as the Finance Minister. During his tenure, he and his government faced criticism for implementing numerous conservative policies, as well as the discharge not amounting to acquittal of current Malaysian deputy prime minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, who faced corruption charges.
Moreover, former Malaysian prime minister Najib Razak also saw his prison sentence halved and fine reduced during Anwar’s tenure, sparking further controversy.
Anwar, referred to as a liberal reformer and intellectual, has advocated for Islamic democracy and has stated he hopes Malaysia will become an example of democratic practices in the Muslim world.
He supports the Islamic concept of Ummah as a framework for democracy in Muslim countries and calls for judicial independence, good governance and rejection of authoritarianism.