Malaysia's Anwar -- from threshold of power to prison

Malaysia's Anwar -- from threshold of power to prison

KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters): Once Malaysia's prime-minister-in-
waiting, Anwar Ibrahim was cast into the political wilderness
only months after he stood at the doorstep of power.

High Court Judge Augustine Paul found the former deputy prime
minister and finance minister guilty of corruption and sentenced
him to six years in jail on Wednesday.

Barring a reversal of the verdict by an upper appeals court,
the ruling sidelines the charismatic 51-year-old from politics at
a crucial juncture in Malaysian history.

"I have been dealt a judgment that stinks to high heaven," a
defiant Anwar told the High Court after he was convicted.

Until last September, Anwar had been the anointed heir of
Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, who had planned to relinquish
power to his deputy in late 1998 after 17 years at the helm.

Mahathir showed such faith in his protege that in 1997 he
turned over the reins to Anwar for two months while he took an
extended holiday.

But Asia's financial crisis which erupted in mid-1997 pitched
the two strong-willed leaders into conflict by fanning Anwar's
ambitions and Mahathir's protective instincts.

The tensions that arose with the end of a decade-long economic
boom underscored the two leaders' different styles and ambitions,
and ultimately pitted them against one another.

Suave and articulate, Anwar rubbed shoulders with
international financiers and eventually was equated with the
economic orthodoxy that the acerbic Mahathir said mortgaged
Malaysia's future to foreign interests.

Anwar's initial prescription -- tight money and budget
surpluses -- was in line with recommendations by the
International Monetary Fund but exacerbated Malaysia's first
slowdown in 13 years.

The downfall of Indonesian president Soeharto in May 1998
emboldened Anwar's supporters, and his speeches were seen as a
threat to Mahathir, now Asia's longest serving statesman.

"When people have truly decided on internal reform, neither
the political elite nor their cronies, be they in business or
media or anywhere else, will be able to withstand the
groundswell," Anwar said in a speech in June 1998.

Tension between Mahathir and Anwar broke into the open during
their party's annual general assembly last June when an Anwar
protege denounced cronyism -- a code word for Mahathir's powerful
business friends.

A book, Fifty Reasons Why Anwar Ibrahim Cannot Become Prime
Minister, was distributed at the assembly, detailing a long list
of allegations of sexual misconduct by Anwar.

The two men were at pains to conceal their growing differences
until Mahathir on September 2 delivered an ultimatum to his
deputy to resign from the cabinet.

Anwar refused and was sacked.

Hours later, Anwar denounced his former cabinet colleagues.

"I was not ready to resign because I had repeatedly said that
there was a conspiracy at the highest level to see my downfall,"
Anwar said on the day after he was sacked.

Anwar might have faded into oblivion if his supporters, many
of them members of a younger generation hoping for a change in
leadership, had not spontaneously taken up the Indonesian
students' rally cry of "Reformasi" (reform).

After leading 30,000 anti-government protesters through the
capital, Anwar was arrested on September 20.

He was later charged with sodomy and corruption, and appeared
in court in late September with a black eye and bruises.

Images of Anwar's injuries sparked international outrage.

A police investigation failed to identify the assailant, but
the former police chief finally admitted in February that he hit
Anwar, after an investigation by a royal commission.

Anwar has derived his powerbase from a mix of Moslem youth
groups and urban intellectuals.

During his heyday as a fast rising star, the man seen as a
modern intellectual was given to quoting Shakespeare and
Confucius as well as the Koran.

Born on August 10, 1947, he went to the Malay College in the
northern town of Kuala Kangsar, one of Malaysia's top schools,
and made his name as a firebrand Islamic youth leader.

He was jailed for 20 months under the sweeping Internal
Security Act beginning in 1974 for leading anti-government
demonstrations against impoverished conditions in the north.

Mahathir later invited him to join UMNO in 1982 to bridge the
gap between the party's Malay nationalist badge and its rising
Islamic aspirations.

At the time, Anwar said that only UMNO -- which has led a
multi-racial coalition that has ruled Malaysia since independence
from Britain in 1957 -- could eradicate poverty, curb corruption
and promote progressive Islamic values.

Anwar held several senior cabinet posts, including the
ministries of agriculture and education and had been finance
minister since 1991 before being sacked.

Anwar is married to a medical doctor, Wan Azizah Wan Ismail,
and the couple have six children, five girls and a boy.

After Anwar's arrest, Wan Azizah, who has shown the ability to
attract large crowds of disgruntled Malays -- the backbone of
Mahathir's UMNO, recently launched the Partai Keadilan Nasional,
or National Justice Party.

Her image as an aggrieved wife defending her husband has a
widespread appeal, but Wan Azizah, the party's president, is a
novice at politics and her organizational abilities are untested.