By: Sauro Dasgupta
The ascension of Dato Seri Anwar Ibrahim as the new Prime Minister of Malaysia is a great news for all. Mr. Ibrahim has been a very liberal and progressive politician. Besides, unlike his mentor and former Prime Minister Dato Seri Dr Mahathir Mohamad.
Mr. Ibrahim was groomed into politics by Dr Mohamad, someone who was a father figure for the nation as well.
The clash between the two started when Mr. Ibrahim started to criticism Dr Mohamad. As a result, Mr. Ibrahim was imprisoned. Later he faced charges of Sodomy, something for which he was even acquitted.
In the 1940s, Mahathir had led movements against non- Malays. When Tunku Abdul Rahman became the Prime Minister, he felt that should Mahathir acquire power, his rule would be extremely oppressive towards non- Malays. Mahathir accused Tunku of being a Chinese spy and working for China all the time. Thus, Tunkuwas forced to resign and with Abdul Razak in power, Mahathir became the kingmaker. Mahathir was sworn in as Education Minister.
To ward off the challenges of Razak and his son Najib, Mahathir propped up Anwar against them. However, after Anwar’s imprisonment, Mahathir faced so much protests and pressure that he had to align with Najib. In 2018, after Anwar’s release, Mahathir allied with him and defeated Najib in the election.
After the polls, Mahathir promised that Anwar would be PM in 2020. Since he refused to keep his promise, he had to resign and Muhyiddin Yasin and later Ismail Sabri Yakoob became the Prime Minister.
In the closely contested polls of 2022 after Anwar’s victory, the king declared him as Prime Minister. Notwithstanding all challenges, he has distinguished himself as a perseverant leader. His premiership will be one to watch for.
(The writer is a PG 2 student, Department of International Relations, Jadavpur University)
