Anwar Ibrahim
Anwar Ibrahim has been Prime Minister of Malaysia since November 2022, arriving there after twenty-four years that included two imprisonments on charges he has always said were fabricated. Born in Penang in 1947, he led the Muslim Youth Movement as a student activist and was detained for two years without trial under the Internal Security Act in 1974 after protests over rural poverty. Mahathir Mohamad recruited him into UMNO in 1982, and he rose quickly — culture, agriculture and education ministries, then finance minister from 1991 and deputy prime minister from 1993. He was widely regarded as the successor. The two split during the 1997 Asian financial crisis over how to respond: Anwar favoured IMF-style austerity and pursuing politically connected firms, Mahathir chose capital controls and a fixed exchange rate. Anwar was sacked in September 1998, arrested, and appeared in court with a black eye given him by the chief of police. He was convicted of corruption and sodomy and served six years until the sodomy conviction was overturned in 2004. His Reformasi movement built an opposition coalition that took the popular vote in 2013. He was convicted of sodomy a second time in 2015 and jailed again, and was released and pardoned in 2018 after Mahathir, then ninety-two, allied with him to defeat Najib Razak over the 1MDB scandal. That alliance collapsed within two years. The 2022 election produced no majority; the king appointed Anwar to lead a unity government including his old adversaries in UMNO. He has held the finance portfolio himself, cut fuel and electricity subsidies for higher earners, and pursued recovery of 1MDB assets.
- Lived: 1947 CE – ?
- Nationality: Malaysian
- Roles: Prime Minister of Malaysia (2022-present)
