Anwar sworn in as Malaysia’s PM after 25-year struggle for reform

Veteran politician finally secures top post after inconclusive election led to days of haggling and monarch’s intervention. PH and the rival conservative Malay-Muslim Perikatan Nasional coalition under former Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin, which had the second-highest number of seats, both began negotiations to form a government, wooing smaller coalitions in the Borneo states of Sabah and Sarawak as well as Barisan Nasional, the alliance that dominated Malaysia for some 60 years before its historic defeat in the last elections in 2018. #DemiPertiwi pic.twitter.com/7zQ2PZTPSx — Anwar Ibrahim November 24, 2022 “It is a long time coming for Anwar,” Asrul Hadi Abdullah Sani, the deputy managing director at consultancy BGA Malaysia, told Al Jazeera. “All his struggles and campaigns for reform are now vindicated.” Sodomy charges Anwar Ibrahim started his political career as a student activist, founding the Muslim Youth Movement of Malaysia, known by its Malay acronym ABIM, in 1971 and later leading protests against rural poverty and on other socioeconomic causes. Reform agenda Chants of “reformasi” or reform continued to reverberate around PH rallies in the campaign leading up to Saturday’s election, with PH supporters looking for a government that would tackle corruption, defend democratic freedoms and ensure the independence of key institutions such as parliament and the judiciary.