From prison, Malaysia's Anwar helps reunite opposition

Malaysian opposition icon Anwar Ibrahim can't vote in what he believes will be a "defining election" for his country on Wednesday but even from his prison cell has remained a political force to be reckoned with.

The firebrand politician's conviction in 2015 for what he and his supporters said were false allegations of sodomy fractured the alliance of opposition parties that under Anwar's leadership was threatening the ruling National Front's decades-long hold on power.

It was Anwar's second spell in prison and it seemed he'd finally been done in by dirty political tactics.

Once a high flyer in the ruling party, in 1998 he was convicted of homosexual sodomy a criminal offense in Muslim-majority Malaysia inherited from the British colonial era and corruption following a power struggle with Mahathir Mohammad, Malaysia's authoritarian prime minister for more than two decades.

Anwar, however, played an unexpected card.

From prison he helped forge a new opposition alliance by ending the two-decade feud with his former persecutor-in-chief, Mahathir, who'd once called Anwar "morally unfit" to govern the country.

It was a hard but pragmatic decision, Anwar's eldest daughter, lawmaker Nurul Izzah Anwar, told The Associated Press.

Anwar, 70, is an "incorrigible optimist" who believes there must be sacrifices to bring about a change of government and badly needed reforms, she said.

"He was instrumental in galvanizing an eventual approval to get Mahathir to be part of our coalition," said Nurul Izzah. "He was the first to state that it's time for us to be actively playing our part to design the Malaysia that we want."
He is due to be released from prison on June 8 and Mahathir has pledged to hand leadership to him. Officials say Anwar could take power with a royal pardon. Anwar, said Nurul Izzah, "knows it's a defining election, he knows the stakes are high."