World News Network

Kuala Lumpur, Aug 28: Opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim took his place Thursday as a member of Malaysia's Parliament, a major step in his goal to topple a government weakened by electoral defeats and internal dissent.

The speaker, who administered the oath, formally declared Anwar the leader of the three-party opposition alliance. Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, Deputy Prime Minister Najib Razak and most Cabinet ministers were not present.

Anwar regained his parliamentary seat in the northern Penang state by a landslide in a by-election Tuesday in which only one district was contested. It came on the heels of big gains by the opposition in the March general elections that loosed the government's 51-year grip on power.

Anwar has said he aims to be the next prime minister after bringing down the government by Sept. 16 via defections from disaffected members of Abdullah's ruling coalition.

"Anwar -- whatever we think of him and many of us are deeply skeptical -- is looking more and more like our future Prime Minister," wrote columnist Karim Raslan in The Star daily on Thursday.

"There is a mounting sense of inevitability to his impending succession," he wrote.

But significant hurdles remain, the biggest of them a criminal charge that he sodomized a 23-year-old male aide, the second time in his career he has faced a sodomy accusation. No date has been set for the trial.

Under Malaysian law, even consensual sodomy is punishable by up to 20 years in jail.

Anwar has dismissed the accusation as a "most sickening" political conspiracy by the government to thwart his rise. A recent opinion poll appeared to endorse that view.

Besides the challenge from Anwar, Prime Minister Abdullah is also facing internal opposition.

Veteran government lawmaker Razaleigh Hamzah, who wants to challenge Abdullah for the leadership of their United Malays National Organization party, said Anwar's victory meant that "what scraps of credibility (Abdullah) had left" were gone.

Former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad also said, "Abdullah must take responsibility and resign now."

His lawmaker son Mukhriz Mahathir also said that with Anwar in Parliament, "we cannot afford to have a weak leadership because it could lead to our downfall."

Abdullah rejected the calls. "I believe we can still continue the government," Abdullah was quoted as saying by the Bernama national news agency.

Abdullah's party has been the main pillar of the National Front coalition that has ruled Malaysia uninterrupted since independence from Britain in 1957. And since 1969, it held a two-thirds majority in Parliament.

But in the March 8 general elections, the coalition returned to power with a simple majority of 140 seats in the 222-member house.

Anwar's People's Alliance coalition increased its strength from 19 to 82 seats and needs 30 more to form a government.

His re-entry into Parliament completed his political rehabilitation. Anwar was fired by Mahathir as deputy prime minister in 1998 and jailed for six years, convicted of corruption and sodomizing his family driver. That sodomy conviction, which he said was politically motivated, was overturned by Malaysia's top court in 2004.

The corruption conviction, which carried a ban on holding political office until April 2008, prevented him from contesting in the March elections.