Malaysia's opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim is perhaps the only prominent politician in the world today to have been accused of sodomy _ not just once but twice.
Yet he has made a triumphant return to Parliament a decade after being fired as deputy prime minister and despite a humiliating conviction for allegedly sodomizing his family's driver.
Now Anwar's goal is to become the prime minister, even though he is facing another criminal trial over new allegations that he sodomized a 23-year-old male aide.
Anwar, 61, secured a bigger than expected victory in a special election Tuesday in his native Penang state, defeating the candidate of the governing National Front coalition by a massive margin.
"He is a fighter. People have underestimated him before. No one expected him to make it this far," said Bridget Welsh of the Johns Hopkins University who has studied Malaysia for a decade. "His passion to implement the things he believes in has been his driving force."
Once considered a shoo-in for the job of prime minister, Anwar began his political career as an Islamic student activist and went on to become the country's No. 2 leader under then Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad. But the two fell out over policy during the 1997 Asian financial crisis, and Anwar was arrested in 1998.
The married father of six spent the next six years in jail, convicted of sodomy and corruption.
In a recent interview with The Associated Press, Anwar said he never lost hope while in prison, even after he was severely beaten up by police, leaving him with a permanent back injury.
"Initially it was very difficult because you are completely cut off. It is like living in a dungeon," he said. But once Anwar resigned himself to his fate, he started "reading, reflecting and meditating."
"I read the Quran. I also drew a lot of inspiration from other civilizations, cultures. I read a lot of Hindu epics and Chinese philosophies. Of course Christianity. Six years of 12 hours a day of reading. That's quite a lot," he said.
"I didn't know what was going to happen. But I knew I would be vindicated. It was a matter of conviction. Because I trusted the wisdom of the masses," he said.
The sodomy conviction was overturned by the Federal Court in 2004, but the corruption conviction remained, preventing him from contesting in March 8 general elections this year.
Nonetheless, Anwar masterminded the opposition's campaign and led it to huge gains _ it won 82 seats in the 222-member Parliament, up from 19 before, as well as five states.
Anwar's political ban expired in April, allowing him to contest the Permatang Pauh seat vacated by his wife for him. It appeared the new sodomy charge made no difference to voters.
The timing of each sodomy allegation against Anwar has bolstered his claim that he is a victim of a political conspiracy _ this time because he wants to topple the government by luring defections from the National Front.
He needs 30 defections, and Anwar says he will do it by Sept. 16. But analysts are skeptical.
"It's still uncertain ... It may be in September, it may be later, but I think the threat is certainly there," said Ibrahim Suffian of the Merdeka Center research group. "The election results contend that he truly is a prime minister in waiting. He's a serious contender."
Anwar's hope is to induce defections of lawmakers from the states of Sabah and Sarawak on Borneo island, which have been neglected by the government. Both states get less funds for development than the rest of the country, and their lawmakers are rarely appointed to important ministerial positions.
Even if he secures the defections, Anwar will still be hampered by the sodomy trial, for which no date has been set. Under Malaysian law, even consensual sodomy is punishable by up to 20 years in jail.
The other obstacle he faces is the ideological differences between the three parties in the opposition coalition, made up of his multiracial People's Justice Party, the leftist and Chinese-based Democratic Action Party and the religion based Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party.
But what binds all these disparate actors is their goal to unseat the government of Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi.
The March general election, sent a clear signal that people wanted change even though the National Front government has turned the country from an agricultural backwater into a prosperous industrial economy during its 51 years in power.
Anwar has promised he will change the government into a corruption-free institution that treats the majority Malays, minority ethnic Chinese and Indians equally. He promises to do away with an affirmative action program for Malays, and to abolish a law that allows detention without trial.
"People are so fed up with the old system and put their hope into this one person who has gone through a very dramatic experience," said Tian Chua, one of Anwar's closest advisers.
"I've no doubt that he'll become the next prime minister," Chua said. "He's a determined person."
Born in a small village in Penang on Aug. 10, 1947, Anwar, the son of a hospital porter, became known as a radical in the early 1970s while pursuing Malay studies at Kuala Lumpur's University Malaya.
He helped found a Muslim youth movement, and was arrested in 1974, spending 20 months in prison without trial after organizing a student protest against rural poverty.
He surprised associates in 1982 when he joined the United Malays National Organization, the main party in the National Front. He was elected as one of UMNO's vice presidents in 1986 and continued to rise until the 1998 sodomy scandal.
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Associated Press reporter Julia Zappei contributed to this report.
