Muhyiddin served as Mahathir’s home minister when Mahathir’s coalition won the 2018 election, after Muhyiddin had defected from the UMNO. When Mahathir’s government collapsed last year, Muhyiddin returned to his old party and became the prime minister.

On Aug. 2, Malaysian media quoted Mahathir as saying, again and again, that he would support Anwar for the premiership after the fall of Muhyiddin.

So why sodomy? I am curious whether allegations of sodomy will be used again to block Anwar from realizing his two-decade-long ambition of becoming the prime minister of Malaysia. Next month, the country’s parliament will hold a vote of confidence on Muhyiddin, and Anwar’s coalition, led by Partai Keadilan Rakyat (PKR), will have enough votes to oust the prime minister.

For 23 years, sodomy politics has haunted Malaysia. On May 21, 1998, the Indonesian people celebrated their “second independence day” after they forced Soeharto to end his 32-year dictatorship and the country entered the Reform Era. Then-Malaysian prime minister Mahathir said his government was totally different from Soeharto’s and that Malaysia did not need reformation.

But quietly, Mahathir had been planning drastic action to strengthen his power. He crushed anyone whom he regarded as musuh dalam selimut (the enemy within). On Sept. 2, 1998, Mahathir sacked Anwar as his deputy prime minister for allegedly committing corruption and sodomizing Azizan Abu Bakar, the chauffeur for his wife Wan Azizah Wan Ismail.

Malaysians were shocked when Anwar appeared in public with a black eye to plead not guilty on sodomy and graft charges on Sept. 29. Malaysia’s National Police chief Tan Sri Rahim Noor admitted to beating Anwar himself. Can you imagine that Anwar was tortured by a national police chief?

Why was Mahathir so eager to blow up the sodomy allegation? In his testimony, Azizan told the court Anwar had sodomized him 15 times. The court found Anwar guilty on Aug. 8, 2000, and sentenced him to nine years in prison. In a separate corruption trial, Anwar was given six additional years in jail.

Of course, Mahathir could claim that the Malaysian judiciary was so independent that it would have been impossible for him to intervene against his former golden boy.

On Sept 5, 2004, Anwar won his final appeal against the sodomy conviction and was freed, one year after Mahathir stepped down after ruling the country since 1981.

Mahathir was replaced by Abdullah Badawi, who served from 2004 to 2009.

Anwar was acquitted during Badawi’s term. But on June 29, 2008, Anwar’s political aide Saiful Azlan reported Anwar to the police for alleged sodomy. This was Anwar’s second sodomy case.

Like in his first case, Anwar accused the government of orchestrating the trial to prevent him from returning to parliament in a by-election in July 2008. PM Badawi strongly denied Anwar’s claim.

The trial opened on Feb. 3, 2010. On Jan. 9, 2012, the High Court acquitted Anwar of the sodomy charges.

On March 7, 2014, the Court of Appeals found Anwar guilty of sodomy and sentenced him to five years in prison. The prime minister at the time was Najib Razak. The four former prime ministers had all come from the same party, the United Malays National Organization (UMNO), and all them were once close to Anwar in the ruling party.

Malaysia’s highest court rejected Anwar’s appeal against the 2014 sodomy conviction and upheld his five-year prison term on Feb. 10, 2015.

The conclusion of the Muslim Institute on Anwar’s trials was, “In six words: convicted, appealed, acquitted; acquitted, appealed, convicted. The poor man could be the world’s first deputy premier-turned-opposition leader to have been twice acquitted and convicted of sodomy.”

On May 9, 2018, the UMNO-led coalition party shockingly lost the general election to the opposition led by Mahathir and Anwar. PM Razak resigned and is still facing a major corruption scandal along with his wife.

On May 11, 2018, Malaysian King Sultan Muhammad V pardoned Anwar, paving the way for his return to politics.

"It is going to be a full pardon, which of course, means he is not only pardoned but to be released immediately,” Mahathir proudly told journalists at the time. He acted as a savior, and forgot that it was he who first sent Anwar to court on sodomy allegations.

Next month, it is very likely that PM Muhyiddin will lose power, although he is extremely confident about his political survival, despite his confrontational approach to the Malaysian king.

Nearly all potential rivals of Anwar in parliament are aging politicians. At 96, Mahathir is still eyeing his third premiership, although in public he supports Anwar. He betrayed Anwar in 2018 after denying his own promise that he would soon transfer power to Anwar.

I wonder why Mahathir was so obsessed with Anwar and why the latter was so forgiving to the man who betrayed him and sent him to jail.

Now 74, Anwar still has a chance to make his dream of the premiership come true if he can defeat 74-year-old Muhyiddin in September.

I am just eager to see whether the sodomy card will be played again by Anwar’s rivals. If that happens, it will be mind-boggling that such primitive politics have lasted so long in Malaysia.

***

Senior editor of The Jakarta Post