Anwar was sworn in as prime minister in Kuala Lumpur on Thursday, after being chosen by the Malaysian King Al-Sultan Abdullah Ahmad Shah following a five-day political deadlock emanating from the election that resulted in a hung parliament.

Dewi Fortuna Anwar, a senior researcher on international politics and foreign policy at the National Research and Innovation Agency (BRIN) said that Anwar is a well known figure with a lot of friends and admirers in Indonesia.

She added that his close relations with many members of the Indonesian political elites – from former president Bacharuddin Jusuf Habibie to President Joko “Jokowi '' Widodo – could translate into a stronger partnership between the neighboring countries.

“Close personal relationships among leaders are just as important as impersonal state-to-state relationships,” Dewi said on Friday.

She also said that Anwar’s political views are in line with Indonesia as a pluralistic and Muslim majority but not an Islamic state.

“It seems that Anwar wants to bring that pluralism in Malaysia, which made him popular among ethnic minorities there but not necessarily with the Malay ethnic group that want to keep their privileges,” Dewi said.

“Let’s hope that Anwar can create a stable and credible government domestically so that Malaysia can play an active role in foreign affairs, including in ASEAN,” Dewi added.

Muhammad Febriansyah, a senior social sciences lecturer from the Science University of Malaysia, expected that there would still be ideological and policy continuity from Anwar’s predecessors.

He pointed out that Malaysian political elites tended to come from the United Malays National Organisation (UMNO), underlining that members of political parties that had their roots from UMNO or were former UMNO party members such as Anwar Ibrahim himself.

“Anwar is seen as a pluralist and progressive figure that could accommodate the interests of all ethnic groups in Malaysia,” Febriansyah said on Friday.

However, how Malaysian foreign policy would shape under Anwar had remained to be seen, Febriansyah said, and that would likely depend on who Anwar would choose as his foreign minister as Anwar had previously only been focused on domestic politics.

Well-wishes

For his part, President Jokowi had congratulated Anwar through a direct phone call from the Bogor Palace on Thursday evening, shortly after the latter’s swearing in.

“On the behalf of the Indonesian government and people, I would like to congratulate Your Excellency for being chosen as the 10th Prime Minister of Malaysia,” Jokowi said, according to a presidential press release.

He went on to say that Anwar was a well-known and widely respected figure by Indonesians. Jokowi said that he believed that with Anwar Ibrahim premiership, good relations between Indonesia and Malaysia would improve.

“I hope we can meet soon to discuss the efforts to strengthen our bilateral relationships, including economic relationships, border issues as well as the protections of our citizens,” Jokowi said.

During the exchange Anwar Ibrahim said he was grateful for Jokowi’s well wishes.

“Thank you. I regard this as an honor as you are among the firsts to have called. This shows that I am forever Indonesia’s true friend,” Anwar said.

Time and again, the job of prime minister had eluded Anwar, despite getting within striking distance over the years, first as deputy prime minister in the 1990s and later, as official prime minister-in-waiting, in 2018.

In between, he spent nearly a decade in jail for sodomy and corruption on charges he says were politically motivated.

The most charismatic opposition leader Malaysia has ever seen, Anwar led tens of thousands of Malaysians in street protests in the 1990s against his mentor-turned-foe Mahathir Mohamad.

His strained relationship with the veteran leader shaped Anwar's own career, as well as Malaysia's political landscape, for nearly three decades.

Mahathir once called Anwar his friend and protégé and anointed him his successor. But later, amid sodomy charges and disagreements over how to handle the Asian financial crisis, he said Anwar was unfit to lead "because of his character."

The two buried the hatchet briefly in 2018 to oust from power the political alliance they once belonged to, only to fall out again within two years, ending their 22-month-old government and plunging Malaysia into a period of instability.

As opposition leader – both from jail and in parliament – Anwar slowly chipped away at the might of the Barisan Nasional alliance, Malaysia's longest ruling coalition that prioritized the interests of the majority of Malays.

His rallying cry of reformasi or reforms, resonated nationwide and is still the main promise of his alliance.

That coalition is multi-ethnic and includes a party that has mainly ethnic-Chinese members and one that is unpopular with the conservative Malay majority.

About 70 percent of the population of nearly 33 million consists of ethnic Malays, who are mainly Muslim, and indigenous groups, with ethnic Chinese and Indians account for the rest.

For decades, Anwar has called for inclusiveness and an overhaul of the political system in the multi-ethnic country.