KUALA LUMPUR — As Malaysia’s Anwar Ibrahim prepares on Thursday to take over as prime minister, one of his recent comments serves to sum up the persistence that secured him the job he has eyed for three decades. But the uncertainty ended on Thursday, when Malaysia’s king appointed Anwar, 75, to be prime minister. 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. His strained relationship with the veteran leader shaped Anwar’s own career, as well as Malaysia’s political landscape, for nearly three decades. Fried and foeAnwar started off as a firebrand Islamic youth leader before joining the prime minister Mahathir’s United Malays National Organization (UMNO), which leads the Barisan Nasional alliance.
