.jpg "PKR president Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim says he will continue to strengthen his determination that this country must be restored immediately and the reform agenda must defend all. — Picture by Yusof Mat Isa")
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KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 11 — Federal Opposition Leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim said reforms will always be the cornerstone of his politics, despite remembering how this pursuit led to his imprisonment on a sodomy conviction.
In a post marking yesterday’s anniversary of his second sodomy conviction on February 10, 2015, the PKR president said what he went through in prison paled in comparison to those suffering from poverty and marginalisation in the country.
“The suffering I experienced at that time was still small compared to the pain that was borne by the people who were still beset by problems of poverty and marginalisation.
“Therefore, I will continue to strengthen my determination that this country must be restored immediately and the reform agenda must defend all,” he said on Twitter today.
He said the experience gave him resolve and taught him that the pursuit of reforms would invariably result in tests, threats, and pressure.
“I will not be silenced, I will fight on for freedom and justice and I will never surrender!” he said.
Six years ago yesterday, Anwar was sentenced to five years in prison after the Federal Court upheld an earlier Court of Appeal ruling that reversed his acquittal of sodomising former aide Mohd Saiful Bukhari Azlan.
He was given a royal pardon in 2018 after Pakatan Harapan won the general election.
It was also his second sodomy case following the first in 1998, after he fell out with the prime minister at the time, Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, and was sacked as the latter’s deputy.
Anwar and his supporters maintain that both cases were political persecution intended to kill off his career.