Early years (1968-1982)
From 1968 to 1971, as a student, Anwar was the president of National Union Of Malaysian Muslim Students (Malay: Persatuan Kebangsaan Pelajar Islam Malaysia (PKPIM), Jawi: الإثحاد لطلاب المسلمين المالزيين). Around the same time, he was also the president of University of Malaya Malay Language Society (Malay: Persatuan Bahasa Melayu Universiti Malaya (PBMUM) ). In 1971, he was one of the pro tem committee of Angkatan Belia Islam Malaysia (ABIM) or Muslim Youth Movement of Malaysia which he co-founded. At the same time, he was elected as the 2nd President of the Malaysian Youth Council or Majlis Belia Malaysia (MBM). In 1974, Anwar was arrested during student protests against rural poverty and hunger. This came as a report surfaced stating that a family died from starvation in a village in Baling, in the state of Kedah, despite the fact that it never happened but the life of the rubber tappers in Baling was utterly depressed as the price of rubber dropped in 1974. He was imprisoned under the Internal Security Act, which allows for detention without trial, and spent 20 months in the Kamunting Detention Centre. From 1975 till 1982 he was representative for Asia Pacific of World Assembly of Muslim Youth under Sheikh Hassan Abdullah.
Governmental career (1982-1998)
In 1982, Anwar, who was the founding leader and second president of a youth Islamic organisation called Angkatan Belia Islam Malaysia (ABIM), shocked his liberal supporters by joining the United Malays National Organisation (UMNO), led by Mahathir bin Mohamad, who had become prime minister in 1981. He moved up the political ranks quickly his first ministerial office was that of Minister of Culture, Youth and Sports in 1983 after that, he headed the agriculture ministry in 1984 before becoming Minister of Education in 1986. By then, speculation was rife about Anwar's ascent to the Deputy Prime Minister's position as it was a commonly-occurring phenomenon in Malaysia for the Education Minister to assume the position of Deputy PM in the near future.
During his tenure as Education Minister, Anwar introduced numerous pro-Malay policies in the national school curriculum. One of his major changes was to rename the national language from Bahasa Malaysia to Bahasa Melayu. Non-Malays criticized this move as it would cause the younger generation to be detached from the national language, since they would attribute it to being something that belongs to the Malays and not to Malaysians. As the minister of education, Anwar was elected as the 25th President of UNESCO's General Conference. In 1988, Anwar Ibrahim became the second President of International Islamic University of Malaysia.
