Malaysian opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim has borne pressure that would break other men, but he has risen above it time and again – and now has a chance to become the country’s prime minister

When i arranged to fly to Kuala Lumpur to interview former Malaysian deputy prime minister Anwar Ibrahim, I received a message from Anwar’s staff saying I would be met at the airport by Saiful Bukhari Azlan, a young aide. Before I could respond to the email, Saiful, 23, accused Anwar of sodomizing him in a luxury condominium. Anwar insisted the charge was untrue and politically motivated to destroy him as leader of the opposition. Someone else met me at the airport. Despite his impending arrest on the sodomy charges, Anwar agreed to meet me three times in early July at his suburban Kuala Lumpur home overlooking the capital’s skyline. For the first interview, I was greeted at the door by his wife Wan Azizah, who succeeded Anwar as leader of the Keadilan party after he was arrested and jailed in 1998 on charges of corruption and sodomy (the sodomy charges were later overturned and he was released from prison in 2004). I was led to a large dining table, where I conducted the interviews. Anwar pointed to men on a couch across the room. They were his lawyers awaiting the summons for his arrest. (Anwar pleaded not guilty to sodomy charges on August 7 and was out on bail.) On August 26, Anwar won a landslide victory in a by-election in Penang and, at press time, said he had wooed enough defectors from the ruling coalition to take power.

What was the greatest crisis in your life and how do you get through it?
Well, i’m waiting to be arrested, so i’m not sure if i’m past the greatest crisis or it is yet to come. But i believe the most difficult phase was » next