FOR Anwar Ibrahim, it is his second swearing-in as MP post-jail but for Malaysia, it is the first time its immediate past, current, and future prime ministers are in the same room in the Dewan Rakyat.

Clad in a black baju Melayu and a gold sampin, the 71-year-old took his oath at 10.03am before Speaker Mohamad Ariff Md Yusoff.

Watching was his former nemesis, Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad, who was in the Dewan Rakyat to answer the first question in the oral Q&A session to follow Anwar’s oath-taking. Also present at the opening of the current parliamentary session was Dr Mahathir’s predecessor Najib Razak, who is the Pekan MP.

Anwar returned to Parliament the first time after his first jailing, in August 2008 after winning the Permatang Pauh by-election.

The PKR president-elect was freed from his second incarceration on May 16 after receiving a full pardon from the King for his sodomy conviction.

On Saturday, Anwar made another comeback by bagging the Port Dickson seat with a whopping majority of 23,560 votes, beating the majority set by Danyal Balagopal Abdullah on May 9. – October 15, 2018.