Upon emerging from prison, he set out to rebuild the opposition, a three-party, multiracial alliance that went on to cause shock waves in 2008, by making unprecedented gains in national elections. However, the euphoria was to be short-lived. A second sodomy charge several months later took Anwar back to the courts, in a trial he claims is another politically motivated attempt to end his political ambitions.

Tomorrow, Anwar returns to court to hear whether the judge will acquit him of the new charge or whether he will be required to present his defence, in a case that has been dubbed 'Sodomy II' by the local press.

While analysts say many Malaysians do not believe the charges or that he is the man on the sex tape, some have questioned whether the opposition has been able to deliver on the hype that accompanied the 'political tsunami' of 2008. Recent gains in a state election have helped bolster opposition spirits but internal politics and Anwar's personal problems have proved a distraction from the opposition's reform agenda.

As he fights to clear his name, Anwar says he is 'realistic' about the likelihood of his having to return to prison and insists he remains unwaveringly committed to the reformasi movement he started more than a decade ago.

DESPITE NEVER having held the country's top job, Anwar is arguably Malaysia's most talked-about politician. His political resume charts a dramatic roller-coaster ride, with no shortage of twists and turns, soaring highs and plunging lows.

After cutting his political teeth as a student leader in the 1970s and establishing the Muslim Youth Movement of Malaysia, he joined the United Malays National Organisation (Umno), which has ruled the country since it gained independence from Britain, in 1957.

Having climbed the ranks of the party, he held the portfolios of finance minister and deputy prime minister when he was named 'Asian of the Year' in 1998 by Newsweek magazine. But just as he was achingly close to the top job, it all came crashing down.

Fired by then-prime minister Mahathir Mohamad after a falling out over policy, Anwar soon found himself isolated from the political elite. He was charged and convicted of abuse of power and sodomy, an offence punishable by up to 20 years in prison in Muslim-majority Malaysia. He famously received a black eye while in police custody.

After six years in solitary confinement, where, he says, he read the entire works of Shakespeare 4 1/2 times, Anwar's sodomy conviction was overturned and, in 2004, he was released. That marked the end of his second stint in jail. In the 70s, he served two years in prison under the Internal Security Act, a law some observers say has been used to silence government critics.

'So it's a total of eight years,' he says of his time behind bars. Smiling, he adds: 'Not too long compared to [Nelson] Mandela.'

Few predicted the dramatic swing to the opposition in the March 2008 elections. In what many described as a protest vote, Malaysians denied the ruling coalition, Barisan Nasional (BN), or the National Front, a two-thirds parliamentary majority for the first time since independence and delivered control of five states to the opposition. Although Anwar could not contest that election due to a court order related to his abuse of power conviction, he was re-elected to parliament in an August by-election that year.

By then, though, he was again facing an accusation of sodomy, this time made by a young former political aide, Saiful Bukhari Azlan.

Anwar's arrest and the slow-moving trial have drawn criticism from far and wide. Last August, Al Gore, a former vice-president of the United States, and Paul Wolfowitz, a former US deputy secretary of defence and World Bank president, denounced the trial in a letter published in The Wall Street Journal newspaper. They wrote that the trial 'threatens not just Mr Anwar but all those in Malaysia who have struggled for a freer and more democratic nation. It is also important for the rest of the world, because it casts a troubling shadow over the future of a nation that should be a model for other Muslim countries.'

More than 50 Australian members of parliament signed a letter calling on the Malaysian judiciary to drop the charges in February last year.

In his office, at his party headquarters in suburban Kuala Lumpur, Anwar is realistic about his chances of acquittal. He has long maintained that the judiciary does not function independently from the government and that the trial has been orchestrated in an attempt to keep him from power.

'I hope for the best but I'm realistic enough to brace for the problem as it comes,' Anwar says.

The government has denied Anwar's allegations that the trial is politically motivated. In an e-mailed statement, a government spokesman says: 'Like any victim of crime in any civilised society, a Malaysian who makes an allegation of sexual misconduct against their employer has the right to see that accusation properly investigated, regardless of the prominence of those involved. Malaysia's judiciary is entirely independent of the government and it is important that all cases are conducted without political interference from any side.'

The sodomy trial has recently taken a backseat in the media to the sex tape. Clips of the video have been broadcast on a local television station and were briefly available on YouTube. Anwar strenuously denies he is the man in the video, saying while the man's face may bear some resemblance to his own, his body does not. He says it is a case of 'criminal intimidation'.

'When they first released it they gave us an ultimatum ... for me and Azizah to resign,' he says, referring to his wife, Dr Wan Azizah Ismail, president of the Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR), or People's Justice Party. 'It's clearly politically motivated.'

Anwar blames the government for allowing the tape to be screened and describes the incident as 'a desperate attempt to hang on to power and demonise the opposition'.

Anwar complains that he is often prevented from holding public rallies (a police permit is required for public gatherings of three or more people in Malaysia) and that he is constantly portrayed negatively in the government-owned, mainstream media. While he says the opposition was encouraged by its performance in the recent Sarawak state elections, he alleges aspects of the election process were 'fraudulent'.

Asked to comment on Anwar's claims, the government spokesman says: 'Malaysia has a democratically elected government, free and fair elections, vibrant political debate - with the right to peaceful protest enshrined in the constitution - and a lively and robust media environment. Opposition parties own newspapers, the online sphere is unregulated and journalists are free to tell whatever side of the story they choose.

'The real story in Malaysia today is the landmark reforms and liberalisations being implemented by Prime Minister Najib Razak. Based on his high approval ratings and recent election wins, it appears that the majority of Malaysians agree with his approach. And judging by our strong economic performance, it seems that the markets agree as well.'

In the Freedom of the Press 2011 survey released this month by Freedom House, Malaysia was ranked 143 out of 196 countries, placing it in the 'not free' category. In its report, Freedom House stated that although the country's constitution guarantees freedom of expression, laws such as the sedition act have been used to impose restrictions on the press and critics.

Ibrahim Suffian, director of the Merdeka Centre, an opinion research firm in Kuala Lumpur, says polls have shown that many Malaysians are 'ill-informed about Anwar, partly because there's not a lot of publicly available news about what he is doing and his side of the story ... The vast majority of Malaysians only get the kind of impression pushed through government newspapers and government television.'

Despite the slew of headlines about the sex allegations, evidence suggests they may not have dented Anwar's reputation much. A poll by the Merdeka Centre conducted a week after the videotape emerged found that of about 500 people surveyed, only 17 per cent said they believed Anwar was the man on the tape; 45 per cent believed he was a victim of a 'political character assassination'; and 22 per cent said he had 'poor personal moral standing'.

While public perception may be mixed, Ibrahim says: 'There's a widespread view that he is being targeted, that he is the subject of these kinds of attacks because he is the leader of the opposition.'

Ibrahim says he believes the sex allegations are attempts to appeal to the religious section of the Malay electorate by portraying Anwar as immoral and to persuade the conservative Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party to abandon the opposition alliance by depicting Anwar as a liability.

He says Anwar's background as an Islamic youth leader means he is generally respected in the Muslim world. Elly Suyani, a 30-year-old insurance agent who works in Kuala Lumpur, reflects this view, citing Anwar's contribution to Islamic development in Malaysia.

'I don't think he would do such things. He is not that kind of person,' she says of the sex tape.

Regardless of the outcome of the sodomy trial and the lasting impact of the sex tape, analysts say Malaysians are growing weary of the politicking that has taken place since the 2008 elections, and want their political parties to focus on issues such as the cost of living, corruption and improving public services.

'I detect a sense that people are getting fed up with the kind of gutter politics we are seeing these days, especially in light of this new video,' Ibrahim says. 'Because the portrayal of this video is incessant and in your face, it's on national television, in the newspapers, there's a sense that people, especially the target audience, Malay Muslims ... are fed up and it may backfire on those people who are playing this.'

Bridget Welsh, an associate professor at Singapore Management University, who specialises in Malaysian politics, concurs, saying that the recent allegations are distractions from the real problems facing Malaysia.

'No one is really interested in what's happening in a sex video,' she says. 'I think there's a degree of frustration among ordinary people.'

Furthermore, she says, 'The more they continue with these kinds of personal, smut-ridden tactics, [the more] it undermines Malaysia's international reputation.'

The mudslinging continued last week, when Anwar was accused of calling Najib 'a real pandi kutti' (Tamil for 'piglet').

'To attack someone personally is to be trapped in a cauldron of politics that has no ethics. This [the name-calling] is not causing me to lose sleep,' the prime minister was quoted by The Star newspaper as having said on Tuesday.

Later, the website Malaysiakini reported that Anwar denied insulting Najib directly.

'Umno defames [me] - I said pornographic politics, cruelty, corruption like pandi kutti; I did not mention name,' Anwar said on his Twitter website, also on Tuesday. TV Selangor, owned by the pro-opposition Selangor government, concurred, stating that it had recorded Anwar's speech in full. It reproduced the quote to show that the derogatory word was not aimed at Najib.

Against this backdrop, the opposition, which is known as Pakatan Rakyat (PR), or People's Pact, has been striving to convince voters that it offers a credible alternative to the ruling coalition. Although national elections are not due until 2013, there has been some speculation that polls could be called later this year.

In last month's Sarawak election, on the island of Borneo, the government was easily returned to power but it recorded its worst performance in the state in 24 years, with the opposition winning 15 of the 71 seats, up from just seven in the previous election. While analysts describe the gains as impressive, they say the opposition, and the PKR in particular, must overcome a number of challenges if it is to have a shot at repeating its 2008 performance, or bettering it, at the next national election.

Last year, the PKR faced allegations of vote-rigging in its internal party elections and a number of members left, some to join the ruling coalition, others to form independent parties, creating what has been dubbed the 'third force' in Malaysian politics.

Zaid Ibrahim, a former Umno minister who joined the PKR in 2009, left the party last year after what he described as 'flawed' internal party elections. In January, he launched the independent People's Welfare Party. Asked about Anwar's leadership style, Zaid says: 'I think it leaves a lot to be desired.'

Malik Imtiaz Sarwar, a lawyer and long- time opposition supporter, has been nominated to run as an independent candidate by the Malaysian Civil Liberties Movement. Established late last year, the group says it wants to work with parties outside the ruling coalition, although it's been disappointed with the opposition's performance since the 2008 election.

'Our main concern was that the Pakatan Rakyat seemed more concerned with politics than they were with the reform agenda,' Malik says. 'The idea was to try to nudge the Pakatan into seeing that it couldn't take popular support for granted. They were swept to success on a wave of discontent in 2008 but they couldn't rely on that anymore. They had to actually show the voters who had voted more in rejection of the BN than in support of PR that they deserved and were entitled to their votes ... and constructive ideas had to be put forward.'

Political analyst Ong Kian Ming says that while the gains in the Sarawak election may have given the opposition a boost, it can ill-afford to 'rest on its laurels'. A lecturer at UCSI University, in Kuala Lumpur, Ong says many of the seats the opposition won in 2008 were marginal, especially for the PKR. He believes they would probably lose some of those seats if elections were held this year.

'The Malay vote has swung back to the BN somewhat, not just because of Anwar but because of what is happening in PKR in terms of the defectors and the disastrous internal party elections. It has given voters much less confidence in the party,' he says.

Some reports have questioned whether the opposition alliance remains united and whether some of the component parties, particularly the Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party, have reservations about supporting Anwar in light of the sex allegations. But Anwar maintains that his opposition partners have been 'extremely supportive'.

'When it comes to the leadership, the commitment's strong,' he says.

With his wife the president of the PKR, and his eldest daughter, Nurul Izzah Anwar, elected to one of the party's vice-president posts last year, there have been accusations that Anwar is guilty of 'dynasty politics'. His wife stepped up to lead the party while Anwar was in prison but he says he did not encourage Nurul Izzah to pursue a career in politics.

'Given the political climate here, where you've been demonised and physically abused and assaulted, you don't want your family members to be involved. So I did not encourage ... She had her own commitment,' he says.

Given recent developments, it may be difficult to predict the political landscape and the public mood by the time voters next go to the polls. What is clear, however, is that Anwar's resolve has not waned. Although he says his family - he has six children whose ages range from 17 to 30 - has been 'deeply hurt' by the sex allegations, he has no intention of going quietly.

'It is more of a challenge. I must vindicate myself,' says Anwar.

His determination may be unaffected but could Anwar still one day fulfil his long-held ambition to become prime minister? Welsh says anything is possible.

'He's stayed in the fight ... Anwar has taken the punches and in many cases he's turned around and smiled,' she says. 'This is something that continues to maintain the people who are supporters of him and it continues to keep the opposition together because, whatever is thrown at him, he's stayed there and in the process he's raised issues that people want to be heard.

'He's in the ring and by being in the ring, he's a threat.'