As I much as I pity Anwar, he only has himself to be blamed for being in a rush to succeed Mahathir in the 90s.. He thought he could outfox the old fox, he rallied his so called allies, Ahmad Zahidi, Najib, Abdullah Badawi, and few others to support him. All these chaps hated Mahathir and would love to see the end of Mahathir's rule. Anwar thought he had the numbers to support him within UMNO. His head was also getting big due to the adulation he received from the western world for his good handling of Malaysia's economy while he was the Finance Minister. Malaysia prospered. He made many friends overseas, all of whom were expecting him to succeed Mahathir one day. He too was overconfident in his chances in taking over Mahathir since he was the old fox's blue eye boy then. Mahathir made sure there was no one else to compete with Anwar for the DPM post. That shows you how much Mahathir favoured him then. But Old Fox instigated by some UMNO warlord veterans allied to him was disturbed by the international attention and praises that Anwar was receiving and the plans of the latter to usurp him. At one stroke of the pen, Old Fox brought Anwar down with accusations of sodomy and adultery, something which is unacceptable to the Malay society. Ahmad Zahidi, Najib and others alligned to Anwar soon deserted him and went scampering back to Mahathir and support the old fox.