Dewan Rakyat: Anwar, Zahid once a nemesis, now allies

KUALA LUMPUR - One-time mentor and protege finally sits next to each other in Parliament as prime minister and deputy prime minister.

After being separated for almost a decade due to different political beliefs, who would expect that the day would come that Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim and Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi would join hands and sit side by side once again.

Anwar and Zahid have been political allies for many years, what more suprising was that in the beginning of 1970s, both of them were student activists at Universiti Malaya.

In fact when the Tambun MP was accused of sodomy and corruption charges which led to him being sacked as deputy prime minister in 1998, Zahid was one of the few Umno members who stood by Anwar.

However, the duo decided to part ways and started leading two different political parties which were Barisan Nasional (BN) and Pakatan Harapan (PH).

During the 15th General Election (GE15) both parties went against each other and refused to join forces which led people to believe that the chances of both parties working together was slim.

Regardless, the election this year made the impossible-possible when no coalitions won simple majority and finally saw BN and PH worked together as a unity-government.

Today, the unity government saw Anwar and Zahid seated next to each other, while other MPs especially from DAP and Umno were also seen seated together in Parliament which symbolised what or who the Unity Government were made of.