COMMENT | About this time in 1982, with then-prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad gearing up to steer the country along the path of his vision, his task was made easier with Anwar Ibrahim alongside, rather than across the parliamentary aisle as opposition leader.

The conversion of Anwar from presumptive leader of the opposition to Mahathir acolyte was accomplished just before the April 1982 general election, where BN romped home to a landslide victory with Anwar as Umno MP for Permatang Pauh, a seat that PAS had won in the 1978 election.

Had the political chips fallen differently, Anwar would have been an opposition MP, possibly as the top man in Parti Islam SeMalaysia (PAS) upon the retirement of Mohd Asri Muda as its president.

His leadership of Abim had gained him not only national stature but also international recognition; posts in the upper echelons of PAS were there for his asking.

A year before the huge surprise of his induction into Umno, Anwar led the combined NGO and opposition political parties' efforts to oppose amendments to the Societies Act, changes its critics said boded ill for the growth of civil society.

Anwar's leadership of the opposition to the amendments had thrust him into its front ranks, such that its putative parliamentary leader, Lim Kit Siang, willingly conceded the space.

Recurrent talk about Kit Siang being anti-Malay and anti-Islam often fails to take heed of "telling episodes" like this one.

The opportunity cost of Anwar's co-optation by Mahathir was 16 years of enfeeblement of civil society through several amendments to the constitution, restrictive changes to existing laws and the enactment of new and more repressive laws.

The overall effect of this enfeeblement of civil society was the centralisation of power in the hands of the Umno president-cum-PM of Malaysia, a work wrought mainly by Mahathir with the overt or tacit support of Anwar as member of his government.

When, in 1998, Anwar could no longer keep quiet about the effects of this accumulation of power and had either to lead an internal party revolt or just resign, his options were rendered moot by the application of a now-fortified gamut of repressive measures, like restrictive detention, a controlled media and legal charges before a compliant judiciary.

An already weakened civil society could not arouse enough public concern to offer more than a little aid to the targeted victim of the repression.

It was no small irony that the victim, in a sense, had been his own executioner.

True, vision is 20/20 in hindsight, but Anwar's 16-year co-optation in Mahathir's 22-year governance was damaging to civil society. That he is the most poignant victim of this enfeeblement bolsters karmic theories of life's wheel of fortune.

Crying over milk he spilt

Now it's Mahathir who is railing against the centralisation of power in the hands of the Umno president and Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak.

Critics are justified in saying the man is crying over milk he heedlessly spilt, clamouring against the results of his handiwork, a case of a diagnostician being repulsed by the effects of the medicine he had unconscionably prescribed.

So why bother to help his protestations? Especially when he is unrepentant about his mistakes.

Well, the poet Dante, with whom Anwar has a more than passing acquaintance, said the hottest places in hell are reserved for those who, in times of great moral crisis, maintained their neutrality.

Whether Mahathir is repentant or not, supporters of political reform, all the way from the time Anwar led the fight against amendments to the Societies Act in March 1981, through to the impeachment of Salleh Abbas in 1988 and the public humiliation of Anwar 10 years later, have really no choice but to now support the erring ex-PM in his battle to oust Najib.

The reason is that via Bersatu, Mahathir has demonstrated, by the size of the crowds he has attracted in semi-rural areas where he has campaigned against Najib, that he is able to draw the support of Umno types that Anwar, thus far, has not been able to attract to the banner of reformasi.

There is the potential he will make the difference between merely obtaining a plurality in the popular vote which the opposition gained in the 2013 general election and actually gaining a parliamentary majority.

By making him head honcho of the opposition, particularly now when there is no doubt about PAS' intention to help Umno win multi-cornered contests, the opposition will be playing it smart the way Mahathir played it shrewd in enticing Anwar to join Umno in 1982.

The enticement delayed the evolution of civil society in Malaysia. In retrospect, that delay happened because in Anwar, the ambition to be PM is stronger than his idealism for reform.

In March 1982, he placated his incredulous Abim cohorts, telling them he expected to be PM in 11 years.

Making Mahathir the point man now shortens the span of that delay in civil society creation.

It also enables the Anwaristas to return the inverted compliment Mahathir paid them in 1982  - which deflected their leader from his more obvious course - that of opposition leader.

TERENCE NETTO has been a journalist for more than four decades. A sobering discovery has been that those who protest the loudest tend to replicate the faults they revile in others.

The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of Malaysiakini.