The last men to challenge malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad learned a hard lesson. Former Finance Minister Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah and former Deputy Prime Minister Musa Hitam failed in their 1987 bid to assume leadership of the ruling United Malays National Organization (UMNO) and were banished to the political wilderness. "The worst job in politics is No. 2," a worn Razaleigh told TIME in 1996, "because you can't survive if you stay there."

When Anwar Ibrahim learned that lesson last week, many expressed surprise the day had not come sooner. From the moment Anwar maneuvered himself into the No. 2 slot in UMNO in 1993--against the wishes of Mahathir--Kuala Lumpur's coffeehouses have buzzed with rumors of the younger man's imminent demise. The one-time student radical seemed altogether too bright, too ambitious, too obviously ready for the top slot to endure for long under his domineering boss. Ironically, however, those very qualities may have helped protect his position while Mahathir needed to groom a fit heir--and they will aid any political comeback he mounts now that the "Old Man" has decided to postpone retirement.

Anwar's friends claim he has always been marked for great things. As a child growing up near the small town of Cherok Tok Kun--the son of a hospital porter who later became an MP and a mother who would become the first woman elected to a town council in Malaysia--he was a voracious reader, plowing through his mother's collection of Malay and Indonesian novels, and memorizing the Koran by age 9. At Malay College in Kuala Kangsar, Perak, and later at Kuala Lumpur's University of Malaya, he acquired a taste for Western philosophy and literature. But he made his early name in a more parochial cause--campaigning for road signs to be written in Malay instead of English. Shortly before he graduated he founded the Malaysian Islamic Youth Movement, or abim, which grew into one of the most powerful student unions in the country.

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R E L A T E D   S T O R I E S :

COVER STORY Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad banishes Anwar
CRANKY OLD MAN The PM has a history of lashing out
VIEWPOINT Mahathir rails against financial orthodoxy
INTERVIEW Anwar explains what went wrong
OUT OF LINE Where does the ex-heir go from here?
POLL Does former Deputy Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim have a future in Malaysian politics?
POLL Will the new currency controls help or hurt the Malaysian economy?