Syed Ali felt the incarcerated leader’s career in politics was reaching the end and the former Permatang Pauh MP should be left alone to “rest comfortably” in prison.

Dismissing Parti Amanah Negara (Amanah) president Mohamad Sabu’s claim that Anwar was an important element in the Opposition pact’s efforts to change the national political landscape, Syed Ali said the public are already fed up of Anwar’s never-ending political game.

He said the fact that Anwar was found guilty of sodomising his former aide, Mohd Saiful Bukhari Azlan, had greatly affected the public, especially the Malays.

“When a politician’s aura has diminished, he is indirectly no longer needed by the community. This is even more so when the leader was implicated in embarrassing moral issues,” wrote Syed Ali in his blog today.

Mohamad Sabu, better known as Mat Sabu, had on Anwar’s first anniversary of his incarceration yesterday, said that due to Anwar’s temporary absence, the youth should step up and play a more active role in the future of the country.

According to Syed Ali, Mat Sabu’s statement was nothing more than an attempt to attract the younger generation’s attention to the Opposition’s cause.

“Anwar’s image is unlike that back in the 1970s when his presence could shake up the political battlefield. ”

The current generation, he added, was fully aware that despite the Opposition’s attempt to say otherwise, Anwar was now behind bars not because he was a political prisoner, but because he was found guilty of sodomy.

Anwar was sentenced to five years’ jail on Feb 10, 2015, after the country’s highest court upheld a conviction that found him guilty of sodomising Saiful in 2008.

The former Deputy Prime Minister, however, maintained that the charges against him were politically motivated.