Non-Malays criticized this move as it would cause the younger generation to be detached from the national language, since they would attribute it to being something that belongs to the Malays and not to Malaysians. One of the major changes that he did was to rename the national language from Bahasa Malaysia to. By then, speculation was rife about Anwar's ascent to the Deputy Prime Minister's position as it was a commonly-occurring phenomenon in Malaysia for the Education Minister to assume the position of Deputy PM in the near future.During his tenure as Education Minister, Anwar introduced numerous pro-Malay policies in the national school curriculum. He moved up the political ranks quickly: his first ministerial office was that of Minister of Culture, Youth and Sports in 1983 after that, he headed the agriculture ministry in 1984 before becoming Minister of Education in 1986. In 1982, Anwar, who was the founding leader and second president of a youth Islamic organisation called, shocked his liberal supporters by joining the (UMNO), led by Mahathir bin Mohamad, who had become prime minister in 1981.
