The report Anwar conveys request for meeting with Pak Lah refers.

This great desire of Anwar Ibrahim to meet up with the president of Umno, the chairman of the Barisan Nasional and the present prime minister is most disturbing.

Are we going to see a replay of what happened to Ku Li and his Semangat 46? Will Anwar Ibrahim and his ex-Umno friends be re-joining Umno and the ruling Barisan Nasional government?

For if so, then the Malaysian people, civil society and the alternative political parties who believed that a leopard could change its spots, will again be seen as fools taken for a ride by yet another former Umno leader 'evicted temporarily' by reason of political rivalry within Umno.

Most likely, the reason that may be forwarded by Anwar and friends for re-joining Umno is that things have changed with the leaving of Dr Mahathir Mohamad and the rise of Abdullah Ahmad Badawi as the new prime minister and Umno president.

But are wise Malaysians going to buy that excuse?

When Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah challenged Mahathir and was subsequently left out of Umno Baru, we raised him on our shoulders and proclaimed him the leader of the alternative. Several years later, he and his Semangat 46 colleagues just went back and re-joined Umno and the ruling coalition.

When Anwar was kicked out of Umno in 1998, we again did the same thing and raised him high up as the de facto leader of the alternative parties. Why? Why did we do this? Surely, we have others out there who have been consistent and committed all their life to the struggle for justice and human rights.

Surely it is these personalities who should have, and could have, been raised as the leader of alternative parties in Malaysia. Dr Syed Husin Ali, Lim Kit Siang, Razak Ahmad and Nik Aziz Nik Mat are just some of many who could have played that role.

The Anwar Ibrahim of Abim, before he joined Umno and even in his early years in Umno, did seem to have the right values and priorities but his subsequent years in Umno and the Barisan Nasional have changed him.

Many hoped that when he was ousted from Umno in that most dramatic manner, the shock of it all would have brought about a repentance in him to bring about the return of the former pre-Umno Anwar.

But now, his repeated expressions of his desire to meet the PM has raised some serious concerns. Are the people to be deceived yet again by another former stalwart of Umno?