Deputy Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin wants the people to gauge for themselves Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim's true struggle.

He said that Anwar's trip to Washington recently to mend ties with several Jewish figures showed that the PKR de facto leader had close relations with the group.

"It has been clearly proven. So we have to weigh Anwar's actual struggle," he told reporters after opening the 2010 National Pre-school Education Convention in Kuala Lumpur today.

Muhyiddin was asked to comment on a Washington Post report on Monday that Anwar was in Washington last week to tell his friends that he regretted using the term such as "Zionist aggression".

NONE The daily noted that Anwar recently joined a demonstration outside the US embassy in Kuala Lumpur (photo) where an Israeli flag was burned and had also made dark insinuations about the "Jewish-controlled" Washington public relations firm Apco Worldwide.

Muhyiddin said Anwar had gone to Washington to apologise for his mistakes out of concern that it might hurt the feelings of his American friends.

"We know for a fact his ties with pro-Zionist groups. It is up to the people to weigh who, actually, is Anwar Ibrahim," he said.

Anwar's friends disillusioned

Meanwhile, in Bangi, Umno vice-president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi said Anwar's glib tongue was well-known.

"When he is with the Indian community, he is the fighter of the Indian community; when he is with the Chinese, he is the hero of the Chinese community; and when he is with the Muslims, he becomes an Islamic fighter," he said after flagging off the 1Malaysia Expedition to London.

He said Anwar might have realised that his friends in the United States were increasingly disillusioned with him.

Ahmad Zahid said that when he visited the United States in May, he met the Senate and Congress members and "none of them talk about Anwar anymore."

"No one is defending him; but back in Malaysia, it is as if the whole of the United States were with him.

"That is not true," he said, adding that he also met former defence secretary William Cohen, an old friend of Anwar, and he too was no longer talking about Anwar.

- Bernama