PKR's de facto leader Anwar Ibrahim today said that his former political secretary Ezam Mohd Nor re-joined Umno on his own personal wish after having long discarded the PKR struggles.

anwar ibrahim pc 180208 05 "I would like to stress that he has given up on the PKR struggles - before the party's annual congress last year and definitely before the March 8 general election," he said in his blog today.

"The decision was his personal wish," added Anwar, long seen as a mentor to Ezam before a fallout last year.

This is the first time Anwar has responded to Ezam's decision to rejoin Umno on Wednesday.

Ezam confirmed months of speculations that he would be going back to Umno by submitting his application form to Prime Minister and party president Abdullah Ahmad Badawi on Wednesday. He applied to be a life-long member .

He was previously sacked from Umno in 1998 for criticising the then president Dr Mahathir Mohamad for terminating Anwar from both the party and government.

He had been a vocal critic of Mahathir and then Abdullah. He played a vital role in the setting up of PKR in 1999 with Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail.

Impressed with PM's agenda

ezam joins back umno 280508 03 In the intervening years, he had been charged and jailed under the Official Secrets Act and the Internal Security Act for siding with Anwar.

In PKR, he helmed the Youth wing from 1999 until 2005.

Last year he had a bitter fall out with Anwar and vice-president Azmin Ali. This followed an internal power struggle, which resulted in Ezam quitting the party.

Since then he had been critical of Anwar's style of leadership and Azmin's role as a dominant schemer in the party.

After that he had concentrated on his anti-corruption NGO, Gerak, of which he was the head. He has now quit that post as well after joining Umno.

Yesterday he said that he was convinced by Abdullah's anti-corruption agenda and thus his decision to re-join Umno.

Media reports untrue

Meanwhile Ezam today denied media reports that he was ready to contest the Umno Youth chief post in the party polls in December.

"I don't have any such plans to contest for the Umno Yout chief post or any other posts in the party," he said in a statement today.

"I don't want to be involved in any power struggle in the party," he said.

He added that his focus was merely to help Umno leadership in reforming the party and the government.

He was commenting on a Bernama report yesterday which quoted him as saying that he would vie for the youth post if his leadership could help raise the status of the Malays as a respected race.

"I have to discuss first with the leadership and with friends. If the post is for party and national interests and in the interest of the Malays, I will seriously consider," he was quoted as saying by the national news agency.

The report was eventually published by various dailies.