Anwar Ibrahim visited his former power base, Muslim Youth Movement of Malaysia (Abim), Wednesday night before kicking off the first round of his international tour the next day.

He was Abim president since 1974, until he left the organisation to join the ruling party Umno in 1982. Since then, the former deputy premier experienced a meteoric rise in the ruling party and the government until he was sacked by former Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad in 1998.

Abim has been synonymous with Anwar, and its progress in many ways relates to that of its former leader. When Anwar was in the government, the organisation shed its confrontational image, choosing to pursue its struggle for moderate Islam, through constructive engagement with the government.

Anwar's sacking, arrest and imprisonment prompted the organisation to rally behind him and spearhead the reformasi movement. Many of Abim leaders, including its president Ahmad Azam Abdul Rahman, were arrested under the ISA for their struggle against injustices meted out to Anwar.

Despite general perception about Abim's regression into near political insignificance, during Anwar's six-year incarceration, and in particular after some of its senior leaders deserted the opposition Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR), following a factional conflict within the party, the organisation had drawn special attention from Anwar.