WHILE opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim came out of hiding yesterday evening, his accuser Saiful Bukhari is nowhere to be found.

Mr Saiful is one of the most hated and talked-about men in Malaysia today.

The 23-year-old is accused of being part of a conspiracy spun by Mr Anwar's political opponents. Several comments in blogs slam him for being publicity-hungry.

He made a police report on Saturday claiming he had been forcibly sodomised by Mr Anwar, 60, on Thursday.

Malaysiakini made a visit to Mr Saiful's double-storey house in Petaling Jaya yesterday afternoon. There were no signs of anyone in the house. But after a while, a man appeared, claiming to be Mr Saiful's uncle.

According to the uncle, who did not want to give his name, his nephew had gone into hiding and he had not contacted him since news of the report broke on Saturday.

'But I believe in Saiful,' said the man. 'He is a good kid and all that he has done, he has done with honesty.

Teary-eyed, he said his nephew reported the matter as he wanted to expose the Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) leader.

'NO UMNO CONNECTION'

Mr Saiful's uncle brushed off his nephew's alleged links to Umno politicians, saying: 'We've got no help or connections with Umno. All he wanted to do is to expose the heinous crime.'

Mr Anwar's lawyers have filed a defamation suit against Mr Saiful, a university dropout.

According to a PKR party source, Mr Anwar had been warned to be careful of Mr Saiful.

'He was told to be careful of the individual due to his suspicious background when he joined the office administration,' the source told Malaysiakini.

The source claimed that the same 'warnings' had been given to other party leaders after Mr Saiful became close to Mr Anwar and his staff after the 8 Mar general elections.

'I have also given addresses of several blogs discussing the boy (Saiful). I'm not sure if he (Anwar) read them or not,' said the source.

According to the source, Mr Anwar did not reply to the e-mail about the blogs.

The source said the youngster had shown an interest in campus politics at Universiti Teknologi Nasional (Uniten) in Bangi, Selangor and was deputy president of the student council in 2007.

He took up the electrical engineering course as he was offered a scholarship, reported The Star and reportedly dropped out last year.

During the elections, he showed support for Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi and the Barisan Nasional coalition through his webpage on social networking website Friendster.com.

'At the time, he was also accompanying Mr Anwar on the campaign trail. On his website, he was campaigning for Barisan,' said the source.

The youngster is believed to have joined Mr Anwar's office on the recommendation of his old schoolmate Rahimi Osman, who at the time was on the former deputy premier's staff.

The schoolmate stopped working there about a month ago.

Yesterday, a police forensic team visited the condominium in the upmarket Damansara area where the alleged sodomy took place.

They spent more than five hours gathering evidence.

This article was first published in The New Paper on July 3, 2008.