The principle in the Anwar Ibrahim affair, for which he was convicted and is in jail, is that power abused for personal benefit is corruption. The traditional meaning that corruption involves money is stood on its head.

The Federal Court affirmed this principle when it dismissed his appeal on the first set of charges. It is reluctant to hear the second set. It does not matter why. But it warns all in high office not to abuse their power for personal ends or gains. Why Anwar is in the mess he is in is irrelevant, even if he would not be if he had not defied his mentor and then prime minister, Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad.

But this principle is cheerfully ignored by those who should be terrified of its impact. Anwar is the evil one; he deserves his fate; we are loyal apparatchiks of power; this principle does not affect us, is how those in power view it. So it is blatantly and defiantly ignored as Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi and Deputy Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak to insist they must be returned unopposed as Umno president and deputy president respectively at the party elections in September.

What the two top Umno pair has done is what the courts insist Anwar is guilty of. Pak Lah and Najib demanded of the supreme council to resolve that they must be returned unopposed. It did nothing of that kind. But both were present, and encouraged this canard. Indeed, Najib was spokesman for this view. It did not strike him as odd that what they wanted breached the Umno code of ethics, which prohibits coercion, campaigning, acting in concert, even issuing visiting cards, advertising, any move that asserts or undermines one candidate over another.