Deputy Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi's decision to free four of the ISA detainees - people whom the rest of the world considers political prisoners, and whose arrest and detention Malaysia's Federal Court ruled mala fide - is a step in the right direction.

Will Pak Lah continue down the path of justice and national reconciliation? I certainly hope so.

Will Malaysians now have the political courage to do away with the ISA - an abominable law created by the British imperialists decades ago, but which Malaysia's rulers continue to use to suppress their own people? I certainly hope so.

Will Pak Lah free other political prisoners, whose defective trials and convictions have been documented so thoroughly by Malaysian and international human rights organisations? I certainly hope so.