Who would ever believe that Mustapha Ong and I would now see eye to eye, and agree that Anwar Ibrahim should be given a pardon?

And Lim Guan Eng, too?

Mustapha is right in appealing to Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi's values and sense of Islamic justice. Like Mustapha, I have always known Pak Lah to be one of Malaysia's most honourable leaders. He is also one of the most decent and kindest men I have had the honour to know in my service around the world, for over three decades.

Like so many others overseas, I have been impressed by the actions that he has taken since he became prime minister. He has moved quickly to right so many of the injustices that were allowed to fester for far too long.

With the arrest of Eric Chia and his other attacks on corruption and cronyism, with the overturning of some questionable business contracts, and with the formation of a commission to reform Malaysia's police force, the prime minister has clearly shown that Malaysia is "under new management."

Now he has another opportunity to show that times are changing in Malaysia.

And that involves righting the wrongs that were done to Anwar, Guan Eng, Irene Fernandez, and many others whose only mistake was courage - the courage to tell the truth as they saw it, and to disagree when they saw injustices taking place.

Those injustices have been clearly documented - and condemned - by governments and reputable human rights organisations around the world.

If Malaysians today, living under a new government, continue to insist that Anwar and Guan Eng and Irene Fernandez were wrong, then it means that they are telling the entire world that it is wrong. But how can the whole world be wrong, and only a handful of fearful Malaysians be right?

My dear Malaysian friends, I believe and I hope that there is no reason to be afraid any longer. I have seen many Malaysians say that the world has forgotten about Anwar's plight, but that is not so.

Rather, we have been waiting. We knew that there was little chance to seek justice under the previous regime. So we waited to see how things might change under a new prime minister and government.

So now the time has come.

Even Mustapha Ong and I agree that the time has come to do the right thing. And we both hope that the prime minister will agree.