It would be good for the rakyat to stop and reflect just for a moment on what Umno and the ruling coalition has done.

Since 1998, the BN have been on shaky grounds after sacking the former deputy prime minister Anwar Ibrahim. He was illegally and forcefully abducted from his home by a branch of the royal Malaysian police.

Photographs and pictures of masked men with machine guns and pistols, gestapo style, have been published on CNN and the Internet. For a while, nobody knew where he was, even his family members. Then we discovered after a week that he was beaten to near death by none other than the head of the Malaysian police at that time.

As the court case proceeded, it became more and more evident to the rakyat that it was a flimsy charge and the prosecutors were grasping at straws. The judiciary began to look quite ridiculous as it had to do the prosecution's job in making the charge stick. In fact, it was very obvious to many that Anwar was the victim of a conspiracy of the highest levels.

While languishing in jail on painkillers as a result of a slipped disc injury and suffering from pneumonia from the wet conditions of his prison cell, Anwar Ibrahim is worse off than a common criminal.

A common criminal with his charges would have no doubt been allowed bail. In fact, the judges who sat in the Court of Appeal heard his bail request and rejected bail without reason. They were then booed out of their own courts and dare not even administer discipline to maintain the dignity of the courts. For all, dignity was lost many years ago.

For six years, more than half a decade, Anwar has had to fight for bail which is due him so that he could have the surgery of his choice. He is thrown into prison for a crime that is not proven. Government services such as the police, judiciary, Health Ministry and the media have been used and abused in these few years. The fate of Anwar as the former premier said, lies in the hands of new Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi - not the supposedly independent judiciary. So all eyes are now on Abdullah.

Will he do the right thing? So far, he hasn't and it does not seem like he will. To delay justice for one day is itself immoral and wrong. No title or position or place of honour is worth more than a man's freedom. To allow Anwar to continue to suffer one more day in jail brings shame and dishonour to our nation and his blood is on every member of the ruling coalition.

Anwar is not and should not be an irrelevant issue or forgotten. The maturity and civility of our nation is at stake, and unless and until the powers-that-be in Putrajaya do the right thing, Malaysia will not prosper nor will it move forward with pride and dignity towards 2020. Umno and the BN are responsible and we the rakyat should judge them accordingly.