I am curious if Tun Salleh Abas or any of his remaining 'fallen' colleagues were present at the 14th Law Conference recently where the Sultan of Perak addressed the declining state of our judiciary - an issue close to the hearts of Tun Salleh and his friends, which they have all along been shouting themselves hoarse.

Save for the government, the sultan was lauded by every quarter for the position he took at the conference.

Let me re-state the book 'May Day for Justice' by Tun Salleh Abas and K Das (now deceased) published in 1990. For those whose fingers are still on the switch, the address of the Sultan of Perak sounded a tad hollow.

In essence, what we witnessed is akin to Tun Salleh and his colleagues unceremoniously dragged behind the King's Land Rover driven by the prime minister at the material time with the King riding shotgun.

What we witnessed is the Sultan of Perak, poised to take over the King's vehicle, interceding with his peers but only to ask Tun Salleh to apologise to the King when it was obvious that he had done no wrong.

For Tun Salleh and his friends, the address of the Sultan of Perak at the law conference is timely and welcome, but he should have prefaced it with a clear apology to Tun Salleh and the 'fallen' for the misplaced and ineffective intercession by him and his peers at that crucial period.