I refer to the Malaysikini report Court rules Nizar is legitimate MB .

Monday's court decision would have taken many by surprise. It proves that hope does not disappoint and as long as there is hope the struggle continues. Every struggle goes through the vicissitudes of fortunes. When most in the Pakatan Rakyat thought that the Perak cause had been lost, the courts came to the rescue!

It goes to prove that no one has control over everything that happens. The courts are to be congratulated, not for its decision but for doing its job with integrity. This is the missing ingredient in many government decisions we are accustomed to seeing. The decision reminds us that integrity is not all lost in high places after all.

Still the notion that man proposes and God disposes remains intact. For many of us believe that a higher official watches over the officials especially in a religious state. And it is a hard lesson for those who commit acts of corruption and think they can get away with it.

Usually they don't and justice may be a slow train coming but it does arrive sooner or later! Events will continue to confound us like the surprising court decision and the results of the March 8 elections last year.

The Perak sickness will not go away until there is an unequivocal mandate for one party to rule without the fear of unethical crossovers. It may be necessary for the people to go to the elections to decide the matter once and for all. Crossovers in themselves are legitimate but not when they are done on pretext and to escape the arms of the law.

Those who double-cross their parties and supporters without justifiable cause and to escape punishment and for evident personal gain should be treated as political pariahs.

While little has been heard about the corruption investigations of the Pakatan Rakyat duo who triggered the Perak political stalemate it would be unethical for any political party to accept turncoats from another party pending their court hearings or results of findings about their alleged misdemeanours. If there is honour among thieves, why should there be no honour among politicians?

In accepting possibly culpable politicians from another side, a party risks losing its credibility. If a party can absorb allegedly corrupt politicians into its fold, it speaks volumes about the party's concern for integrity, without which no one is fit for public office.

There ought to be a parliamentary code of ethics for politicians. Seeing the speaker of the Perak assembly being unceremoniously bundled out of the august house was shocking. No eminent official of parliament should be treated like an anti-social patron at a nightclub and manhandled by those who behave like bouncers.

The Perak assembly saw a show of force with the ridiculous presence of the police preventing the people from entering the vicinity of their parliament. The people's parliament ought to be a place of resort for the people. It is the supreme house of democracy and should never be cordoned off and made off-limits to the rakyat at any time.

We may not like or support certain politicians but we should respect the office they hold. Those who manhandled the Perak speaker ought to apologise to the house and the public for their unparliamentary behaviour now that the courts have proven that he was still the rightful speaker when the coup took place.

Those who work hard to improve their country's political system, someone like Wong Chin Huat, should not have been charged. The country needs people like him to tell us what is wrong because unless activists are free to point out the inherent systemic faults there will be no improvement, no change and no progress. How someone who was active openly and not involved in some clandestine movement to overthrow the government by force can be charged for sedition is indeed baffling.

I hope the government will be fair and drop the charge against a young and constructive activist who is merely trying to do good for his country. I have not met this young man but admire him for his courage to act on his convictions. The country needs more of such patriots.

It is obvious Cold War methods no longer work and citizens cannot be cowed by false charges, even detention by the ISA, because the rakyat knows they are, in truth, patriots who love their country and want to see real, positive change. Has the sedition charge cowed Wong or dampened his spirit? Has the ISA detention discouraged the Hindraf hostages? I doubt it.

But good governance wins the day and those who practise ethical and good governance will win the battle for the hearts' and minds' of the people. This is a time-tested truth and those who ignore it do so at their own peril.