Whatever has been said or will be said about the public tiff between Justice RK Nathan and Justice Gopal Sri Ram — including the fact that the latter is special (a very rare breed) because he was elevated to the Court of Appeal directly — I think it ought not to be forgotten that Justice Gopal offered in court, when he was a practising lawyer in the late 1980s, to act for the then acting Lord President Hamid Omar free of charge even though Hamid was not even facing any sort of proceedings.

In turn, who can forget Hamid's role in the downfall of former Lord President Salleh Abas and some of his brother judges, even though it was orchestrated by Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad and ably aided and abetted by the former Attorney-General, Abu Talib Othman!