If justice had prevailed all along, ex-deputy premier Anwar Ibrahim is surely in jail for all the wrongs that he is accused of. His guilt should not be determined by the old or the new or any leadership of Umno.

It should be purely the decision of the judiciary after going through a proper, fair, and most importantly, independent legal process.

Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad's recent statement that the future fate of Anwar is left to the new leadership of Umno is totally out of line with the notion of true justice.

With that statement he has rekindled our long-standing suspicion that the jailing of Anwar during his (Mahathir's) tenure of office was not the result of administration of true justice but in order to fulfill the wishes of the old (Mahathir-led) leadership of Umno.

Dare we say further that the statement has also confirmed our belief that charges that led to Anwar's 16-year incarceration were indeed trumped up by Mahathir and his conspiratorial colleagues in order to kill off Anwar politically?

If the above is true, then it follows that the opinion of a great number of respected legal and judicial bodies all over the world concerning the unacceptable nature of the Anwar's trial must also be true.

If the new leadership wants to review the matter in the name of justice, then it has neither the power nor the right to reverse the decision of the courts (if the principle of the separation of powers is still respected in our country). The new leadership, though, could initiate an investigation to determine if Anwar was indeed the victim of a politically motivated conspiracy.

If there is compelling evidence concerning the existence of such a conspiracy, then the conspirators should be brought to justice.

Should the courts, without the unnecessary interference of the executive (i.e. the new leadership), find that there was indeed a conspiracy, then Anwar should be released and the conspirators which may or may not include Mahathir himself should be sent to Sungai Buloh instead.

The simple question here, therefore, is not what the new leadership wants to do with Anwar but what it wants to do to eradicate the global condemnation of our legal and judicial system. Tepuk dada tanya selera , Pak Lah.