The word ' cepat kesian ' used by Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah to describe Malay sympathy for Anwar Ibrahim as inappropriate. Kesian may be translated into English as 'pity'.

I would like to recall the case of former Selangor Menteri Besar Harun Idris . We did not pity Harun because to the minds of the majority of people in the streets like me then, he was appropriately sentenced. Harun was on 'bail' throughout his court trial, right to his last appeal in Privy Council in UK. That was the time when we were proud of our judiciary because nobody dared to criticize them.

Former cabinet minister Mokhtar Hashim was rightly convicted for murder in 1983. I happened to be at the court during his final appeal. Laymen like us accepted the verdict without any reservation because the manner in which the trial was carried was considered proper.

In the case of Anwar Ibrahim, not only a lot of people felt it was not proper, but we cannot understand why was he not given bail. As someone who has served as Deputy Prime Minister of Malaysia with impeccable integrity, where Suhakam has made recommendations for him to have his choice of medical operation, Anwar was still denied bail .

So this is the issue. It is not kesian , but why was Anwar Ibrahim treated differently. We kesian Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah because he finally came back to Dr Mahathir Mohamad to salvage his political career. We also kesian Rais Yatim because he had to pick up the pieces of the bridge he 'burnt' in order to return to Mahathir's fold.