Right after Anwar Ibrahim's successful appeal against his sodomy conviction, why did everyone start thanking Prime Minister Abdullah Ahamd Badawi and not the two Federal Court judges who had ruled in the ex-prisoner's favour?

Even Anwar himself was heard to heap more praise on the prime minister than on the Federal Court.

And isn't it strange that rumours of Anwar's impending release should have been rife in the days before the verdict was delivered? If the judges were answering only to their conscience, surely only they would have known what the outcome would be.

It is hard to avoid the conclusion that there was political involvement in Anwar's release. If Abdullah had directed the judges to free Anwar, then the judiciary is still as much a tool of the executive as before. But perhaps the prime minister had only assured the judges that they were free to rule according to their own conscience.

This does not mean that they will, henceforth, be free to rule as they please in every case. We have to wait and see if the judiciary has really been liberated.

Up to the time of the former Lord President Salleh Abbas, the independence of the Malaysian judiciary was the envy of developing countries. Dr Mahathir Mohamad's ruthless attack against it in 1988 reduced it to a lapdog.

At that time, the Council of Malay Rulers, whose role it was to safeguard the country's democracy, did nothing. But they had their comeuppance in 1993 when Mahathir launched his attack against the royal houses and curtailed their privileges.

And, over the trial of Anwar Ibrahim, the judiciary reached its lowest point ever as every fundamental principle of justice was distorted, broken or besmirched to bolster the prosecution's two hopeless cases.

Let us hope that the Malaysian judiciary rises up once again to the glory days of Suffian Hashim and Salleh Abbas.