I am certainly glad that senator Norhayati Onn Ismail has failed in her bid to have her divorce heard in closed syariah proceedings.

And the decision by judge Mohamed Fouzi Mokhtar, who ruled that public trust is more important than personal interest, is a welcome move at a time when Malaysia's judiciary and the Attorney-General's Chambers are in both the local and international spotlight.

However in all fairness, in this case the learned judge allowed for parts of the hearing to be a closed proceeding as permitted under Section 72(2) of the Selangor Islamic Administration Enactment 2003.

This clearly showed that the court certainly had sympathy for the applicant. After all, who wants one's private life to be in the public forum, more so a sitting senator from a family of 'high powered Umno politicians'?

The matter could be highly embarrassing and an affront to her decency because of her public position and others in political positions within her family. But the truth is, the court cannot run away from its main responsibility of ensuring impartiality and fairness to all whom come before it.

It is believed this was the first official application to have a divorce heard in closed proceedings in the interest of decency. When citing its decision on the application for privacy, the court stated that it cannot grant special favours just because the applicant is a public figure, as is her father (Selangor state assembly speaker Onn Ismail).

And perhaps also the first time that the court needs to choose between the 'suffering' endured by the applicant and the heavier 'suffering' to be borne by the court in losing public trust if it allowed for an application not supported by special facts.

It was a welcome move after a series of anomalies and happenings where we have had allegations of "special treatment" accorded to the financially well-off and politically well-connected.

Even more disturbing when recent decisions despite its initial media blitz, political pronouncements and political hype produced utter disappointment when those taken to court for alleged misdeeds and serious penal violations walked free.

For the record, already there are numerous allegations in another high powered and much internationally publicised case and it is in the nation's interest that justice be allowed to take its course without political interference, manipulation, fear, favour or just sheer incompetence

I am certain that Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi is aware that Malaysia cannot afford another allegation of a travesty of justice.