I refer to the Malaysiakini report, PM: No need for royal commission .

It is not surprising that first Deputy Prime Minister Najib Razak and then Pak Lah asked for the Lingam tape to be authenticated first before taking any further action. Clearly, they are on the back foot and trying to buy time and decide on the next course of action. If I were them, I wouldn't take too much time with this because only an idiot would be convinced that this tape is a fake or somehow forged.

All fair Malaysians need to crank up the volume and apply pressure on Pak Lah to initiate a full blown investigation or, as some have suggested, set up a royal commission. Surely this is a matter of national importance and will also affect our standing in the world as a fledgling democracy.

An independent probe will happen if sane heads in the government realise that this cloud over the judiciary has to be cleared to give confidence to the investment and business sectors, not to forget the man-in-the street (well, at least I hope so).The worst thing that Pak Lah can do is to dismiss the tape's contents or even try to sweep it under the carpet with some lame justification.

And so it has come to pass that Pak Lah now faces his biggest test yet of his leadership mettle, a test which I doubt he even realises. I will not be holding my breath though for if past history is a reliable indicator, Pak Lah will spend weeks to set up a commission, many more months for it to report its conclusions and with the report finally on his table, he does what he does best - dawdle.

The main issue here is what has been said about corruption at the highest levels of the judiciary has now been backed with evidence. The system is clearly broken and it will almost certainly not be fixed because our present leaders have lost their moral spine or had none in the first place.

They have become too fat and spoilt to rock the boat and have upset a good thing going for them. For us poor Malaysians, it will be too late to extricate ourselves from this spiral into the abyss if we let them continue to lead us.