Never in the history of Malaysia, has any unsuccessful political challenger been treated with such utter harshness, cruelty and plain vindictiveness as the unfortunate Anwar Ibrahim.

Yet, Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad destruction of Anwar must seemingly be so complete as to encompass even the latter's permanent health.

So inept were the show trials that there are hardly any well-informed or fair-minded persons in the country who believe that Anwar is guilty of the crimes against which he has been convicted, although the morally flexible have tried to justify this injustice as some sort of political law of the jungle.

Instead, the public have been revolted by the manner in which various instruments of government were employed to crush someone whose only crime seems to have been to incur Mahathir''s blackest fury.

These include the Attorney General's office, the police, the media and the judiciary, the desecration of all of which was a price the nation had to pay to satisfy one man's incredible appetite for revenge.

Mahathir can pull off the whole sordid affair and still emerge the clear victor in a subsequent election is testimony to the success of his propaganda machine and the odd notion of some that a leader can do no wrong as long as he delivers the economic goods.

Currently serving a 15-year sentence, Anwar is both ill and in continual pain. Moreover, he has had to endure the grief of his mother's recent death. A less implacable leader than Mahathir might now be willing to loosen the arm-twist a little, yet Anwar has been disallowed the simple expedient of getting the best medical treatment available.

Patriotism-wholly irrelevant in this context-has absurdly been called upon to demand his acceptance of a critical operation locally when it can undoubtedly be more safely performed overseas.

Mahathir would be well aware of the fact that if Anwar were to apply for political asylum while overseas, there would be no lack of governments willing to open their doors. But this only points to the failure of Mahathir's case against Anwar, that he has never been able to convince those at home and abroad of the prisoner's alleged crimes.

The chances are that Anwar, if allowed out, will keep his word to return as not to do so will result in great loss of popular prestige. But even if this were not so, few would consider that an affront to justice, given that few believe he should have been jailed in the first place.

Let us remember that the ex-Inspector-General of Police, Rahim Noor, whose cowardly bashing of Anwar contributed to the latter's present difficulties, has yet to serve even a single day in prison and, in all likelihood, never will.

Mahathir can publicly proclaim his government's refusal to allow Anwar out, shows clearly that the Executive and not the Judiciary is in control of the prisoner. As Anwar is yet to exhaust his avenues of appeal, it is properly the judiciary's responsibility to decide on a possible bail arrangement, that is, if it is at liberty to do so.

It would appear too much to expect Mahathir to be magnanimous enough to allow his former protege to choose between exile and prison. But what is sickening is the sheer pettiness with which he berated foreign diplomats for attending a briefing on Anwar's medical condition when, in fact, no diplomatic conventions were broken.

It is only a hate-filled person who cannot bear the slightest hint of public sympathy shown to his enemy despite the latter being down on the ground.

Also, by referring to Anwar's serious injury as a "backache" and accusing the latter of "politicising" his medical condition, Mahathir reached new lows in the sort of inhumanity that shames his nation, his race and his religion.

Whatever good that he may have done in the past, Malaysians should no longer tolerate a leader full of unrelenting cruelty and vindictiveness while lacking even the most basic human decency.