When Pat Lah met Wan Azizah.....

An amazing night when many miracles took place - By Debra Chong

KUALA LUMPUR, April 18 — It was an amazing night at the Bar Council dinner at the JW Marriott Hotel in Jalan Bukit Bintang last night. Many miracles happened. To start off, it was quite a sight to see members of the Barisan Nasional and the Pakatan Rakyat seated at the same tables without kicking up a fuss. Namely, the VVIP table where Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi sat together with political arch-nemesis Wan Azizah Ismail and former Lord President Tun Salleh Abas. One had grown too used to see one or the other lunging for the jugular in public (with the exclusion of Salleh), so much so that seeing them actually being amiable to each other and making small talk was disconcerting.

Then there was the Prime Minister's announcement that he was firmly pushing forward with setting up a Judicial Appointments Commission (JDA) despite the strong objections from his own BN fraternity. It was greeted with thunderous applause and hoots of approval from the 600-strong legal eagles. And finally, his recognition and acknowledgement of the government's role that led to the tragic removal of Salleh, Datuk Seri George Seah and Tan Sri Wan Suleiman Pawanteh from office in 1988 and which plunged the judiciary into an age of darkness, so to speak. Pak Lah's humble tone reached out to them and helped make a bitter pill a little easier to swallow. He said he wouldn't apologise, and didn't but the effort and courage it took him to get to where he was last night spoke volumes what he could not speak baldly in words.

As Zaid Ibrahim, the minister in the prime minister's office who had first mooted for a public apology from the government, put it: “(One) can say sorry in other ways.” Better late than never?more....