Two questions are going to occupy the country for the next little while in the wake of Anwar Ibrahim's acquittal:

(a) Why?

(b) What happens next?

The second question will only be answered by events as they unfold, but the first question will provide fertile soil to plant a thousand seeds of speculation.

Two possibilities spring to mind at this early, rather uninformed stage - the Najib administration either gave in to fear or grabbed a high-profile opportunity to put the opposition off-balance and earn PR brownie points on a global stage.

Or it could just be that Justice Mohamad Zabidin Mohd Diah really decided to acquit Anwar based purely on the (suspect) evidence. If that's the case, the good judge is a very brave and hopefully not foolish man.

More likely, it is one of the other factors.

If it was fear, it was probably fear that convicting Anwar would, at best, make it impossible for Umno to win the next election, and at worst, trigger events that could destabilize the country out of the government's control. The unrelenting pressure from an increasingly fearless public may finally have caused a wobble in the Najib administration.

There was also probably the not-so-little matter of how it would go down internationally if this discredited trial actually ended up imprisoning the most internationally respected Malaysian statesman.

It is probably a given that influential countries ranging from the US and other Western democracies to Islamic nations such as Turkey would have privately expressed their displeasure in the strongest possible terms about the possibility of Anwar being found guilty.

It would not be surprising at all that some kind of concrete sanctions and reprimands may have been threatened.

But it may also be that the government carried out a PR masterstroke of sorts by doing the totally unexpected.

The haste with which government ministers came out with statements praising the virtues of the Malaysian judiciary and, by extension, the government may indicate a well-thought-out plan to draw the sting of both domestic and international critics, as well as make a bold play to win public sympathy and support in the country itself, in the glare of full international publicity.

Besides, the one thing the government has shown is that it has no qualms about charging people as many times as they wish. What's to stop another Saiful turning up and making the same kinds of allegations?

But whatever the reason for Anwar's acquittal, there is no doubt that this will be seen as a wider political victory for the Opposition over the BN.

Quite simply, Najib and his government and party invested a lot of political capital in this case, and to end up with no return is a monumental sign of weakness.

What will Mahathir say? What will Ibrahim Ali say?

Does anybody care after today?