2.    He is 64 years old and 50 years really means a life sentence for him. The prosecution was disappointed as they had asked for 80 years. I suppose the prosecution expects him to be discharged at the end of 80 years when he would be 144 years old!  He must live to that age so he can suffer fully for his crimes.

3.    There is no doubt that Taylor was guilty as charged.  The prosecution told about how he was responsible for the killings in a
neighbouring country.  On one occasion he did not stop a soldier from forcing a woman to carry a sack-full of decapitated heads. That was truly inhuman, more inhuman than the killings and the hideous injuries inflicted by another President on hundreds of thousands of Afghans, Iraqis and others, more inhuman than the tortures of prisoners in Guantanamo, Abu Ghraib and elsewhere.

2. Now, about equality before the law that democracy is said to uphold. It is not upheld at all. Some people are actually above the law and some are far below it, i.e. they don’t really get the benefit or the protection of the law.

3. I will deal with those who do not benefit first. The democratic legal system gives the power to the courts to decide on disputes between individuals or organisations. The courts are presided over by legally qualified but very human judges. The contestants have to convince the presiding judge of their innocence.

2. Why are the Penang Malays still living in these hovels? Yes, Kuala Lumpur has Malay slumps. But these are mostly built by new urban migrants. The Government has succeeded to rehouse most of the squatters in modern high-rise buildings so that, passing along the main roads, one does not see the slums anymore.

3. But the Penang Malays live in the same old shacks that housed them long ago. And they are an eyesore.

2. Memang pada 1969 Perikatan hampir kalah tetapi kuasa kekal di tangan Perikatan dan akhirnya beberapa parti lawan telah menyertai Perikatan untuk menubuh Barisan Nasional yang terus memerintah.

3. Barisan Nasional menghadapi beberapa masalah dalaman tetapi berjaya mengatasinya dan mengekal kuasanya di Peringkat Pusat. Serpihan dari UMNO yang diusahakan oleh Tengku Razaleigh dan Anwar Ibrahim tidak berjaya mengalahkan Barisan Nasional.

2. Rare earth can be used for many things and in many ways. The rare earth represented by tin tailing, mostly ilmenite, when activated can be used in colour television. Today colour television uses plasma or LED.

3. This posed a problem of getting rid of the activated rare earth left in Malaysia. Finally it was agreed between Mitsubishi Electric and Malaysia that a site in Perak of almost a square kilometre be reserved for burying under concrete the activated “amang”.

2. But has the Malaysian Police been brutal? It is not the most perfect police force but this country is better served by its police than many other countries.

3. In a force that big there must be a few who may be inclined towards abuses of authority. When outnumbered, as they were during the Bersih demo, despite their being armed, the police must fear bodily harm to themselves. People in a crowd invariably feel daring and would do what they would not do when alone or outnumbered. They also know that the police had been instructed not to use their arms or undue force.

2. The recent Bersih demonstration in which the demonstrators are obviously violent has given rise to the accusation of police brutality. Even the pictorial and video evidence that the police were violently attacked by the demonstrators have not stopped the Bar Council from accusing the police of brutality.

3. There were it is believed some 250,000 demonstrators. i.e 250 times more than the police. They were violent. They broke the barriers set up by City Hall to stop the demonstrators from going into the Merdeka Square. Obviously from the video clips and pictures the demonstrators not only broke the barriers but attacked, literally attacked the police who were tasked to keep the demonstrators from breaking the barriers. They chased police cars, shattered the windscreen and overturned it. They kicked a policeman who had fallen on the ground.

2. This is because since the days of the British the urban areas tend to dominate politics and to be better served by the Government. To balance this, the poorly serviced rural areas have to be given higher representation in the legislature.

3. This is not new. It is common practice in the United States the state of New Jersey with less than five million people gets the same number of Senate seats (two) as California with more than forty million people. In most democratic countries some leverage is given to constituencies which for a variety of reasons are less developed.

2. The stated objective is to demand that elections be cleaner and fairer. But is this the real objective? I think not. Malaysian elections have been more clean than those in the authoritarian countries where results have always been obviously fixed. There would always be 99.9% of the votes going to the Government party or the President. If at all the opposition were to win, it would get at best 10% of the seats contested. After that the opposition would be prevented from taking their places in the legislature.

3. But in Malaysia there has never been an election, whether at State or Federal levels when the opposition had not won a substantial number of seats. In fact whole states may be lost to the opposition. And no matter how the Government party tried, it just could not wrest Kelantan from the opposition.

2. But the minimum wage would I think, cause a domino effect. Those now receiving RM900 per month would not be happy with the idea of their juniors getting the same wages as themselves. To preserve the salary structure their wages must be raised also. And of course if their wages go up those above them would also demand an increase so that their seniority would be properly compensated.

3. So the increase in minimum wage would result in increases in the wages of all categories of workers and employees. Costs of everything must certainly go up.