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.

2. Europe, according to the Europeans, is Christendom – the kingdom of the Christians. The presence of a European Muslim country in Europe seems to contradict this assertion.

3. Although Europeans are not as committed to Christianity today as they were in the past, nevertheless anti-Muslim feelings is still strong. So the elimination of Muslims from Europe is not unwelcome. The genocidal war waged by the Serbs was allowed to go on.

2. I believe all these people cannot but accept this fact. They cannot deny that what I said is true. But I must acknowledge that at least one of them made his first million abroad through trading in oil. With that money he came back and built his empire through opportunities created by the country.

3. Facts are facts whether you acknowledge them or not. One need not be grateful for the facts, but still they are facts. I was just stating facts. If I offend anyone I apologise.

2. America’s action is said to be due to Iran’s nuclear weapons programme.

3. Israel has 200 nuclear warheads and obviously poses a greater threat to Iran than Iran’s threat against its neighbours.

2. This is especially so in business. These people make their first million in the country. And they grew, prospering in the conducive business environment that Malaysia provides.

3. PETRONAS is a Government company. It is a national oil company like those found in most oil-producing countries. But PETRONAS did not confine itself to merely collecting royalty. PETRONAS went into all the different upstream and downstream areas of the petroleum industry. It went abroad, prospecting, producing, transporting, shipping, laying pipes and building ports and terminals. It is also into natural gas liquefaction and petrochemicals.

2. I myself did not, in pre-independence days dream that there could be stability for Malaysia and that it would change its economic base and prosper. I did not dream of this because when we were struggling against the Malayan Union and then for independence, the country was poor and there was a great deal of animosity between the Malays and the Chinese.

3. We have almost forgotten it now but the Japanese surrender saw the mainly Chinese Anti-Japanese guerrillas emerging from the jungles, declaring that they now rule the country. There were clashes between the Malays and the Chinese and several were killed on each side.

2. Today the estimated total consumption of oil per day amounts to 70,000,000 plus barrels. Engines has been made more efficient i.e. consume less oil for a given power. But still the demand for oil continues to rise.

3. In 1973 the price of one barrel of crude oil was just 3.50 USD. The oil producing countries were being robbed. They remained poor and at the mercy of the Seven Sisters – the biggest and richest petroleum companies of the world. They dictated the price. And they paid royalty amounting to only 20% or so of the price of crude to the poor countries.

2. Sebenarnya saya membuat soalan-soalan kerana ingin mendapat pengesahan berkenaan reaksi terhadap apa yang telah diucapkan oleh saya berkenaan hudud.

3. Jawapan Hilal mengesahkan apa yang saya syaki, iaitu Hilal dan mungkin ramai orang Islam lain berpendapat bahawa wahyu Allah s.w.t. seperti yang terdapat dalam Al-Quran adalah setaraf dengan Hadith sohih Bukhari, iaitu kesahihan yang dibuat oleh manusia biasa walaupun pakar dalam bidang Hadith.