Malaysia, truly corrupt

Malaysia's government on Monday defended its decision to deport a young Saudi journalist named Hamza Kashgari who may face persecution at home for allegedly insulting the Prophet Muhammad on Twitter. International rights groups have slammed the deportation but Home Minister Hishammuddin Hussein said Malaysia was not a safe haven for fugitives. That may be so, but everybody is entitled to their own opinion when it comes to stuff like religion. That poor guy should not have been booted out just for expressing an opinion the Malaysian authorities don't agree with. He was kept incommunicado and denied access to lawyers and the U.N. refugee agency just because of the free expression of opinion. By its actions, the ministry of home affairs once again showed that it believes rule of law is whatever it says and that it is more than willing to be totally opaque in its operations to maintain its flexibility to do what it wants when it wants. That act of cowardice means that someone who is about the same age as me could wind up deader than Whitney Houston because of their beliefs.