The local media's front-pages and accompanying photos of the savagely beaten, severely burnt and scalded body of Nirmala Bonet, a 19-year-old Indonesian maid, left me shocked and numbed for quite a while.

What thinking and feeling person would do such a horrible and heinous thing to another human being I kept on asking myself?

Is there any sense of human decency left in our society? Have we lost all sense of shame to descend to such depths as to commit such a despicable act?

As I got to the details I was disgusted and angry. One does not need to be in the American jails of Iraq or the cells of Kamunting and Bukit Aman to be tortured. In the peaceful city of the Petronas Twin Towers, in the upscale Villa Putra Apartments in Jalan Tun Ismail, there is torture too.

What equally troubled me was how Nirmala's employer dared to hurt her over the five-month period. Did she not know there would be grave consequences for causing such grievous hurt? Perhaps she did not care? Perhaps she thought she could get away with it?

The abuse and torture of Nirmala Bonet is no storm in the teacup. One has only to browse through the daily papers to be convinced that the social fabric of this nation is in tatters. Our social values have gone to the dogs ... but even dogs are treated better than Nirmala.

Murders, rapes, corruption, robberies, violence, all kinds of crimes are reported each day. In our mad and reckless chase for development and success something has gone terribly wrong.

Bolehland needs some serious soul-searching. Could it be that the very forces that supposedly lead us to so-called success, in reality de-humanise us further and leaves us devoid of any respect for the dignity of another human soul?

Very soon the photos of the tortured body of Nirmala Bonet will be circulated and the world will come to know the evil some Malaysians are capable of doing to another.