Travelling back in time, former law minister Zaid Ibrahim noted how, in the days of emperors who ruled over vast empires, servants were employed as palace guards after their testicles had been removed.

The emperors, he said, required men they could trust implicitly to take care of their concubines and mistresses, a task which could only be entrusted to those who had been castrated.

Returning to 21st century Malaysia, the former minister said the nation’s “great emperor” has created and conscripted such “eunuchs” into his service, but has not castrated them.