Is sexual crime like rape a problem exclusive to women? From the dismal lack of reaction by the "powers that be", it appears to be so. If rape is truly regarded a vile act of violence, more women could have been saved from the clutches of rapists.

This is because if the issue of rape bothered one and all, then vehement calls for harsher penalties would be the order of the day, unlike today where people seem to have taken the issue of rape for granted. One reason for this is because rape is not seen as a violation of a woman’s rights.

Harry Truman, 33rd American president, often and proudly displayed the Chicago Tribune headline the day after the 1948 election: ‘Dewey Wins’, referring to the near-universal prediction that the New York governor would win the White House.

Polling has come a long way since then. But it didn’t even need polls in 1948. New York Times articles repeatedly noted the growing crowds for the president and had to rationalise the slim pickings Dewey was getting.

Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi, an Islamic Studies graduate who wooed the Muslim vote bank piously and impressed them on his way to the top, has in the past said quite a number of extraordinary things in public, indeed on national television, with a straight face and done exactly the very opposite almost the very next day amidst nationwide sniggers and "I told you sos".