When two women suspects did not violently reject the sexual advances of a uniformed policeman while being detained in police station lock-up, the judge ruled that it was consensual sex.

At the time that Sukma Dermawan and Munawee Anees allegedly confessed to being sodomised by ex-deputy premier Anwar Ibrahim, they were being detained without the benefit of legal counsel by police in some hideous cell. Another magistrate ruled the confession to be a voluntary act.

The trend is now obvious; our courts consider it normal and acceptable behaviour for people to do things against their better judgement if the threats compelling them to do so are real and present.

Quite an eye-opener, really! So now I begin to understand why our judges had to pass their judgements as they did in a number of recent politically-motivated convictions...