'The home minister should know better. Let the police do their job and ministers should refrain from passing their comments.'

On Manohara's claims 'not a private matter'

John Johnson: I quote: “Human rights organisations have expressed outrage over the statements made by Home Minister Hishammuddin Hussein and the Kelantan palace, describing the allegations of physical and mental torment by Indonesian Manohara Odelia Pinot as a ‘personal matter’.”

What a comment by the home minister, a ‘private matter’ indeed. Photos have come out of the inflictions and bruises on this girl.

She must be insanely hateful of her husband to inflict these atrocities on herself. Would a pretty girl actually disfigure herself especially if she is so young and has a lot to look forward to in life?

Come on, this is not the first case of abuse here. To have a home minister say this is appalling. And he should know better. Is he trying to score points with the royalty here?

Let the police and the judiciary do their job and ministers should refrain from passing their comments as though this is a trivial episode.

I am so ashamed a minister can say such a thing. Let justice take its course and we will see who is right or wrong. This is why we need a new government.

We now have people telling us that the non-believers must be saved, SIS should be banned, etc. These are the ‘righteous’ people telling us that we need to be saved and only they can save us.

I say vote for a change and get rid of the whole lot. Even if PKR is green and just starting out and having their own problems, they will eventually succeed.

We all know success begins with failure first.

On Manohara row fuels ugly M'sia perception

Int: Every society has bad elements that can fuel ‘ugly’ perceptions. Spouse abuse is not a unique feature to Malaysia, and neither is the abuse of foreigners.

As unsavory as they are, these things happen. However, what should never happen is for the perpetrators of the crime to get away with it.

That is what distinguishes an ugly society from a decent one.

That is why the rule of law must be paramount, and it must apply to all members of a society, in order for the society to be considered free of ‘ugliness’.

If the Kelantan royal family is in any way responsible for the abuse that Manohara has suffered, they must be tried in accordance with the laws of the country.

In addition, given that many elected representatives have been made to resign their position given any sign of impropriety, it would be a very bad hypocrisy for Malaysia's royal families not to adopt equally high standards, as those are the standards of our society.

None, least of all those in a position of highest leadership and supposed moral authority, can be allowed to fall short of these standards.

On the contrary, they should be propelling such standards upwards.

And those who call for royal immunity in cases such as these are every bit as guilty in projecting the perception of the ‘ugly Malaysia’, because their personal value system is clearly very ugly.

Disgusted: I am fed-up reading about this young wife’s tales of torture, mistreatment and continuous press interviews which either her divorced mother or Manohara herself are holding almost on a daily basis.

The media is lapping it all up and no doubt both mother and daughter are deriving the maximum financial benefit from all this.

I think most of the injuries are self-inflicted and conjured up by a mother who is taking full attention of the media for monetary reasons.

I am sure they are being paid appearance fees at the various functions and demonstrations.

It is sad that the good name of this country is being allowed to be dragged down by this whole episode which was started in the first instance by a greedy mother and her family.

Let’s not give any more credence to this whole affair.

On Prince lodges report against Manohara

Harbans Kaur: What kind of a lawyer is this? He does not seem to be able to answer the simplest of questions regarding law itself.

What is the purpose of having a press conference if all you are going to say is ‘I don’t know’ or ‘no comment’?

Is the prince hiding behind the police now? If he truly wants to get to the bottom of this he should file a report in Indonesia too.

Malaysians have a right to ensure that this matter is resolved as a matter of national pride.