COMMENT | I suppose Zaid Ibrahim is a little short on friends these days, in his own words no less.

I’m not the most natural candidate for such an honour, as the eminent lawyer and I have not always seen eye to eye in this land of the written word.

A long time ago, he took the time to write one of the most amusingly critical articles focused on me - the words he chose were unforgettable, and never fails to amuse my family at the dinner table.

In any case, Zaid has found himself at the centre of quite a lot of attention these past few days, after some choice words directed at the sultan of Selangor.

A lot of that attention was very angry in nature.

It is impossible to avoid some sort of evaluation of those words, but that will not be the focus of the article today.

Violence is never acceptable

Whatever our feelings about Zaid and the things he said this last week, or throughout his career, I am hoping we can rely on any sane, reasonable Malaysian to share one view at least: that Jamal Md Yunos has once again gone too far.

Jamal has every right to criticise Zaid, and to be upset about what the latter said. He even has a right to express his anger.

I believe there is a moral line that is undoubtedly crossed however, by burning images of Zaid, and stepping on and hitting cutouts of him with a sledgehammer.

My first reactions upon reading of the latter incident were of horror and disgust. I admit, when I finally actually watched the video, the whole act might have seemed more ridiculous than anything else.

Nevertheless, these are still actions that should be taken seriously...