Most gullible Malaysians generally accept even the most implausible statistical claims represented in all types of formats. Often without question and quite oblivious to the fact truth that statistics do lie.

In fact, statistics have a bad reputation not because it may be wrong or unintentionally tabulated but because of unscrupulous political masters with a hidden agenda.

The famous aphorism: "There are three kinds of lies, damned lies and statistics," usually attributed to Mark Twain or Benjamin Disraeli is evidently relevant by the fact that a useful little book, entitled, " How to Lie With Statistics " is still in print after more than 40 years.