I AM against any idea that the state has the right to wiretap its citizens. It is downright unethical and unwarranted.

I WAS at a book warehouse recently. There was a jumbo sale offering thousands of titles. The books are of all kinds and sizes. There are gems among the pile. Some books are priced as cheap as 50 sen and the most expensive is RM10 each.

MOST Sundays, before joining my teh tarik buddies at a stall at Malayan Mansion, I will take a stroll along Jalan Tuanku Abdul Rahman, passing through Dataran Merdeka, walking near Masjid Negara until Taman Tasik Perdana and back.

I WAS on a British Airways flight from Edinburgh to London Heathrow recently. As the cabin crew was pushing the trolley, I asked for a glass of water.

I SPOKE, or rather, wrote too soon. Immediately after the shocking defeat of my favourite team, the All Blacks, I wrote a piece entitled “England leading the way for the future rugby?” in the online version of this newspaper on Oct 27.

After highlighting on women’s issues for 39 years, Utusan Melayu columnist stops writing as the curtain falls on the newspaper this month.

To say that I am disappointed is an understatement. I am one of those fanatical supporters of the All Blacks whom I believed are God-chosen to be the masters of the rugby universe.

A yearly budget should be able to address real issues not just dangling carrots and promising sweeteners.

IT was almost midnight on Wednesday, Sept 8,1997. A chartered Boeing 747 Malaysia Airline plane bearing flight number MH4802 took off from Subang International Airport. The then Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Dr Mahathir Mohamad (now Tun), was on board with a few ministers and a planeload of businessmen, government officials and reporters. I was one of them.

Although some believed he was betrayed by his own party, he was a gentleman politician unfazed by all the lobbying and jostling around him. Hopefully history will be kind to a true Indonesian patriot.

It cannot be business as usual. In the Internet era, effective communication is needed more than ever.