I am appalled by the conviction of Keadilan Youth chief Mohd Ezam Mohd Nor. It is all the more surprisingly when the Anti-Corruption Agency have been encouraging the Malaysian public to lodge reports if they know of any corrupt practices.

The ACA often gives assurances that anyone can do so with them or the police or even anonymously so that actions could be taken against the corrupt officials. There are even specific laws passed by the Malaysian parliament to charge anyone who did not make such a report if he knows of any corrupt cases.

Yet what happened to Ezam can still happen. I do hope that his lawyers will invoke the said laws so that what Ezam had done was in total and full compliance with these specific laws.

It also bothers many law-abiding Malaysians as to how a photostat copy of an 'official document' can be tendered in court, when we know that such documents also need to be stamped, and photostat copies are legally not the true certified copies.

The original document might even be lost; in which case the photostat copies cannot be used against Ezam or anyone.

We have not forgotten how during former deputy premier Anwar Ibrahim's trial, the Attorney-General had 'mysteriously' (or should we say conveniently) lost some letters that the Special Branch had written to Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad which said that the allegations against Anwar were fabricated.