COMMENT Why did Anwar Ibrahim elect to give a statement from the dock rather than from the witness stand, where he would then have left himself open to cross-examination?

This is the question being asked in the wake of his entering his defence yesterday on the charge of sodomy in the Kuala Lumpur High Court.

Doubtless, negative inferences would be made about this strategy, what with he having declined to swear on the Quran two years ago this month when his accuser did so in the feverish prelude to the Permatang Pauh parliamentary by-election...