More importantly, if any of us want to predict what happens to a society without rules, look no further than the events of May/June 2017, when the accused, all 18 of them, took part in a sadistic ritual of torturing Zulfarhan.
It is all the more horrific because he was not killed in a remote, inaccessible backwater, or a deserted island far away from civilisation where no rules exist. He was murdered within spitting distance of the cosmopolitan metropolis - Kuala Lumpur.
The irony is that the murder occurred at the Universiti Pertahanan Nasional Malaysia (UPNM), an institution of higher learning, where a community of students, scholars, and teachers live highly regulated lives.
He was tortured on campus, where students from diverse backgrounds live in relative harmony and treat others with respect.
In the end, one man’s obsession with...