COMMENT | As if making a concession, Home Minister Saifuddin Nasution Ismail said the ministry would comply with a court decision to return 172 watches seized in a crackdown last year from the Swatch Pride collection.

What choice does the ministry have? None. It has always been embarrassing and shameful when civil servants are ordered to carry out their duties, and it was no different this time.

Yet, defiantly, he continued to defend the crackdown and other ancillary issues that occasionally arose from the date of the seizures, saying that it followed procedures and laws. If so, why the unprecedented order?

But Saifuddin got one thing right...