KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 1 — They say a picture paints a thousand words but a good infographic breaks down a complex issue into easy-to-digest information.

And is worth much more than a thousand words.

Here are our top 10 infographics and the topics that were top-of-mind in the country over the past year.

1. How young can you marry?

Child marriage was a hot topic discussed in Parliament early this year. Here we see how existing local laws only consider Malaysians as adults when they turn 18, but allow them to marry even when they are still children.

Many including Unicef have called for Malaysia to end child marriages, by amending laws to fix the minimum marriage age at 18.

Read more: Three things about child marriages in Malaysia

2. Nip and tuck

Back in February, we looked at a survey that showed us the most popular plastic surgery procedure in Malaysia and what they cost (anywhere between RM2,500 to RM17,000), which age group is most interested in plastic surgery, and even which countries had citizens showing the most interest in being a medical tourist here.

Read more: Plastic surgery report: Demand for designer vaginas fastest-growing here

3. Hop on for shopping therapy

Malaysians get to indulge in their national pastime of shopping without worrying about parking by simply hopping on to the brand-new Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) trains on the Sungai Buloh-Kajang (SBK) line. The SBK line became fully operational in July and connects Klang Valley residents to 43 shopping spots.

Read more: Fancy mall-hopping in the Klang Valley with the MRT SBK line? and

The cheat sheet for Klang Valley’s newest ride, the MRT SBK

4. Of time vs health

In our survey in August, we found about a quarter of 358 respondents gave up on public healthcare due to the long waiting time. The Health Ministry has said however that wait times have gone down in many places and patients can expect to be served by medical staff within 90 minutes.

Below is an infographic showing the typical experience of Lyn Chan, whose husband is a frequent visitor to a local university hospital.

Read more: Hours-long hospital waits driving some to abandon treatment and

Health Ministry insists 90 minutes for service at public hospitals

5. Setting aside money for education

Public universities rejoiced a bit when the government increased their combined operating expenditure in Budget 2018 by almost 10 per cent. This is in contrast to the almost 20 per cent drop in operating funding in Budget 2017.

Read more: After 2017’s 20pc cut, public universities’ operating budget goes up and

Budget 2017: Public universities suffer almost 20pc spending cut

6. The missing four

Pastor Raymond Koh’s abduction in broad daylight in February caused alarm. He and three others who also remain missing are now the subject of a Human Rights Commission of Malaysia (Suhakam) inquiry that started in October 19.

Read more:

IGP asks media, NGOs to ‘shut bloody mouth’ as abducted pastor case stalls and

Suhakam launches independent probe into four missing activists and

Suhakam to hold public inquiry over missing pastors, activist

7. Hadi’s Bill

PAS president Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang’s proposed law change for heftier Shariah penalties has been in Parliament since April 2015. It appeared for the seventh time in the Dewan Rakyat’s Order Papers in October this year but has yet to be fully debated.

We see how his proposal has evolved to currently seek to empower Shariah courts to dole out maximum 30-year jail terms or maximum RM100,000 fines or 100 lashes.

Read more: Will Hadi’s Bill resurface and why should we care? and

Hadi’s Bill returns to Parliament for seventh time

Kelantan says still committed to ‘hudud’

8. Losing endangered animals on the road

At least 39 threatened animals were recorded as roadkills in Malaysia between January and September this year, while a sun bear and a tapir were both killed on Christmas eve after collisions with cars.

Read more: From leopard to sun bears: Malaysian motorists are killing our precious fauna

As endangered fauna fall victim to motorists, minister moves to call cross-ministry meeting

Conservationists urge more viaducts, tunnels to safeguard wildlife

9. Ahead of GE14, push for new electoral boundaries

The Election Commission managed on December 18 to obtain the court’s nod to hold local enquiries in Selangor, the only state in Peninsular Malaysia where it has yet to conduct public hearings for objections to its redelineation exercise. The Selangor local enquiries started on December 27 and are expected to go on in January 2018.

Read more: EC’s new voting boundaries could be ready for early GE14, observers say

MCA member objects to two new proposed seats at Selangor EC inquiry

10. Ezra Zaid’s legal challenge

Ezra Zaid is challenging the Selangor Islamic Religious Department’s (Jais) arrest, raid, book seizure and prosecution over a book in Bahasa Malaysia that has been deemed unIslamic. The Kuala Lumpur High Court will deliver its decision on January 17, while the Shariah court has decided to start his trial on February 22 instead of waiting for the lawsuit at the civil courts to conclude.

Read more: Lawyer: Unfair for Shariah prosecutors to target Ezra Zaid just because powerless over company