You Can Check Out Anytime You Like

But you can never leave. (Lyrics of a song by the Eagles)

This is what religious freedom means in Malaysia.

By and large "freedom" still hold competing meanings in the mind of Malay Muslims. You are free to walk but you must wear crutches. You are free to chose but the choice is not yours. This is basically how the religion is being taught. You cannot be making your own interpretation of the Holy Book. You must leave it to people who have studied what the ancients have said about it.

The forum on conversion to Islam organized by the Bar Council was opposed by the Malays. One would be right in saying that the mob that came to oppose it being held were Muslims, but one must not forget that in Malaysia, being Muslim is to be Malay. They opposed the forum because intrinsically it was a forum about the Malays.

The issues arising out of conversion are of the utmost relevance and must be resolved, and resolved quickly. The government must take the lead in resolving them instead of reducing itself to being a mere spectator.

It is a Malay issue after all. It will not resolve itself. Why, because the Malays tend to think that the issue is their issue exclusively. They cannot see that others who are affected by our practice of the religion has the moral right to be heard.

The organizer could even have been more brash by calling it the apostasy issue, and in essence that is what this whole thing is about. This issue is sensitive and we cannot just wish for it to resolve itself. The government must step in to show the way.