Dr Syed Alwi Ahmad's letter hits the nail on the head. Many forget that Malaysia has a constitution and a system of government based on this constitution.

All of a sudden we have a group of people under the name of the National Fatwa Council which is all-powerful, beyond the Parliament, the Malay Rulers and the Constitution.

They got there not through our democratic process but through appointment by the Jabatan Agama Islam, which under our constitution, should not exist in the first place. This process is at best underhanded and covert.

If the people of Malaysia want this kind of system, then by all means go through the democratic process and change the Constitution through the Parliament. Only then will it be legal according to constitutional law.

Until then, the precedence set by Justice Salleh Abas in his judgment still stands in that Malaysia is a secular country.