I share the sense of outrage of Ng Tze Yeng ( Family law bill a gross violation ). Our senators were forced to 'vote in favour, but in protest', which is a bizarre, oxymoronic act in itself. This kind of ridiculous political actions could only happen in Malaysia.

Datuk Dayang Mahani Tun Pengiran Ahmad Raffae of Sabah said: "I apologised to my daughter that I, as a legislator, am powerless to do anything else. It is against my conscience."

What did she mean she's 'powerless'? Her power is in her vote! If you cannot even vote according to your conscience, then you should not take the oath of office to be a legislator at all.

I can only assume that the only reason why she felt 'powerless' was either:

• she felt her political future would be totally destroyed if she did not toe party line; which means she is a selfish politician, ready to sell out her conscience and 30 percent of Malaysians (half of the 60 percent population who are Muslims; the law was meant to standardise the Islamic Family Law of all states, so the entire female Muslim population is affected); or

There were many other decent and honourable things these senators could have done. They could have voted against, abstained from voting, or resign. But none of them chose to do so. Such is the quality and integrity of our legislators.

However, given the circumstances the female senators were in, they should be commended for their candour and willingness to speak their mind, albeit only to a limited degree, in stark contrast to many of her male counterparts.

But the tragedy still remains: Our legislators could not even vote in accordance with their conscience, or to propose to debate certain pressing issues (such as DAP's motion to even debate nude squat issue was shot down by the House speaker).

If we can only get this kind of jokes in our rubber-stamping Parliament, and have our intelligence repeatedly insulted, perhaps we should abolish Parliament altogether. I cannot see any point of having a parliamentary democracy if all they do is put on a lousier show than a 3pm soap on RTM1.

This was a dark day for Malaysian democracy. But the immediate victims are for 30 percent of our population, who are being subjugated by and rendered mere objects/sex slaves of the male chauvinists.

They are forced to accept official and legitimated oppression and discrimination in the name of religion, with no other option. The effect of this law would make even more Muslim women reluctant to marry - why should a woman degrade herself by trading her personal freedom and dignity of being single, for a much more inferior and weak legal status of just one of the playthings (not 'wife') of a chauvinist man?

When a husband falls in love - or even flirts - with another woman, his wife will definitely feel hurt. No decent human being could fail to empathise. So, no matter what the law, or the self-professed pious, expert interpreters of the Nabi's teachings/ulama, says, a woman's feelings in this sort of matters could not be trivialised or ignored.

On the other hand, for those who are already married, this would only send a seriously wrong signal to the male by inflating their male egos and encourage them to see and treat their wife(s) as mere objects. After all, the law will help him beat his wife into submission if she complains about his hanky-panky with other women.

I seriously cannot see how this law could help make the men more loyal husbands, pious Muslims or better men. All it does is to further damage the sanctity of marriage and to cheapen the Muslim women. It has just increased the potential of marital and family discords.

Therefore, given that there is practically no way for a Muslim woman to opt out of being a Muslim in law, this law should have been put to a referendum by all Muslim women. At the very least, the women legislators (unrepresentative though they are) should be allowed to vote freely. That is the least gentlemanly thing the men can do.

To Nazri and all the male chauvinists who bulldozed this law through Parliament by bullying the women into submission: you all should be ashamed of yourselves.