Why have people responded with great disappointment to Pak Lah's order to stop the Article 11 forums? Because his statement actually hurts us deeply. It was so painful to swallow on that Wednesday morning. I believe many of us never intend for strife to happen.

I believe many of us are peaceful people. I believe many of us actually love Malaysia. We want to be good Malaysians. That's why we bother to invest our time to write to the newspapers. We want to love our prime minister. Yet his statement actually hurt many of us deeply. That's why we say we are disappointed. It is not that we are anti-PM.

I remember during my primary school days in the 1980s, we used to have few chapters on religions (I think it was in the Sejarah textbook if I am not mistaken). One chapter was on Islam where all of us learn about the Prophet Muhammad and his work and about the five pillars of the faith. Another chapter was on Christianity, another on Buddhism and so on.

Perhaps, with Pak Lah's blanket order, I am afraid we might have to even delete those chapters because the inquisitive mind of a child would want to know why the God that he believes in is different from the God of other religions. If not, these kids (including mine), too, would one day, grow up to form groups like Article 11 going around explaining the Federal Constitution.

Or else, if we still want to maintain those chapters, we probably need to put warnings like films: 'These chapters are meant for reading only. Do not ask any questions'.

So while I believe the PM's intention is good, I think it would work in the short-term. In the long term? I don't think it would because if we do not deal with the root cause, the 'lalang' would grow again.