What on earth is going on?

I refer to the Interfaith Conference that was to have been held in Kuala Lumpur this week, on the occasion of the visit of the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rev Dr Rowan Williams.

The conference was called off suddenly at the last minute on the instruction of the Minister in the Prime Minister's Department.

This is despite the fact that Williams had much earlier been assured of the support of the Malaysian government.

I would have thought that the conference, called Building Bridges, would have promoted much better international religious understanding between Christians and Muslims at home and abroad.

I hope the Malaysian government can explain its thinking when it unilaterally decided to pull the plug on an event that would have put Malaysia in a positive light.

Coming hot on the heels of the Marimuthu affair, I am hard put to think of any more damaging way to demonstrate how immoderate and radical our religious establishments have become.

It could be said that the decision to cancel the meeting sends a wrong signal about the state of religious harmony in this country - except that I think it sends exactly the correct signal, i.e. that we are in a situation of total and absolute disarray!

What, I ask again, on earth is going on?