“There is no greater tyranny than that which is perpetrated under the shield of the law and in the name of justice.”

- Montesquieu, ‘The Spirit of the Laws’

COMMENT When the Seremban High Court granted custody of their two children to S Deepa, N Viran @ Izwan Abdullah was reported as saying , "If this is how it will be, do they want me to go back and drink ‘ arak haram ’ (liquor)?"

Which begs the question, were the judges of the Federal Court worried that any other decision than the one they made earlier this week, would push this kidnapper over the brink and he would find solace in a bottle of whiskey?

Make no mistake about this. A kidnapper was awarded custody of a child and one wonders what kind of moral foundation this poor boy will have and the kinds of choices he will make as an adult. After all, he had no choice when he was converted to Islam.

And lest anyone thinks that I am being hyperbolic on my judgement that this Muslim convert is indeed a kidnapper, my opinion is shared by none other than former law minister, now Minister of Tourism and Culture Nazri Abdul Aziz, who said , “This is abduction. It should never have happened. Let’s not lose sight of context.”

The mercurial minister also said, “This isn’t a question of Izwan Abdullah being right under syariah law. It is a civil law marriage, it is the civil court; we must respect the civil court’s ruling. They have the jurisdiction. The High Court judge’s ruling was correct. The police shouldn’t allow him to get away with kidnapping the child.”

All this meant nothing to the inspector-general of police, which one cannot accuse of marching to the beat of his own drum. Indeed when the rest of the Malaysian polity - Muslims, Christians, Hindus, Buddhists, Sikhs (did I leave out anyone?) - watched horrified at the scant disregard for the rule of law, the Twitter marshall claimed, “As there are two clashing court orders on the matter, we will wait for the courts to decide” - something which he knew was legally and morally untenable .

What did we learn as Malaysians from this? We learnt that as non-Muslim Malaysians, we cannot place our faith in the rule of law as long as the Muslims in power place their faith in their religion over all else...