It is very difficult to make public critical comments about any ethnic or religious community in Malaysia without getting oneself embroiled in a stormy controversy.

In his article entitled "Not just a Malay-Muslim problem", malaysiakini columnist Farish Noor has wondered aloud why non-Muslims have not come forth in defence of those poor Malay youths who have been harassed and humiliated by the authorities for behaving in a public place in such a way as can be construed by some as less than Islamic.

He is right of course. People who are not of the Islamic faith ought to have spoken out in defence of the personal dignity and the civil liberties of the victims of overzealous morality police, as Elizabeth Wong has done. Irrespective of our religious faith, we live in one world, and we are citizens of one single country. Ideally, what affects members of other ethnic or religious community affects us personally.

Unfortunately, ours is a country that is far from ideal. The Malaysian consciousness has too long been steeped in the divisive politics of race that has imprisoned our nation of brothers and sisters in segregated mental cages according to their ethnic and religious identification.