I totally agree with Suhakam chairman Abu Talib Othman - who as attorney-general had helped craft the Article 121 (1A) provision - that the primary legal authority of the nation is and must always remain the constitution.

The case for such a 'constitutionalism' was exceptionally well argued by constitutional lawyer Dr Cyrus Das in a two-page interview carried in the Sun's weekend edition dated Jan 7-8, 2006. He states that "constitutional illiteracy" is today prevalent throughout society and equally within government agencies. He thus proposes that constitutional education begin in schools so that all Malaysians are made aware of their rights, responsibilities and obligations under this rule-of-law principle.

To quote him: "The constitution itself needs to be looked at and interpreted in a way that gives remedy to every Malaysian regardless of his religious faith. A legal system that declares that it cannot give remedy - as the courts now declare - ... reflects a serious shortcoming in the system. It has to be corrected because we cannot take pride in our legal system if access to justice is not given its due."

I am not constitutional lawyer, but rather a student of the constitution with an excellent teacher, the late eminent professor and Islamic scholar, Dr Ahmad Ibrahim, at Universiti Malaya. I am also a nationalist schooled at the Royal Military College. My views below therefore express a kind of "constitutional nationalism" which seeks to transcend the narrow parochial nationalism often embedded in ethnic nationalism. Please hear me out.