Recent highly-publicized decisions by the secular and syariah courts exposed the stark "judicial conundrum" resulting from their overlapping jurisdictions. This is not a legal problem; its solution lies beyond changing the judicial system or tinkering with the constitution. Rather, it is a political problem; it must therefore be solved in the political arena.

It involves defining the very nature of our nation; more practically, addressing the meaning and implications of such phrases as, "Malaysia is an Islamic state," and "Islam is the official religion."

Malaysians are familiar with the civil, criminal and other courts of the secular justice system, based essentially on the English common law. The furor over the Shari'a system is that since the constitutional amendment of 1988, its status is elevated so that it is now separate and equal with the secular system.