COMMENT | I find Rozhan Othman’s March 17 article titled “From canteen to socks: Looking for a cure or sambal belacan” poignant and timely.

The professor wrote about the sock-gate controversy and angry Muslims, reminding them that the Prophet Muhammad would have advised “calm” when dealing with a difficult situation.

He also chastised certain Malay politicians, saying that they lack ideas about the agenda they should fight for and that their level of thinking is only limited to socks and school canteens.

What really resonated with me in Rozhan’s piece was his take on the social ills plaguing the Malay community which seems to have been largely ignored by those so-called leaders with a Malay-Muslim image.

“These leaders are generally silent about the problems that plague the Malay-Muslim community”, he said.

“The problem of high drug addiction among the Malays, the problem of mahram incest that often occurs among the Malays, the problem of sexual crimes against children, the involvement of the Malays in corruption and the backwardness of the Malays in mastering science and technology did not get the attention of the experts.

“On the other hand...