COMMENT | How are our laws, rules, and regulations really promulgated? Do a handful of politicians lock themselves in a meeting room over teh tarik and karipap, cook up another mandate?

Do they then shove it down our throats before we’ve even blinked? No consultation? No debate? No input from stakeholders? Is it a done deal?

Take what happened in Selangor. Last November, the state executive committee (exco) approved guidelines, including the ban on non-Muslim houses of worship in commercial zones.

For six months, it remained a “secret” document, and even those who participated in the discussions never uttered a word until last month, when Petaling Jaya MP Lee Chean Chung raised concerns over its contents.

The response was typical...