Mohd Riduan Tee's article in Utusan Malaysia branding Teoh Beng Hock's unborn child as illegitimate is yet another attempt to dishonour and denigrate the non-Muslim, non-Malay dead.

He seems to portray his death as deserved, an act of God so to speak, thereby diverting responsibility from the MACC and Umno's attempts to wrest Selangor from Pakatan.

I hope PKR's Kulim MP Zulkifli Noordin knows what type of person he is defending when he launched a scathing criticism against DAP youth for coming out in defence of Teoh.

Many Chinese, Malays and Indians were incensed by Riduan Tee's article which was clearly aimed at exonerating the MACC and Umno by disparaging Teoh in the eyes of the Malays.

I'm touched by Zulkifli's rush to defend his fellow Muslim convert but the average Chinese Malaysian expects that any Chinese worth his salt, even a Chinese convert like Riduan to defend his own actions in the court of public opinion.

It may come as a surprise for Zulkifli to know that the Chinese in Malaysia expect a certain response, a certain standard of behaviour from their own when it comes to open uncensored debate, and rough and tumble public discussion.

Ask 1,000 Chinamen a question, and you will get 10,000 opinions - rambunctious, impertinent, irreverent, and in-your-face.

No honourable Chinese citizen in Malaysia will ever invoke religious or racial privilege in justifying his opinions or actions even if he happens to be Muslim.

Unlike Umno which has retained political power and accumulated individual wealth for its leaders by invoking racial and religious privilege, no Chinese person in Malaysia will ever say,

do not question me, do not question my religion, or do not question my motives.

That sort of thing might work well for the Malays, at least for Umno in the past, but that 'don't question me' privileged approach by Chinese leaders has never gone down well with local Chinese voters.

As far as the Chinese are concerned, everything can be questioned, and if you cannot answer, that means it cannot be justified, or that you are stupid, or that you are hiding an untruth.

They don't particularly care if you are Muslim or Christian or Buddhist or Taoist or Hindu.

Any Chinese anywhere in the world, convert or otherwise, who invokes religious privilege by saying 'don't question me', ‘don't criticise my actions' or ‘don't question my religiosity'

will incur huge loss of respect, and even contempt, by a rough and tough hard working community.

Zulkifli has to decide whether he thinks a Chinese convert like Riduan Tee's opinions and views should be accorded full Islamic and Malay privileges.

He should tell the Chinese community if Riduan Tee is above criticism because he's Muslim convert, or whether Riduan Tee can indeed be questioned openly about his personal motives, religious beliefs and absence of common decency.

I should mention to Zulkifli that if you accord Riduan Tee any ethnic apartheid privileges such that he should be considered above criticism for his ‘bastard' Utusan article, then I expect Riduan Tee, together with his religious beliefs that he so publicly professes, would lose considerable respect from many non-Muslims in Malaysia.

On another level, it is a question of whether Muslims in Malaysia feel that Islam is ready to be debated, questioned or criticised by anyone at all in a Muslim-majority country in the same manner that Christianity, and religion in general, can be openly debated, questioned and criticised by Christians and non-Christians alike in the Christian West.

What say you, Zulkifli Noordin?