All should commend Mr Subang , evidently a Muslim, for having the moral courage to tell the Malaysian authorities in no uncertain terms that their rationale for not allowing Malays freedom of religious worship is political rather than spiritual.

It is now crystal clear to all and sundry as to why the Malaysian authorities make an exception for Muslims when it comes to the matter of religion. There is a clause in the Federal constitution which states that a Malay must be a Muslim and this is used by the government to prohibit Malays from embracing any religion other than Islam, notwithstanding the more important constitutional clause - freedom of religious worship for all citizens - which is clearly a basic human right.

Hence the minute any Malay is born, he or she automatically becomes a Muslim. The Malay-led government fears that if Muslims were to be allowed freedom of religious worship like everyone else, many would not want to remain Muslims - the religion imposed on them from birth - for a variety of reasons.

These have already been stated by some apostates or murtads (see Muhammad Faisal's letter ) and there is no need for me to mention them in this letter. But suffice it is to say that the Malaysian government, or rather Umno, consolidates its power on a communal basis reinforced by religion, which is Islam.

Now everyone can see clearly what the racist call of 'Malay Unity' is about and what it entails. Islam is the most effective weapon of Umno in enslaving the minds of the Malays because religion is a strong primordial instinct. It neatly separates the Malays from the other races and facilitates Umno's divide and rule policy.

Through Islam, Umno wants to unite all Malays so that it can remain in power in perpetuity in multi-racial Malaysia. At the same time, by allowing other races freedom of religious worship, Umno calculates that this would split the non-Malays even more; this is the flip side of the same coin in Umno wanting the Malays to unite via Islam.

PAS whose political struggle is based on Islam, despite whatever differences it has with Umno, fully supports the government's move to enslave the minds of the Malays through Islam. In this context, it is equally guilty as the government in wanting control all Malays through the medium of religion, in this case, Islam.

Subang's letter exposes the hypocrisy in earlier letters by Arbibi Ashoy, SBMJ Iree and others who try to mask the government's real intention (politics) by their protestations of spirituality. In the light of what Subang says, Arbibi Ashoy's claim of Islam being the perfect religion, must now ring hollow.

If Islam is that perfect as Arbibi claims, there is no need for the religious authorities to compel all Malays to profess it under all kinds of threats.

The Malays would on their own accord embrace it willingly and spontaneously without the need for anyone telling them to do so. As they say, feelings come from the heart and no force is stronger than such feelings.

We now understand why the four apostates in Terengganu as well as Ayah Pin continue to resist all measures by the government - including the threat to impose the ISA - to force them to repent and come back to the path of Islam.

The bottom line of their sad plight is that religion - which is a private matter between the individual and God - should not be politicised for the pecuniary and vested interests of certain groups of people.

Gone are the Middle Ages when people went to war for the sake of their religion. We are now living in the 21st century in the era of globalisation. We can only hope and pray that justice from the Almighty above will eventually prevail so that all Malays, like everyone else in the world, will eventually enjoy their basic human right of choosing their own religion.

They should not have some people in power imposing it on them just because those people want to remain in power for all times. This letter is not to encourage Malays to leave Islam but to hammer home the point that they are entitled to freedom of religious worship like everyone else.

Like everyone else, Malays are mature enough to make up their minds on religion.