I refer to the letters Mina don't come home , Moral police an issue for Muslims to decide and Jawi bad, non-Muslims wrong, youths misguided .

An argument seems to have been made that only Muslims have the right to comment on, and administer, laws, regulations and policies ostensibly aimed at Muslims. This sounds logical on the surface, but is misleading in the context of a multi-racial, multi-religious country like Malaysia.

Can I, for example, remain silent if the actions of some Muslims cause foreign investors to think twice about investing in Malaysia? Or if the actions of these Muslims result in foreign talent giving Malaysia a wide berth? After all, why put your money and your skills in a country where tolerance is not practised in any and every sense of the word?

And it is not as if Muslims here lack alternatives (at least the well-heeled amongst them) far away from the eyes of the moral police. There is nothing to stop them, for instance, from going to Singapore for example, for their regular 'fixes' of night clubbing, gambling, liquor consumption and shopping.

It is easy then to maintain a staid and puritanical image in Malaysia, but to kick up your heels and have a good time elsewhere as many of our politicians, businessmen and royals have been known to do, and are still doing.

So exactly what is it that the moral police (the likes of Jawi, the mat skodeng etc.) is trying to achieve? To dragoon the less influential and the less well-connected into toeing the moral line, while the well-off who have the inclination are free to indulge their appetites at welcoming locations overseas (which doubtless welcome their money, if nothing else)?

Spare us the hypocrisy and cant. There are much more urgent things in Malaysia to sort out and fix than worrying, for example, about whether Muslim females are out night clubbing or wearing attire that is not entirely presentable.

As I wrote previously , there is an agenda behind such uppity, in-your-face moral fervour, and it sure ain't concerned with improving Malaysia's competitiveness in an increasingly borderless and globalised world.

But then, maybe, these elements have no clue as to how to manage and prosper in such an unforgiving environment. So they wrap themselves in the comforting blanket of moral rectitude and orthodoxy while the rest of the world passes them by.