I refer to the Malaysiakini report Bar Council's forum: More shelling for police, protestors.

Firstly, I must say that I am very proud of the president of the Malaysian Bar. She is what a leader should be like. She has steadfastly been very vocal and firm in her convictions to see that Malaysian public concerns are addressed by the Bar when the government couldn't seem to care less.

After 51 years of independence and a system which the current establishment is very proud to boast of, all we have achieved is that the ‘Chinese and Indian Malaysians must go to hell’ as said by the representative from Umno who barged into the forum entitled ‘Conversion to Islam’ which was held at the Bar's premises.

Here we are trying to find a solution and remedy to the legal wrangles that a family or an individual has to go through when a family member or a loved one converts without their knowledge. But when we sit to discuss, we have ‘concerned groups’ who claim that this discussions are meant to ‘bash Islam’.

These litigants have been failed by a system of dual jurisdictions which don't seem to have the courage to state which jurisdiction should be the ultimate jurisdiction which should apply to all. When they fail in their recourse to the courts, they turn to the Bar and like-minded NGOs to seek advice as to how best they can lobby for some amendments to be made to the law so that they have a remedy which they can seek.

Instead of helping find a solution, all we get from the authorities and the same pressure groups is nothing but abuse and warnings. This is the state of race relations in Malaysia after 50 years.

If an individual and members of parliament from the many different political parties now say that the Bar and its leadership should be detained without trial under the ISA, then what should we do with the people who tell the ‘Chinese and Indians to go to hell’ or with teachers who berate and verbally abuse ethnic Indians by calling them keling pariah ?

Do we also put them under the ISA? Or is it a different rule for them and another for the ‘Chinese, Indians and others’? This is what we should seek to remedy and which can only be done if discussions and debate are open for all to contribute. We need remedies which will be fair to all instead of just piecemeal solutions.

If the conversion is going to be used as a means of escapism, then the law needs to address the situations which the family members who are left behind have to endure. The constant runaround and the inability of any government department to provide just solutions when a convert dies, is the agony which most of those who are seeking some form of recourse have to endure.

If freedom of religion is a fundamental right enshrined under the Constitution, then so must be the rights of those who have been left in the lurch by those who choose to exercise this right.

One sees it as a means to escape from liabilities which would land heavily on them should they remain and face the challenges mounted by the members of the family which they have deserted. This inequity is the main reason why so many aggrieved parties cry out for justice which seems beyond reach in our present system.

What we are seeing today is religion being used as a political tool to garner political support and by doing so they gain in numbers. We now have leaders who are declaring jihad on others. So is this what we have been working towards all these years?

Unless and until we settle issues which one has with his/her non-Muslim family before converting, it will still be looked upon as a escape route by those who wish to take advantage of the situation.

The reason why some are taking our plea overseas is that there is no room for discussion, reasoning and justice in Malaysia anymore. The more intense the situation becomes, the more we will distance ourselves from the world. Increasingly we see a number of foreign NGOs which are very interested in what goes on in Malaysia because our racial demarcation warrants such a concern. If our local leaders are not bothered, why shouldn't Malaysians take their cause to the world at large?

If some serious change does not take place soon after 51 years of independence, which one believes had brought us to a crossroads, then the next 50 years will see a mass exodus of Malaysians of all ethnicity for other countries that can promise at least some hope of fair play and equality.

For those who can't, it will be a slow process of seeing our society become a homogeneous one, where all will belong to the same religion through different ancestries.