The government cannot continue to 'close one eye' on some of the recent cases which followers of minority religions are viewing with growing concern.

On Pastor sees red over church demolition

Ernest Devadason: It is with utter grief and sadness that following the Federal Court decision against Lina Joy to be legally called a Christian - a religion of her choice - pursuant to a freedom guaranteed under the Constitution, that now we see the demolition of a building for Christian worship.

Malaysia ia a secular nation, albeit that the majority of its people are of the Muslim faith. For a court of the land to blatantly flaunt a constitutional provision, is without precedent. For an organ of government to demolish a building without a court order is to give no credence to the rule of law.

Surely for the executive and legislative arms of the state to remain silent in the light of such flagrant breaches, is to acquiesce to such actions. Such disregard of rights of individuals and religious groups should be litigated before the courts or subjected to the legislative process to over rule an erroneous decision by the highest court in the land.

Peter Ooi: I am really disgusted by the demolition of a small church built by the Orang Asli on their own land. In the first place, based on Zakaria Deros mansion, the most the authority could do was to fine the Orang Asli and thereby subsequently ask them to apply for a permit to build the church. Why must the authority acted in such a haste?

Assuming the that a surau was built instead of a church under the same condition, would the authority demolished the building? Much had been said about the virtues of Islam, one of which is fairness and tolerance of others' religion. Now it's time to put that into practice.

YSM: Abdullah Ahmad Badawi's Malaysia will be a showcase for all to see, Afghanistan-style. Malaysia is quickly becoming a Taliban-like state - not the best way to attract foreign investments but maybe Malaysia does not need money from the West.

On PAS protests Rushdie's knighthood

SH: About two weeks ago, I was interested to read in malaysiakini about the representatives of a religious political party here protesting against the award of a knighthood to Salman Rushdie. Well, I have no great desire to be an apologist for him as I have little time for his books and I don't like his general attitude much either.

But it was only an award, a pretty irrelevant one at that to which they took such exception. Perhaps they could explain the deafening silence last Friday in the face of attempts (thankfully failed) at mass murder on the streets of London and Glasgow. Why no large protest outside the British High Commission making it clear that these vile terrorists do not act in their name?

I mean what is more important? A ridiculous title for an author or the lives of hundreds of people that could have been lost?

On A 'class action' against Ctos, anyone?

TR: I am all for class action against Ctos. Much to blame are also the banks and their procedure for vetting loan applications. If you were to apply for a housing loan, you are most likely to be approached by an inexperienced sales personnel from the bank who will ask you to fill their application form.

This form will be submitted to a junior officer in the bank who will check your application against the outdated Ctos database, and if your name appears on it, your loan is rejected on the spot without the courtesy of being informed by the banks in writing. Going to the other banks is useless as they all follow the same application procedure and they all do the same credit check with Ctos.

On We're not outraged enough, says Tunku Aziz

Meng Yee: In a society which values monetary and materialistic gains over more virtuous values, corruption runs amok. Our conscience disallows it and calls it rewards or appreciation for a job done. However, the monetary 'reward' has often little or no value add to the service rendered.

We as a society must begin to value what is now considered outdated, virtues, such as honesty, self-respect, humility, respect for women, the elderly and the weak. It's not always about economic gains. Sometimes what is right will not bring monetary rewards. In fact, it may even cost us but at least we have our self-respect, integrity and good name intact.

We used to be taught these virtues in schools. Perhaps not in our textbooks, but the teachers will certainly speak about such virtues. Unfortunately today, school is mainly about scoring straight As. This must change before we raise up a generation Malaysians, who in Tunku Abdul Aziz's words, "outraged enough".

Our leaders must also pave the way. We must truly be incensed so as not to vote into Parliament leaders who have no respect for the law, chauvinistic and rude. We the rakyat must begin to look at the character of the MP. He must be humble, without reproach, and have a record of integrity in business as well as politics. We must therefore remove from the leadership those who do not display such virtues.

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