SALBIAH Ahmad's Malaya!: Critical thoughts on Islam, Rights and Freedom in Malaysia was chosen as the book of the month (March 2007) by Kinibooks .

The book leads the pack primarily because Salbiah's writings have the ability to enlighten the public on the importance of having critical thoughts and alternative thinking in the fields of Islam, rights and freedom.

In a way, the book was published due to what is perceived as the lack of truthful democracy in the country and the correct interpretation of Islam - a sign that the country is urgently in need of reform.

"My arguments (in the book) aimed to dismantle the chains of thought fettered by daily feedings of singular form of thinking through state control mass media. I hope (through the book), the public will understand the 'real' situation facing the country now," she said in a review written to Kinibooks.

In her writings, Salbiah also emphasised the absence of some induced elements in the facade of democracy in Malaysia - that is the element of critical and alternative thinking.

On why she chose the word 'Malaya', the author explained in her introductory note that 'Malaya', in Tagalog, means freedom which is strongly related to the topics she had discussed in her book.

The term 'Malaya' was inspired by protests in which civil society and human rights defenders renewed calls for greater freedoms and for the strengthening of democratic values beginning with speech, assembly and association.

In his foreword, Dr M Bakri Musa described Salbiah's writings as an 'eyeglass' where it contrasted to the prisms as represented by the polemics of the Islamists, feminists and secularists.

"She wrote on the interface of Islam, feminism and human rights - three highly contested areas in contemporary social discourse - which she portrayed as strongly related together.

Distinct and different

"If we view matters exclusively through the individual prism of Islamists, feminists, and secularists, then indeed there are the distinct and different colours of reality, and never will they merge," he said in the foreword written for the latest book of a fellow malaysiakini columnist.

Hence, with an 'eyeglass' style used by Salbiah, these individual prisms will disappear and be synthesised into a whole and colourless unity where the sight will then be much closer to reality.

Bakri ( right ) asserted that the central concept used by Salbiah in her book is appropriate because her writings discussed in an overall picture where the ideals of Islam, the feminist movement and human rights are as encapsulated in the United Nations' universal declaration of human rights are shared ideals.

In the UN declaration, Islam and feminist movement all have one common objective that is to emancipate human beings to give each of the people their inherent rights as individuals regardless of faith, nationality, skin colour or sex.

"This is what we should be focusing on, not on the infinite variations of their content (in regards to Islam, feminists and human rights)," he added.

Salbiah Ahmad is currently senior gender advisor with an international agency. She is a civil and Syariah trained lawyer from the University of Singapore and the International Islamic University of Malaysia. She had a special interest for issues on Islam, human rights and gender relations.

Her weekly column 'Malaya!' has been appearing in malaysiakini since 2001.