I wish to commend and congratulate malaysiakini for a job particularly well done. I refer to the exclusive interview with former Lord President and Trengganu PAS government exco Salleh Abbas.

The respected former Lord President who was educated in British jurisprudence has made some very pertinent points:

One, it is the democratic right of the majority of the people who are Muslims in Trengganu to legislate a law they think best suit their religious belief and value system;

Two, it is the basic human rights of non-Muslims to be exempted from the Islamic Criminal Law, which means non-Muslims will not be subjected to the law;

Three, while it is not appropriate for non-Muslims to oppose an Islamic law, it is nevertheless their right to speak freely.

In my opinion, while human rights of all Malaysians must be protected and advanced, non-Muslims should excercise the right to free speech wisely so as not to hurt Muslims' feeling, just as non-Muslims themselves certainly do not wish Muslims to openly and rudely take side on intra-communal discourses on the theologies, doctrines, customs and beliefs of Christianity, Buddhism, Hinduism, Sikhism, Confucianism or Taoism.

Malaysians must all remember the simple truth: that what we do to others, others can also do to us, or if what we do not want others to do to us, we ourselves do not do to others. This is the essential premise of living together with mutual respect and trust.

To be sure, there are still many common discourses that Muslims and non-Muslims can debate simply as common citizens of Malaysia, such as the Internal Security Act (ISA) and other anti-human rights law, education, environment, economy, trade, defence, consumerism, foreign policies, poverty, unemployment, inflation, rural development, urban quality of life, corruption, police abuses of powers, judicial independence, etc.

Diversity and unity are not mutually exclusive concepts as some one-dimensional and imbecile minds suggest. The real world of adults has always been more colourful than 'black-and-white', 'either-or', 'yes-or-no', or 'Muslims or non-Muslims'.