I could not help wondering last Sunday as I drove back from church what a tolerant society we Malaysians live in - if you believe what the Barisan Nasional coalition government has been telling us.

Many times we have been reminded by our national leaders how the non-Muslims have been free to practice their respective religions. While this may be true to a certain extent as we are free to attend religious services in our respective places of worship, things are however not what they seem o­n the surface.

Contrary to the Federal Constitution, we were recently subjected to an 'edict' by the retiring prime minister that Malaysia is now an Islamic state. His edict was based o­n the fact that Islam is the official religion, and the majority of the population is Muslim, and the government of the day is run by a majority of Muslims. And he points out that the non-Muslims can continue to live their lives as normal. Therefore, according to him, non-Muslims should accept that Malaysia is an Islamic state.

In conjunction with this 'edict', a booklet was published by the Religious Department detailing how an Islamic government governs and what the rights of non-Muslims are. These include not being allowed to ride horses, non-Islamic places of worship were not allowed to stand higher than mosques, non-Muslims paying taxes in return for 'protection', etc.

This booklet was withdrawn o­nly after strong protests by the Democratic Action Party. But what remains hidden is whether the government continues to be guided by such 'edicts' from the Islamic zealots. What we all fear is the competition between Umno and PAS for Muslim votes. In the process, non-Muslims may in future be subjected to Taliban-like type of behaviour and governance as each party tries to be more Islamic than the other.

In Malaysia, o­ne can be forgiven for thinking that the authorities (mainly state governments and local councils) have a deliberate policy of not allowing new places of worship to flourish, or have a hidden agenda of restricting new places of worship to be built. Take the example of the new church in Subang Jaya.

I don't know what the 'delay' is all about, but I have been reading about it o­n and off for umpteen years now. Could someone please tell us what the 'problem' is? Why has there been such a long delay in the approval by the state government? o­ne o­nly has to take a drive around Kuala Lumpur, Petaling Jaya and Klang to see a proliferation of churches and places of worship 'hidden' away in shop-houses, factory and light industrial buildings.

Are these premises suitable as places of worship in the first place? And if they are not, why are they not built o­n proper locations, like the many mosques we see even in housing estates o­n proper allocated sites? Why this discrimination when we are told day in and day out that the Barisan Nasional government is tolerant towards the non-Islamic religions?

Why is there no equitable allocation of sites and funds for them? Is there an agenda to 'suppress' other religions? An Egyptian Christian recently related to me how the Egyptian government behaves in exactly the same way in using state funds to build mosques but neglect to allocate funds for other religions.

Is this fair or tolerant? Or is it discrimination? Can the non-Muslim component parties in BN (MCA, Gerakan, PBDS, MIC, SUPP, etc) please explain?