In my last letter, I suggested that Malays in Malaysia are the only people in the modern world who are still constitutionally denied the freedom of religion, and that the Malaysian constitution which force Malays to be Muslim is in gross violation of the Quranic injunction that there is no compulsion in religion.

This is not the only source of mental and political enslavement of the Malays by the political elites in Umno and PAS. For years, Malays have also been deprived of the human rights of choosing what to read.

For example, Utusan Malaysia and Berita Harian, both controlled by Umno, have for years been monopolising the newspaper market, leaving us no choice but to swallow the propaganda.

The only so-called alternative is PAS' Harakah. However, like Utusan Malaysia and Berita Harian, Harakah also essentially share the Umno's notion that Malays must be Muslims. I disagree with both.

For the monolingual Malays who are locally educated, they are even worse. They cannot read English, Chinese, Tamil, French, German or other languages, and they are mentally locked in that little cocoon of Malay-Islamic discourse conducted purely in the Malay language.

In the Malay language universe, there is virtually no reading materials on Christianity, Buddhism, Hinduism, Sikhism and Western philosophy. There is nothing about other discourses in other religions, cultures and intellectual traditions.

This, I submit, is the source of the intellectual backwardness as well as xenophobia of the Malays which must be removed in a new cultural reform.

In the new Malay cultural revolution, we must reclaim and regain our human right to the freedom of religion. It means that Malays can choose to profess religions of their choice. It should also encourage Malays to acquire the knowledge of other languages like Chinese, Tamil, English, French, German and others.

At the same time, more books on Christianity, Buddhism, Hinduism, Sikhism and Western philosophy, etc must be translated faithfully into the Malay language to broaden the minds of the Malays so that we can debate, compete and advance in the globalised world.

The law that forces the spouses of Muslims or Malays to convert into Islam must be abolished in accordance to the true teaching of Islam that there is no compulsion in religion. Muslims or Malays must not be again forced, legally or socially, to married among people of the same religions or ethnic group.

Above all, both Umno and PAS must be dissolved to liberate the Malays from moral tyranny, and Muslims from narrow and parochial communalism.

Cultural and religious identities are the exclusive rights of individuals that must not be interfered with by the state, political parties or any other busybody.