With reference to ‘How far dare you go on liberalism?’ I would like to make the following appeal to Baki Minuddin and all good Malaysians.

Even leaving aside concepts like liberal and plural, Malaysians still need to learn to live together, not just to tolerate but to accept other Malaysians.

The present debate on pluralism and liberalism is framed only in Muslim/non-Muslim terms. It need not be and can be counterproductive.

Social harmony comes from common values, not just a common religion, although religion teaches good universal values. Mono-religious societies can have more conflict than multi-religious ones. Contrast Iraq today and Northern Ireland earlier against Malaysia in the past 40 years.

The majority of Malaysians hold religious beliefs that give them similar notions of what is proper attire, conduct and lifestyle because all religions exhort adherents to be sober, modest, disciplined, kind, loving, generous, etc.

No religion promotes euthanasia, not just Islam. (Catholics disallow it). No religion encourages wearing of ‘slutty’ clothes, not just Islam. All religions forbid drunkenness, not just Islam. All religions have rather similar teachings on relations between the sexes.

Malaysian Muslims should resist the temptation to be exclusive; those who do so mimic fringe Christian groups in the United States. Those who want to be exclusive should set up communes for themselves in places where nobody else lives.

Malaysia need not ape the West. We have always had a more civilised and healthier society. We need not now discard our aged nor spare the rod and spoil our child nor promote single parenthood.

We can draw on our more humane and wise traditions. How we translate these into laws and regulations would be the topics of the great public debates that I hope to see.

While most Malaysians have religious beliefs, there are others who are agnostics and atheists, and there are also a minority among us whose sexual orientations are abnormal.

Liberalism and pluralism are about accepting people who are different from the norm, including those very different and even strange, if the differences are not their fault. That need not stop anyone from trying to change them, so long as their rights are respected.

A common set of laws, based on common values

In spite of all these differences, Malaysians can agree on a common set of laws based on commonly accepted values and which do not violate any religious belief. Good values are also religious dictates and vice versa. We should not blindly copy what some clique in Saudi Arabia might think up.

Distinguish Islamic beliefs and teachings from what some say Muslims should do or not do in everyday life. Respected Malaysian Muslims have argued that Islamic beliefs are not against liberalism and pluralism.

Only God is infallible. When fallible human beings try to interpret religious teachings and thereby formulate lifestyle prescriptions for others such prescriptions naturally turn out to be contentious.

Such opposition cannot be overcome through force as that would violate the teachings of that same religion; it would also violate human rights.

Therefore, while laws can and should be in harmony with religious beliefs, they should not be based on some person’s religious prescriptions, especially in a multi-religious country.

This is not as difficult to do as it is made out to be by those who are bent on instigating the ‘us versus them’ mentality.