At the height of the case involving the former Israeli president Chaim Herzog's visit to Singapore in 1986, a very telling but revealing saying quoted from the Romans by the late Malaysian premier, Tunku Abdul Rahman rings so self-evidently true even to this day.

Visibly chagrined by what he saw as a taunt to Malay sensitivities, the Tunku in chiding Singapore said, "The Romans have a saying. The fool who holdeth the peace is considered wise"

Coming from an elderly statesman like the Tunku, it was meant to be taken seriously and also to underscore the gravity of the matter, then.

Then as now, relations between both the states had the potential of turning prickly.

Then as now, whatever that happens in Malaysia will have the potential of being misinterpreted or interpreted to serve devious interests. That means what happens in Malaysia or vice versa can have ramifications across the causeway.

And then as now, what should not be forgotten is that both nations having had always shared a common anchor in their historical evolution; cannot but treat matters of race and religion with utmost care and sensitivity.

Thus, it is for this reason mainstream newspapers of either nation not be permitted to circulate freely in the other; all to preclude the odd possibility of a duffer enjoying a momentary spell of midsummer madness giving rein.

Police abuse, Moorthy's case

Over the past month, Malaysia has not only been vexed by the scandal of cover-ups in its police stations but more recently of the controversy regarding the religious conversion of Mount Everest hero, M Moorthy.

Undoubtedly both issues not only form grist for Singapore's mill, but the fact that they can be interpreted divergently cannot be ruled out.

With secular Singapore adhering strictly that there should be no interference in a person's race or religious bearing, religious tribunals or another know the limits of where their writs begin and end.

That is helpful because it forges an understanding to where and when the state should be shut out off, its citizens' affairs.

So when it came to handling the tudung (headscarf) crisis in 2003, that entrenched understanding revealed itself with tantalising effect.

In other words, school students should only wear prescribed school uniforms - representative, truly and emblematic of its secular moorings.

And because these issues were ironed out even before Singapore became independent, it therefore becomes a given that Sikhs wear their turbans wherever they want to and when others equally practice their freedoms without let and hindrance.

Freedom is just not about what it literally means. The responsibility that goes with it, along with an appreciation of what may irk or endear some; is something that comes with a statement associated with maturity.

So, whether in inviting Herzog or interfering with the facial hair of a Sikh child, the message is all about how much we wish to accept not merely tolerate - others for what they are and who they are?

This not only makes for the richness garnered from a diversity of that understanding, it creates the very maturity needed and alluded to by the late Tunku.

Surefire guarantee

And so it is also with the case involving the late Moorthy, whose case should be tread carefully as it involves the deeply sensitive question of religious conversion.

Did he or did he not convert Islam is an answer which now only lies in the grave? Granted the odd circumstances that took him around the route to his alleged conversion and the other deeply troubling status of his wife's marital status; it leaves to be desired to where and what the end writ of the state lies.

If anything if the line between a Syariah and High Court can be so blurred as to invite ridicule, suspicion and stir controversy; something then is certainly rotten in the state of Malaysia in quoting Hamlet from Shakespeare.

And that something belongs to the primitive instincts of race, religion and customs, which in being as visceral as they are; explodes with a fury, when tampered or rocked with mindless insensitivity.

Holding the peace, therefore, is the only surefire guarantee to keeping society's body and soul together. Doing otherwise is as foolish as how the Romans have said, and the late Tunku fully understands and knows.

JAYA PRAKASH lectures in journalism at Beacon School of Technology in Singapore.