"Whatever you choose to see, the Light still shines."

Perodua, the second national car, found it fit to air on television the advertisement with the above catch-phrase during the Deepavali season without looking at the sensitivities of the Christian community. It was highly irresponsible of Perodua to air such an advertisement and an apology to the Christians seem fit.

For those who might not have seen the advertisement, the story line goes as follows :

A Christian girl Elizabeth Frances visits the family home of her friend or hubby who is Hindu. She dreams of marrying or has married this person .She apparently is in a quandary on seeing the family going about celebrating Deepavali. She sits alone watching and wondering, looking disturbed. One moment she thinks of herself as Elizabeth Frances, a Christian, and yet another moment thinks of herself as Mrs Uma Sundram, a Hindu. When the family blesses and presents her with a sari, she smiles and seems to have seen the light.

I do not have anything against inter-religious marriages nor do I have anything against Christians and Hindus marrying one another but I think it is no business of Perodua to preach their belief - that no matter what one's religion is, "the light still shines". Religion is a personal matter and a commercial organisation such as Perodua should not capitalise on it nor impose their opinions on religion to the general public.

To each believer of any particular faith, his or her religion is the only true religion and his or her faith is between him and her and God and there shall be no compromise on that.

For those who think I am being hyper-sensitive, I have this to ask: Would Perodua have aired this advertisement by replacing the Christian girl Elizabeth Frances, say, with a Muslim girl - call her Liza Fatimah, and make her smile and realise that no matter what faith she chooses to follow, "the light still shines"?

Or does Perodua believe that it can ignore the sensitivities of the followers of some faith and hold sacred the sensitivities of other faiths?