India does not wield the big stick when it should. The Indian overseas tries to keep himself apart from the local Indian, and is usually arrogant, even dismissive of the Indian here. Elsewhere in the region, the Indian is tolerated by the local governments, even if they themselves are Indian in their culture. Many Indonesians have Sanskrit names, Bali practices a Hinduism that disappeared with Adi Sankaracharya in the 8th century. The Rama legend is theirs too, and the Balinese often say the Indians took it from them. As one Indonesian professor of Sanskrit once explained to me: "Islam is my religion; Sanskrit my culture." The state is guided by the Panchashila, the five principles, and a take off from the Panchatantra, the five arts. The former Indonesian president, Megawati, was given her name by an Indian politicians, Biju Patnaik. The present president's name, Yudhoyono, is Sanskrit although he is a Muslim.

THE CANDLE-LIGHT VIGIL in Kuala Lumpur, which began after the High Court had refused to allow the Hindu wife of the Corporal Moorthy her right to know what is happening around her, after he is alleged to have become a Muslim in surpicious circumstances and buried as one, has been called off. It was to have continued till the end of this month, the number taking part increasing from about 50 when it started to about 500 when it stopped. It was not of course reported for it protested an official policy although many journalists from the mainstream newspapers took part. The organisers decided to call it off after the Chief Secretary (KSN) and the police requested. In the past, they would have arrested the organisers. Under Malaysia's laws, Corporal Moorthy's Hindu widow is left high and dry. But the defence ministry promised her a job, which she refused because it was too far, have ensured she would get the enhanced pension. Now it has asked the private sector to give her a job nearer her home when she refused the job it offered here because it was too far. The government went out of its way to prove its policies wrong. The beating of the breast and insisting that the law must take its course was its attitude then; today, it cannot do enough for the lady.

In the present scandals, the non-Muslim parties in the National Front, should have been in the forefront, but have said nothing. The leaders of the Malaysian Chinese Association, the Malaysian Indian Congress, Gerakan Rakyat Malaysia, People's Progressive Party will talk strongly on peripheral matters, but not on issues that affect the people they represent. It is wrong to assume that Malaysians would remain quiet for all time. It is only the Muslim women and the Hindu who continue to articulate the 'injustices' in a Hindu being buried as a Muslim. Similarly, the Muslim women are het up about their denigrtion in Malaysian society. The newspapers and the internet have registered their anger, but the fact remains that the Hindu. Buddhist or Chritisian spouse of a man who has secretly converted to Islam has no legal rights. The courts have declared that she cannot come to the civil courts for justice, and the Sharia courts have said it would only hear cases brought by Muslims. There has been instances were Chinese have been so treated, but that is forgotten now.

THE NATIONAL FRONT PASSES laws to affect nearly half the population, and no Malaysian is concerned at the time when their kind is affected by it. The Malaysian Chinese Association, the Gerakan Rakyat Malaysia, the Malaysian Indian Congress and other parties in the Front other that UMNO would rather not talk about it, and look the other way. Two cases in recent weeks show that it is done. A Malaysian, who was born an Indian Hindu and scaled Mount Everest in his time, was buried a Muslim, after the civil court decided it could not interfere in what should have been other court. But because she is not a Muslim, she could not go to the Sharia court for justice. So the Indian is buried a Muslim, with his family not allowed to take part: the religiious affairs department saw to that. The second case involved women, albeit Muslim, and they objected to their denigration at the last minute. But the two cases are seen in water tight compartments, and so the official actions against one is not seen as affecting the other. So, the Muslim women are up in arms, and the Hindus are up in arms, but seperately. If it is this way, the National Front government is not worried: they would be elected by these groups in the next election or byelection. But there is a link between the two: it shows the National Front reduces views of Malaysias by attacking individual components, knowing full well that parties in the National Front would not object, as it has not in the two cases, and Malaysians will vote the National Front in the next time around.

THE MINISTER IN CHARGE OF PARLIAMENT, otherwise known as minister in the Prime Minister's Department. has made it clear that the Senate is not for discussion and eventually vote on contentious bills. He has warned the National Front women senators that they must vote against their conscience and for their own degradation. It does not matter what they personally thought. The chairman of the Senate, in most countries elected but in Malaysia a sinecure for elderly National Front members, did not object. Those who did oppose it, and saw Dato' Seri Naziz Aziz, were told bluntly there would be no discussion or debate. It is final: the women will be second class citizens in their country. The non-Islamic members of the National Front did not object to this proposal, which UMNO had thought up to become more Islamic than the opposition PAS, and presumably agreed to it. Even the cabinet minister for women's affairs, a woman, had agreed to her downgrading. She values her position in the cabinet more than her sex. Women could be downgraded, in the name of Islam, if the National Front could steal a march over Parti Sa Islam or PAS. But this is only one of several laws passed which makes the non-Muslim and women second class citizens. A former climber of Mount Evert, an Indian, who was reduced to a cripple in a wheelchair after another accident, has died, and the Selangor Religious Affairs Department has insisted he be buried as a Muslim. His family says he was a Hindu, and should be buried as a Hindu. A former cabinet minister, an Indian, had to be buried urgently so that the Selangor Religious Affairs Department would not get at the body after the state funeral.

It is the same with Deepavali. Gone are the days when you respected Deepavali by religious observances. It was a strictly family affair. I do not celebrate Deepavali. But I mark it by an oil bath and prayers, either at home or at the temple nearby. We do not prepare for the day, although we would prepare cakes and savories for the odd visitor. The MIC is in the forefront of turning Deepavali into a commercial success. Its president, Dato' Seri S. Samy Vellu, is busy shouting his head off on the lack of sufficient Indian stalls for Deepavali, refusing to realise it is a religious festival. The MIC controls everything that is Indian in the National Front's eye, and its goons prevent others from a view in public that is contrary to it. It controls all the Hindu organisations, and these organisations will not advise him or protest at this commercialisation of Deepavali. Very soon, Deepavali and Hari Raya would become institutionalised, and business would take over, as Christmas has become worldwide even in countries that are not Christian.

Similarly in Bali. The emphasis is on how badly off the Balinese are, and the tourists, mostly Australians, who are put to such terrible inconvenience, by being bombed out of their revelry. No one stops to think why they are bombed. The news is about Balinese who lose their tourist dollars, and the news wring us our tears, and makes us not to think. But the Bali bombing is not accepted as an Indonesian attack. It is to get Indonesia on the anti-Islamic terror bandwagon. There is widespread news on Malaysians taking part, and we are told soon enough that they have escaped. We are shown on television the sabotuers leaving the scene in grainy pictures, and we concentrate our attention on news about the saboteurs, and the impact on the locals and the tourists, who have had an idyllic existence destroyed by the bombers. It did not work as those in authority intended. As is well known, cameras can lie. Early this morning (05 October 2005), the Bali bombing is still news on CNN and BBC. The Western reporters are sceptical of Al Qaeda or its fraternal cousins responsible. So CNN is forced to bring on Rohan Gunaratne, a questionable security expert, to show the Al Qaeda or Jemah Islamiyah is responsible. No one has yet told us why it took place, or given a credible explanation why the bombing should be in Bali, other than it is Hindu and a popular Holiday resort of lumpen Australians. But to have Al Qaeda or Jemah Islamiyah conduct two or its four alleged bombings in Indonesia in Bali suggests that the organisation operates to make the Western powers look good. But as I wrote on 04 October 2005, they used bombs normally available to governments. What the Bali bombings showed is that they have an arsenal as powerful as the Western powers. That may not be correct, but it leaves us wondering if the Western powers are a match to them.

The Finnish Embassy sponsored this year's event. The Asian Institue of Development Communication (Aidcom) organised it, with help from the Malaysian Press Institue, the National Press Club and the United Nations. The theme for this year is "Media and Good Governance". The editor of The Hindu, Mr N. Ravi, gave the main address on the nature and purpose of a free press. It was a masterly account of what he would like the Press to be, but with little emphasis on how it can affect the practitioners. He admits he has to walk a tight line to keep still, and his work now is less editorial and more as a representative of his newspaper in the outside world. But The Hindu is more successful than most newspapers because the family that runs it, of which he is one, has seen to it that it would concentrate on the business of news, in all its myriad applications. Becaue of that, and of the steadfast principles the newspapers are run by, it is one of the best newspapers in the world. It goes by its own rules, tested and reworked in its century of existence that gives it its unusual pedigree amongst India's and the world's newspapers.

The eerie silence in Sangkancil today is but a reflection on Malaysian society. When a young Australian-based Malay researcher found evidence of a civilisation in the rain forested jungles of Kota Tinggi in Johor that could push Malaysia's history back to its Hindu past in the first millennium, his find was lauded for a few days, and then ignored. Those who lauded him soon found excuses not to. The weight of the bigots and vigilantes made that certain. They do not want a history of Malaysia beyond the 15th century when Islam first came to Malaysia. All history before that is verboten. Their single-minded obsession holds even Malay culture and Islam to ransom. If Islam conflicts with this view, then Islam should be sidelined. So Islam is not a representative in the interfaith commission. Even if it wanted to, it would not be allowed to.

The Buddhist kingdom of Ligor took control of Kedah shortly after, and its King Chandrabhanu used it as a base to attack Sri Lanka in the 11the century, an event noted in a stone inscription in Nagapttinam in Tamil Nadu and in the Sri Lankan epic, Mahavamsa. During the first millenium, the religion of the Malay peninsula veered between Hinduism and Sanskrit until eventually converted to Islam. But not before Hindu, Buddhist and Sanskrit became embedded into the Malay worldview.

The Selangor government has earmarked 112 Hindu temples, some a century old, for destruction. No one from within objected, least of all the MCA and MIC members of the state executive committee. On the contrary, and not surprisingly, the Hindu Sangham, a Hindu religious body, backs it to the hilt. Twenty-five years ago, Hindu temples, Christian churches, other places of non-Muslim worship, Christian graveyards were vandalised in a deliberate campaign, which spluttered to a stop when the guardians of a Hindu temple waylaid the desecrators, killing a few and wounding others. Few of the desecrators were every charged; but those who protected the temples against the vandals were convicted in a long drawn-out trial.

I reflect on this every time I attend an Open House, be it Muslim, Hindu, Christian, Buddhist. It is not what it was, it is not what it ought be, what is how degraded it has become. You would not see UMNO politicians in PAS open houses, UMNO leaders in DAP houses, IPF invited to MIC houses, DAP leaders in MCA houses, and vice-versa. When you do see someone who, in our political apartheid, should not be, we are aghast to wonder why. Has he quarrelled with his political masters? Is he about to switch political allegiances? Why? The political, social, cultural, religious divisions tear our country apart as surely as it does Malta, where even the Roman Catholicism of its citizens is asunder by politics. Open Houses in Malaysia do not narrow the divide but widen it.

There is no international law which can accuse Malaysia or even Pakistan of what it did. The United States continues to strengthen its nuclear weaponry programmes while it threatens others from getting into it. It unilaterally decided the only nuclear powers should be restricted to those who have the technology. No new comers are allowed in after the cut-off date. The racist rationale behind it clear enough: nuclear weapon technology should be confined to the Judae-Christian countries of the West; others should not be. But Hindu India and Muslim Pakistan broke the barrier; several more are on the verge. Israel and South Africa have nuclear weapons, but their role is played down for the two countries are inextricably linked to Washington over it. The others are not. The idea of Muslim countries like Iran and Libya and communist North Korea is frightening enough in Washington, free lance transfer of technology more so.

IS THERE RELIGIOUS FREEDOM in Malaysia? Yes. There is no doubt about it. But as in all societies - including the US: try building a mosque or a Hindu temple in the middle of a Christian community; or wear a Muslim headscarf to school in France or at work in a supermarket in Denmark - it is not absolute. It cannot be. The United States, like Malaysia, is fond of lists. They create one for every conceivable occasion and statistic. It is a powerful weapon to browbeat those it believes it can, and use these lists on various issues to shame the governments to believe they are unfit to be in the globalised world of nations it dominates. These lists are at best of doubful truth. The US, in these lists, would be among the top. But we saw what happened to Muslims there after 11 September 2001. The Guantanamo detention camp was for Muslims from the uncivilised world. If the Muslims were from Britain or Australia or other "civilised" nations, different rules apply. But if you from the "uncivilised" Muslim world, like Pakistan, Indonesia, the Middle East, and elsewhere, death is too good for them. Washington is critical of Malaysia's execrable detention laws, but keeps its silence when it enacts tougher laws to punish the Muslims for their temerity to challenge Christian civilisation in this, in President George W. Bush's memorable phrase, crusade.

We see this now in Iraq. The US views every attack on its forces as the vengeance attack by remnants of Saddam Hussein's forces when it is clear the Iraqis are horrified at the desecration of Islam by the very presence of the soldiers. Add to this the potent belief in Jihad, not as a collective force but as an individual commitment, and the hidden bomb is ready to explode. The West would not understand this. The Judae-Christian Crusade must be won at any cost. If a country has to be destroyed on a belief it had weapons of mass destruction, that is enough grounds even if none is found after the war. The Muslim's rightful place in the Middle East is the hovel as two centuries ago the British decided the Hindu's place in India is the hovel. To succeed the more formidable enemy must be demonised.

I do not deny that there does exist Muslim groups out to create mayhem. But there are also Christian groups, Hindu groups, Buddhist groups with similar aims. But they are ignored because the current order of the day is to target Muslims. It is this that led President Bush to wage war on Iraq. There was no reason why he should - there is no evidence to back up his justification - but he went along any way. And now pays the price. The British seriously consider a law which would allow them to attack any country that does not follow its rules of good governance. It is colonialism by another name. In the past, European armies would march in at the behest of traders, priests, and, as in Iraq, on a whim. No one stopped them. Rapacity, greed, self-interest and the desire for empire were all that was needed.

But this is where the difficulty comes when discussing the subject at hand. He takes, in the view of many a Muslim, a heretical view that there can be a link between human rights, religion and secularism, and these links could be harnessed to develop multiple foundations for human rights. But it is a battle that has taken place in every religion. Islam is the last of the great religions that has not. But it would and must. The reformation that change the face of Christianity is not in itself earth shaking. Hinduism had its reformation several times in its long history: Buddhism and Jainism 2,500 years ago, and again in the ninth century when the Hindu sage Sankaracharya, to rid India of Buddhism, recast Hindu philosophy yet again to make it more relevant to the needs of the times. Judaism is another faith in constant change, with the same confrontations between the traditionalists and the modernists.

More important, and one she must address, why did she refuse to send her luggage through the metal detector? If she had, the police dogs would not have been brought out. She would not, as a good Muslim would, behave courteously and properly in someone else's home. It turns out, as well, her religion had nothing to do with what happened. If a Christian, a Hindu, or Jew had behaved as she did, the Australian police would have been as firm, if not firmer. It was her refusal to confirm to normal interntational airport practice that caused her her local difficulty. At the Novotel Homebush, her refusal caused a panic amonst the security staff. Hence the confrontation with the New South Police. It was then the Australian trade minister, Mr Mark Vaile, intervened. Far from the apology she claimed in Kuala Pilah she received, it was more to smoothen ruffled feathers. But it was she who ruffled the feathers in the first place.

The annual season of fasting and gluttony is at hand. It is the month of Ramadhan, the month the Prophet Mohammad had set aside for fasting and self-renewal, to praise the Almighty for His munifiscence, and suffer the pangs of hunger and deprivation that many suffer daily. Fasting is important in every religion. Christians have Lent, celebrated and marked as Muslims and Jews do; As do Hindus and Buddhist. In Islam, it is compulsory as it still is in many religions. But, with the good times, wealth and arrogance in us all, it is turned into a form, in which the reasons why the Prophet Mohamed ordained fasting is forgotten, and gluttony follows the 14-hour fasts.

What makes it difficult to assess all this is the deliberate lying, the half-truths, the public relations spiel about the demonic nature of the enemy, the insiduous propaganda in the runup to a war, compounded by the speed with which the story must come out. One does not have hindsight in advance. One trusts one's instincts. When working in Indochina as a journalist in the 1960s, I had the instinctive feeling that the US would become a cropper. I was derided for it at the time, and called the same epithets as I am now -- Commie lover and all that -- but ten years later it did. As I believe in this war on terror. And this not from a fanatical Muslim, but a mild-mannered Hindu!

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