After Michelle Yeoh bagged the Best Actress award in the 95th Oscars, she has become the pride of the country, as her exceptional accomplishment has made Malaysia significantly more visible to the world.

His Majesty Yang di-Pertuan Agong said he felt proud and delighted at the performance of Michelle Yeoh at the international stage. He said this shows once again that Malaysians can become successful internationally if we are committed and have a strong fighting spirit and determination.

PM Anwar Ibrahim also commended Yeoh for doing the nation proud with the hope her achievement could serve as an inspiration to other local artistes and movie-makers.

When majority of Malaysians were cheering for Michelle Yeoh, out of the blue Islamic scholars in the likes of PU Syed dismissed her achievement, arguing that there was nothing to be proud of, as “we should not feel proud of the success of a non-Muslim.”

We don’t have to waste our time arguing about the trashy talks of these extremists which should at best be treated as just jokes.

PU Syed’s extremist thinking could be just an isolated case. That said, we cannot deny that there has been a gradual shift from liberalism towards conservatism in more recent years!

It appears that the length of a woman’s skirt should decide how “clean” a person’s thinking is. A woman wearing too short will be stopped at the gate of a hospital, a police station or just any government office.

We have simply read of too many of such instances in the media. Many have opted to go home and change but few will actually seek justice for themselves.

Are these women really behaving indecently, and is their allegedly indecent attire provocative? Luckily we have videos and pictures to prove that these women’s skirts are below knee level.

As a matter of fact, there are many in the local Chinese community who are still quite conservative, and many women fret about wearing too short walking in the street.

However, given the perennial hot weather here, many have chosen to put on shorts or sleeveless shirts outside to beat the heat. Should this become an offense to anyone?

Well, indeed there are. Some of the hypocritical moralists while appearing decent and respectable on the outside, are actually filthy in their minds!

Soon after assuming office, PM Anwar Ibrahim championed the Malaysia Madani concept which upholds sustainability, prosperity, innovation, mutual respect, trust and care.

There are many things we can do towards this end, but don’t view a shirt an inch shorter as an unforgivable sin, please! If we allow such absurdity to go on unchecked, it will sooner or later steer Malaysia Madani backward!

Otherwise, they can always enact laws to regulate the attire of Malaysians — just like school rules — so that we can have a standard set of guidelines for all states, districts, towns and villages.

According to the latest guidelines for concerts, cross-dressing is barred for foreign artistes performing in Malaysia.

They will also be barred from taking off any clothing during the show.

As if that’s not enough, concerts will also not be allowed during Islamic holidays unless with permission from relevant Islamic authorities, meaning there are at least ten days in a year when live performances will not be allowed, if we were to include also Merdeka and Malaysia Day.

However, there is no mention of “rainy season” or “clashing with a football match” (which almost had Jay Chou’s concert canceled) in the “guidelines.”

While the guidelines have specified that artistes must not cross dress or take out any clothing (how about blazer?) but has not specified whether the patrons sitting inside the stadium or arena must also be “decently dressed.”

Lucky for the fans!