Speaking to FMT, she suggested a “sort of social agreement” on the issue.

She said people should be able to accept that there would be dress codes for certain occasions and certain places. “For instance, as an MP, when I meet the rakyat, there would be a dress code. I cannot wear something that I wear at home.”

Siti Mariah is the MP for Kota Raja.

She denounced the decision at a recent National Scholastic Chess Championship to prevent a 12-year-old girl from competing because she wore a knee-length dress.

She said the first thought that came to her mind when she heard about the incident was that the girl might have been wearing a bikini.

She described the decision as symptomatic of the “mindlessness” some people could descend to in imposing their values on others.

She said some Malaysians apparently did not understand that there were differences in the value systems of different cultures and that they needed to accept these.

She said it would be wrong for Muslims, for instance, to impose their standard of modesty on others because standards differed across cultures.

“We should not cross that line,” she said. “Our value systems are different. The problem starts when one is brought up not to understand other people’s cultures. One then views other people through one’s cultural lens.

“This is why schools have to teach students to understand different cultures.”

She acknowledged that she was sometimes appalled by the way some people would dress in public. She related her experience of seeing a woman in a headscarf who wore tight skin-coloured leggings.

“The leggings showed every curve and shape of her thigh and her bottom. But I did not say anything because that was her personal choice.

“That is what I would call indecent. People should be able to wear what they want. But they should not go overboard.”