I refer to the Malaysiakini report PAS special meeting on Wednesday .

What the PAS spiritual adviser is now calling for in the form of an EGM or special meeting is to avert the fact that this is another juncture where the Malays are again embracing wrongdoers at the expense of reformers who are showing the way to be more capable and trustworthy.

The people may have voted in numbers for a corrupted and tainted candidate but that has not stopped the revolution that is slowly unearthing underneath. The PAS leader, though advanced in age, sees that Malaysia is only capable of being competitive if the Malays embrace the fact that Malaysia is made up of them and the non-Malays.

Only by learning to be fair and equal will we be able to create a very resilient Malay race that is able to withstand competition and lead with ability instead of assuming power due to race and religion and enforced doctrines of superiority.

The senior cleric might have ruffled feathers both within and outside his party but he has said what he had to say and the effects of this thoughts seem to have raised questions amongst the reformers in Pakatan Rakyat. What use will be the efforts put into Pakatan if there is a group of leaders - mainly from PAS - still insisting on ‘Malay unity’ leadership.

It is this leadership that has created a split in thinking and this is leading to a change in attitude and acceptance amongst the people who have been waiting for the main opposition parties to put their act together to offer a formidable alternative to BN which is beyond any form of repair.

The main fear amongst some leaders in PAS is that there are just too many non-Malay MPs and assembly persons in PKR and the DAP and that makes the Malays fear that they have lost the political clout and the power that they have so long been used to; and this should not be given away even if it means that PAS might lose all the non-Malay support that it has garnered all this while.

It means even more than being banished to the sidelines and becoming only an East Coast-based party with clout only in Kelantan, Terengganu and parts of Kedah and Perlis. Now what these leaders have forgotten is that the founders of this country had foreseen some of these eventualities and entrenched the rights of the Malays and their privileges in the federal constitution.

So as Khairy Jamaluddin had stated in his recent Umno assembly speech, these rights will never be amended as long the safeguards are still there, hence the Malay leadership accepted this. What the people want from PAS now is to show them a more fairer and equal Malay leadership.

The people want to see PAS as a party that will govern with compassion, equality and justice and not one which is only bothered about banning concerts, condoms and beer because it feels that the youth are going astray. The youth in whichever part of the world will always be interested and attracted to these things and being youths they will be eager to experiment.

It is the strength within that they must develop to help them decide what they should accept and what they should not. The non-Malays see this and feel that PAS is more concerned about these trivial issues rather than bringing about good policies that will benefit all besides showing its disgust on corruption.

It is about accountability and transparency and the management of public funds of which the public is a stakeholder as payers of income tax. PAS should concentrate more on this and come out with policies that will show its commitment to eradicate corruption at all levels of governance instead of being seen as a defender of current practices and just closing an eye to the siphoning off of public funds.

It is the leadership that counts and the non-Malays are very interested in to see how different can the PAS leaders be from those of Umno who siphon off millions from public funds in the name of development and further enjoy other comforts via corruption due to position, patronage and political clout.

It isn't the question of the colour of the skin and the religion of the elected official that counts when issues of transparency and accountability come into play - it is the question of ability of the system to work and the stakeholders performance in the form of civil servants ensuring that it does. For PAS, when a Chinese-elected representative questions the Malay civil servant on issues relating to state expenditure, it is akin to bullying and shaming the civil servant - this is the wrong attitude.

Racial prejudice is still very much a part of what certain segments of the PAS leadership is made up of. If PAS wants to court the non-Malay voters and win in areas which they thought they could never ever make headway, they should seriously consider revamping their leadership to show the people that they are really what they mean when they say ‘Pas is for All’.

They are at a crossroads now and this opportunity will never arise again as the friendship and experience of working together as coalition partners are invaluable and it would be a sheer waste of efforts if the Pakatan parties go their separate ways again.

BN had planned this and PAS is playing right into its hand. This is the chance for PAS to wake up and steer their ship on the right course. The Malays are looking for trustworthy leaders who will lead them to greater heights of achievement instead of the depths of corruption which will one day make this nation enslaved to another.

Lets hope that PAS realises this before it is too late again.