Which is more serious? A school principal making a blatant racial derogatory statement which was made in a public assembly or a mosque sermon made by an imam beseeching God to convert Lim Guan Eng to be a Muslim?

Yet in the eyes of the police - which immediately formed a special team to investigate the mosque sermon allegations - an imam making a plea to God to effect a divine intervention to convert Lim Guan Eng was more of a serious offence.

Hardly a single day after Penang Umno chief Ahmad Zahid Hamidi made the allegations, all hell broke loose. Even the prime minister commented that the police should investigate the matter.

At the same time, it took almost one week for the Deputy Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin to suggest that the formation of a task force to investigate whether indeed the principal of the school did make a derogatory statement.

Why do we need a task force when the principal made the racial slurs in front of an audience of a few hundred and subsequently tried to make restitution by making an apology to all the students in the school?

All the DPM had to do to confirm the allegations was to seek verification from the teachers who were present during the assembly to find out the truth. Once again, the DPM has been found to be incompetent and once again this is confirmation that he is not equipped to be our next PM.

Once again, we can see Umno's attempt to destabilise the Pakatan Rakyat government of Penang but ironically its attempt this time has alienated the very people it seeks to win support from.

The Malays in Penang have now come to the realisation that a non-Malay chief minister can act fairly towards the Malay community and that they do not have to rely on Umno to be their sole protector of their race and religion.

In its first term, the Pakatan government has given more funds for mosques and religious schools than the previous administration had ever given to the Muslim community.

Although public tenders were made for state government contracts, more bumiputera contractors were able to secure more contracts on a competitive basis. This process eliminated commissions for ‘middlemen’ politicians and was thus a savings for the contractors and the state government.

Ultimately, Umno must realise the futility of its efforts to destablise the Pakatan Rakyat states. It must come to its senses that the people will not allow or tolerate cosmetic changes in Umno.

Its only option is to effect total changes in its governance of the federal government or face total oblivion in the next general elections.