Dr Syed Alwi Ahmad's arrogant reply to Manjit Bhatia's rebuttal must not be allowed to pass, lest it be thought that Malaysian Muslims are as condescending and simplistic as he is.

I say 'simplistic' because as much as he tried to couch his arguments in authoritative terms, it translated simply as this:

'Malaysia is a Muslim country and therefore must be led by Muslims. But PAS' version of Islam does not allow power-sharing. Since Umno shares power, non-Muslim Malaysians should be thankful and support the BN.'

I would have laughed thinking that this is a joke in poor taste, except that since it came from a learned source, I worry that if this the general mentality of Umno's elite Malay supporters, our country is in deeper trouble than it already is!

I do not have a PhD or doctorate in anything, but let me attempt to correct Dr Syed Alwi's mischievous rhetoric.

First, there is nothing in our present Federal Constitution that says Malaysia is an Islamic country. It just says that Islam is 'the' religion of the federation. Not even 'official' religion, mind you. If we are officially an Islamic country, we would have been decapitating child rapists to death, no matter who they were.

Second, notwithstanding that, no radical chauvinistic leader from the other races have, o­n record, disputed the political reality that the country be led by Muslims. Please bear in mind that 'leading' does not translate to total disfranchisement of the other races' political rights.

So what is the problem, Dr Syed Alwi? Oh, you meant to highlight that there are 'worse' Muslims, like those in PAS because they will not share power. Can you quote which PAS leader had said that, when and where?

Or which part of their manifesto that allegation came from? Reports from RTM, NST and Utusan Malaysia doesn't count, I'm afraid. And conjectures are not a valid thesis unless proven; your rigorous academic training should have reminded you that.

Even if it had ever been suggested, in what context was it said? Does it include total disfranchisement of non-Muslims?

I cannot answer for PAS, as I am not a member of the party. Unlike Dr Syed Alwi however, I open my mind by listening to their ceramah , I read Harakah regularly, and I delve into Islamic jurisprudence quite a bit.

It is my opinion that PAS is as pragmatic as any political organisation that have chosen to participate in the democratic electoral process. As a Muslim, Dr Syed Alwi should be aware of the practice that it is incumbent upon anyone who holds himself up as an Islamic leader to espouse Islamic ideals ( menyampaikan seruan Allah) even if in reality certain rulings cannot be made possible without incurring God's other wrath, like forced conversions or (God forbid!) ethnic-cleansing.

A reasonable mind would have seen that in reality, it is just not possible for any political party to ignore or subjugate the democratic and human rights of non-Muslims who comprise almost half of this country's population. Unless PAS has been advocating extra-constitutional and violent means to achieve their alleged objectives, Dr Syed Alwi should not slander them out of context.

Intellectuals like Dr Syed Alwi should concentrate o­n urging Umno to be a more attractive compromise, credible to all and asunder instead of opting to defame PAS into becoming its bogeymen. Umno used to be an acceptable hybrid, it is now a regressive mutant.

As an Asean Muslim, I detest any attempt to use my name to justify Umno's continued hold o­n power. I want to remind all non-Muslim readers that Muslims are much more against corruption, breaches of trust, injustice, persecution and insatiable greed than the mere appearance of being in power just for the sake of being in power.

After all, the most noble objective of being in power is to do good. If you cannot do good, get out and don't invoke religious covenants arbitrarily. It is insulting to other Muslims. And it doesn't work anymore the way it did in the 60s.

Let's not cloak your racism with perversely misconstrued religious estoppel. Just because religion is a sensitive and much misunderstood matter to others does not mean that you can jump o­n the bandwagon to exploit it further ( menangguk di air keruh ).