With respect to Disappointed (' PAS will be hungry tiger '), Vijaya Shankar and Paul Warren , it is not enough to argue that PAS is not an alternative government - which I fully agree - but it is necessary for those who advocate secularism to address the concerns of those who support PAS. In the end, those who support PAS have legitimate concerns and wishes which are not addressed by the BN government.

While we laud people like Hishamuddin Rais' idealism and awareness, the fact is PAS and their supporters cannot tell the difference between an intelligent creative force like Linkin Park and real decadence of even some of our local artists. The fact is that we have left the explanation to basically self-indulgent BN government says very poorly for real opposition. It is not surprising that most of PAS supporters are basically confused about the real downside of a theocracy.

With support statements like "it's better to live in a Christian country than a secular one because at least there is a God", and "we will continue with Islamic agenda and hudud law but Islamic state is not in PAS constitution", there is just a whole lot of confusion which has not been addressed and which PAS has capitalised on. Lazy BN people, afraid to seem unIslamic, dare not tackle the issue too strongly or lose further support.

The fact is secularity does not mean unIslamic as pointed out by Hishamuddin. The fact of the matter is no Asian nation has adopted the US version of complete separation of religion and state as there is no real pure liberal democracy in Asia. What Asian nations recognise is that religion is not the first and last thing in statehood. While secularity means worldliness, it does not mean that our worldliness does not include religious and spiritual needs and guidance.

In fact even the US constitutional idea of complete separation of church and state is balanced by equally strong protection of freedom of religion as their basis for secularity. Most Asian nations version of secularity is that religion is not only a personal need but that it is a source of social guidance which Islam has very strong rules about (ie, "Islam is a way of life").

Malaysia is most prominent in declaring this by making Islam the national religion. Not even Indonesia has done this. But if you check states with long religious traditions like Indonesia, Philippines, Japan, Korea, Thailand, Philippines and India you will find that their laws at least reflect their religious beliefs. Whether its prayers in schools, state funding of religious activities and building of religious places of worship, the laws sometimes make it even necessary. Even their criminal codes reflect their religious tradition of social control like pornography, violent crimes etc. None of these means that theocracy is even anywhere near an option.

That is what the opposition like DAP and Keadilan have to make people understand rather than take the easy way out by avoiding the drums of theocracy with a deeply religious constituency. The fact of the matter is what the BN government is doing by declaring Malaysia and Islamic state is a whole lot smarter although equally unwise. The slogan of the DAP should be something like "Malaysia for Malaysians is Islamic" and for Keadilan it should be something like "Name-calling and appearance only is not Islamic".

Islam is Malaysia's official religion, that is something all Malaysian accept. What most do not accept is a literal and simple translation of religious text which all politicians inevitably do and hence a theocracy. The key, and the reason for Dr M and BN's success, is to take the lead in translation in the modern context rather than have it hijacked by self-interested parties.

The opposition's failure to do so means they are just not good enough. The opposition must recognise that there is no way to avoid this debate and the fact is that BN has open the door to such a debate and rather than taking PAS' approach of exploiting religious text lines like "there is no questioning of Islam", the real opposition like DAP and Keadilan should take lead and fight the hard battle of more exacting interpretation. Even if they fail to take power, they will have taken the progress of Islamic society to a new and better awareness. At the very least they will change Umno and BN for the better.