I strongly disagree with the comments by Muslim Lady and Farish A Noor , suggesting that DAP is being communitarian in its anti-Islamic state stance. A rewriting of the Federal Constitution to accommodate the 'Islamic state' will impinge on the life of every Malaysian and hence is neither a communitarian issue or "playing to the Chinese gallery".

MCA and Gerakan, from being die-hard opponents, are now recent converts to the Islamic state since former premier Dr Mahathir Mohamad's unilateral declaration. These are Chinese-based parties. Following the logic of Muslim Lady and Farish A Noor, are MCA and Gerakan now going to be deemed anti- Chinese parties practising communitarian politics? Clearly, this is ridiculous.

To my mind, DAP is being principled and patriotic by its unequivocal stand. DAP is safeguarding every citizen's constitutional right, which the Islamic state plan promulgated by PAS will abrogate.

It is disingenuous of PAS to claim that the rights enshrined in the United Nations Freedoms charter will be consonant with the Islamic state rights. The Koranic injunction "there shall be no compulsion in religion" appears to be meaningless when PAS clearly wants to introduce the death penalty for apostasy.

A simple question: will Muslim Lady and Farish A Noor have the freedom to formally renounce Islam if they so wish, without losing their rights or life in an Islamic state as espoused by PAS or BN?