I observe the following developments in the run-up to the elections:

To my mind, the greatest achivement by Umno-MCA strategists to date has been to equate voting for BN as a patriotic act, at least in the minds of the Chinese Malaysian masses.

After five decades of being demonised, the very idea that one can be both patriotic and non-Malay is both radical and powerful, and will certainly pay dividends for BN come election time. It has gotten to the point where most of my Chinese or Indian friends would not dream of voting for BA or PAS.

I believe there are several possible reasons for this unique development.

The lowest form of politics has long dominated electoral strategy in Malaysia: that of ethnic scare-mongering. Our politicians and mass media moguls have near-total control over any information - cultural, political, social, philosophical, theological - available to the voting masses.

PAS has been thoroughly demonised by Umno in the minds of voters. In the same way that Umno has managed to paint the Chinese Malaysian community as a threat to the Malays in the last 50 years, it has managed to paint PAS as a threat to non-Muslims. The same old ethnic politicking, rhetoric and scare-mongering has worked yet again.

I hope to emphasize the contributions of PAS to Malaysian politics. Without PAS, there would have been no pressure on Umno to clean up its act. Korupsi, Kroniyisme dan Nepotisme would have ruled supreme as it has done for the last 20 years, and it would have been mega-projects, mega-corruption, and dirty business as usual to the detriment of the common Malaysian citizen.

PAS has steadfastly refused to indulge in racial politicking or scare-mongering where the ethnic minorities are concerned in Malaysia. It has refused to demonise non-Muslims nor portray them as a threat in the eyes of the Malay Muslim community. This example sets a much higher standard for baseline behaviour for race relations than has ever been practised by BN.

Without PAS, there would have been no pressure on Umno to pick a decent and honest man like Abdullah Badawi to become PM.

One of the major changes I observe under Pak Lah's administration as compared to his predecessor is that he does not indulge in pyrotechnics. No sensational Jew-bashing speeches. No ego boosting billion rinngit mega-preojects to enhance his image.

He does not feel the need to portray himself as a great nationalist or religious hero. He does not make excuses nor blame others for his administration's shortcomings. He tackles the unpopular issues of corruption and corporate governance head on much to the dismay of the Umno and BN elites that have siphoned hundreds of millions of ringgit from the taxpayers. He performs his tasks with a minimum of fuss, and does not hesitate to set a higher standard of ethical behaviour for public officials that is guaranteed to be unpopular with his own party elites.

I believe PAS will lose big in the coming elections.

In Pak Lah, Umno has found perhaps one leader who can restore moral authority to BN. This authority might not seem to matter a lot, until after PAS made huge gains in the last elections. BN's moral authority had been gradually eroded through 20 years of KKN under his predecessor, and had flown out the window altogether to Kamunting with Anwar in 1998.