The omission of the legally savvy veteran, Dr Rais Yatim, from the 11 ^th Malaysian cabinet is a very clear indication of Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi's uneasiness towards clean government campaigns.

Rais is among the few rare species in the Barisan Nasional that has a rather clean image besides a deep understanding of the basic causes of the crisis of confidence in the Malaysian system of governance.

While BN is still basking in the glow of their resounding victory; they tend to forget the reality that PAS chalked up a slight rise in its share of the popular vote during the March 21 general election - from 15% in 1999 to 15.8% this year.

For the 2004 general election, Abdullah had actually repackaged PAS' political products of universal substance, principles of justice, equality and fair play, but less its form, its legal trappings and political structure.

The victory of BN through the re-branding of PAS' ideals is the wake-up call for the Islamist party to reform and remake itself to remain relevant.

A reformed PAS should not be ruled out. Despite its negative portrayal in the media as a fundamentalist party, it does have a history of pragmatic adaptation.

Visibility of Islamic governance (Islam Hadhari) in Abdullah's 2004 general election campaign manifesto would be an advantage to PAS in the 2009 general election because it helps to spread the substance of PAS ideology to urban ethnic Chinese and other non-Muslim voters.

It is an open secret that corruption is a culture in BN and Umno that is too deeply rooted. There is no easy formula to remove it thoroughly within the next five years.

The issue of corruption in Umno was confirmed by its former treasurer, Daim Zainuddin in an interview with the Hong Kong-based Far East Economic Review on March 19, 2004.

PAS has suffered a big setback in the number of seats it lost on March 21. But politically, it emerged as the biggest winner of the 2004 general election because Abdullah and Umno actually won on a repackaged PAS political ideology.

PAS' struggles since 1951 have been recognised by Abdullah and his BN components parties. Though Islamic governance initiated by Kelantan and Terengganu, PAS is refined by the BN in its political packaging.

The victory of BN is also an indication of Malaysian voters' final acceptance of Islamic governance as advocated by PAS 53 years ago.

PAS has more to offer in terms of human rights, educational rights and a transparent government administration. Once Abdullah's anti-graft and good governance charades are over, Malaysians can compare the BN version of Islamic governance to the one offered by PAS.

It's time for the PAS leadership to prepare for the 2009 general election, and Abdullah has already paved the way for their success.

PAS now needs to go back to the basis of their ideological struggle and tune it into a reality. They must also realise that voters want service-orientated politics rather than ceramah-orientated politics.