I refer to the Malaysiakini report PAS wins KT by 2,631 votes .

This is a great result and each Pakatan Rakyat member made a significant contribution in different ways. Clearly PAS must take the greatest credit because of its commanding lead and can claim to have won the seat even without DAP campaigning in the Chinese areas.

Based on some reports, Chinese support had dwindled compared to March 2008. This is surprising given the wholehearted DAP campaigning in the Chinese areas who were deemed to be the 'king-makers'.

As it turns out, the Chinese were not the ‘king-makers’ and that DAP’s presence actually had no impact or worse still, could have cost PAS some Chinese votes.

It is likely that the hudud and qisas issues had an impact on Chinese support. It is also possible that the Chinese may have been punishing the DAP for campaigning for PAS particularly when the latter were reported as unilaterally wanting to implement hudud and qisas if and when Pakatan comes to power.

PAS must not see this tremendous result as a reason to discount the contribution of PKR and DAP in this victory. DAP had the most to lose by supporting PAS and they did so in an unstinting fashion.

Such is DAP's commitment to Pakatan that it had to make this sacrifice in spite of the hudud and qisas fiasco. I sincerely hope PAS recognises this.

A viable Pakatan with the prospect to overthrow the corrupt and directionless BN is a potent unifying and synergistic factor. PAS must work on a 'consensus' approach otherwise Pakatan will fail in its objective to form the next federal government in the near future.

PAS must respect the federal constitution in its public pronouncements and must adhere to ‘Pakatan policy'. It is reassuring that Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng announced that PAS had agreed that unconstitutional laws like hudud and qisas can never be accepted as 'Pakatan policy' if DAP rejects it.

I am hopeful that PAS will learn to respect the views of Muslims who do not agree with their brand of Islam and also respect the views of other races and religions. 'Allah's law' is a relative concept depending on an individual's faith and PAS must begin to understand this.

If they do not, then the corollary is a political and religious dictatorship which will lead to division and the collapse of Pakatan resulting in BN continuing in power through default. This would be a tragedy for Malaysia and would not be bring governance any nearer to the 'Islamic values' that PAS espouses.

PAS must realise that atheist, Hindu, Bhuddist, Christian moral values are also similar to Islamic moral values in most respects. Why highlight divisions when you can promote unity?

The dictum ‘united we stand, divided we fall’ is too true for Pakatan and should be adopted as its political mantra.