"In the real world, equal respect for all cultures doesn't translate into a rich mosaic of colourful and proud peoples interacting peacefully while maintaining a delightful diversity of food and craftwork. It translates into closed pockets of oppression, ignorance, and abuse."

- Ayaan Hirsi Ali, (‘Nomad: From Islam to America: A Personal Journey through the Clash of Civilisations')

COMMENT There seems to be some confusion here. PAS is under no delusion that non-Malay/Muslim support for it is based on the genuine belief that it is an Islamic party committed to the principles of secularism.

PAS knows very well that it has to play nice or risk losing support from a certain diverse section of the electorate that has demonstrated that it will vote across racial but more importantly (in the case of PAS) religious lines to oust the despised (to a certain section) Umno-BN.

The confusion is with the DAP and its supposed multiracial identity. The DAP has always engaged in the hard sell when it comes to multiracialism. Even I in a recent (well sometime last year) online spat pushed the whole "multiracial" spiel in my defence of the DAP...