Notwithstanding the controversy surrounding the results of the recent 11th general election and the on-going disputes over electoral irregularities, it is safe to say that the election of 2004 have proven to be yet another turning point in Malaysia's convoluted and problematic history.

The party that was thought by many (this writer included) to be on the verge of a major sweeping victory in the northern Malay-Muslim belt of Peninsula Malaysia was effectively trounced and kicked back to the boondocks.

After winning only four state assembly seats in Terengganu and having lost a significant number of state and parliamentary seats nationwide, PAS has suffered a set-back that few of us could have imagined possible.

The immediate repercussions of the results have been discussed at length by many commentators thus far: For a start, the results spell the untimely demise of PAS' Islamic state project, the bugbear that had haunted and menaced the fragile instrumental coalition that was the Barisan Alternatif (BA) from the beginning.