Malaysians must have been watching with a sense of amazement the rising good fortunes of the present administration despite all the scandals and embarrassments that it has been dogged with.

The siphoning off of funds meant for a poverty eradication program, the Tabung Haji scandal, the bailout of LRT companies, the infighting within MCA, the controversy surrounding the appointment of the new attorney-general and the renewed erosion of people's confidence in the judiciary ... well, the list could go on.

Anywhere else, the government would have been hounded out of office with heads bowed in shame, but not Malaysia. In fact, the Barisan Nasional administration has never looked more confident and self assured in the turbulent three years since the crisis of Sept '98.

On the other hand, the political opposition, caught in their own web of intra and inter-party problems, has never looked more disorganised. The minence grise of the youngest party on the block has decided to withdraw not only from a leadership role but even as an ordinary member.

Fortunately the wisdom of its delegates at its recent annual general assembly assured its survival as a multi-religious, multi-racial party, made of diverse groupings vowing to cleanse and modernise the practice of politics in Malaysia.

In the run-up to the 10th general elections, Malaysians pinned their hopes on the new opposition coalition with its promise of a new brand of politics to bring Malaysia into the new millennium as a proud nation that embraces genuine pluralism, a democratic culture, justice for all and the rule of law.

However, it turned out that the seemingly beleaguered incumbent BN remained a potent force with the resources available to it and that the desire for change has not quite permeated into all sections of Malaysian society in a uniform manner.

Major blows to opposition

That reinforced the feeling that nothing less than a coalition of major opposition parties like the Barisan Alternatif remained the only viable vehicle that will be able to bring about change via the democratic process.

Obviously time is needed to inculcate among Malaysians the value and need for political participation to see the realisation of a democratic culture and the notion of new politics.

But the last few months have seen the opposition pact suffering major blows. It must be said that Sept 11 has given a new lease of life to the embattled BN. Suddenly the politically uninformed public sees the virtue of keeping vocal opposition leaders under detention without trial on the pretext of maintaining security.

The detention under a similar law of individuals belonging to the group called Kumpulan Mujahidin Malaysia, who reportedly fought alongside Afghan Mujahidin against Soviet occupiers, is suddenly seen as a clever foresight to save Malaysia from the threats of terrorism by extremist Muslims, better still if they could be linked to the Islamic opposition party.

The non-Muslims are presented with a frightening picture that their life and property are under a very real threat from Islamic terrorists. And this of course was not helped by the initial response of some quarters within the Islamic party that called for the Malaysian army to fight alongside the Taliban and the organising of a rowdy demonstration by supporters in front of the US embassy.

These ill-conceived actions severely marred PAS' image among the non-Muslims and gave credence to the government's propaganda of the Islamic party's extremist tendencies and its real intentions.

The government is proud that even the bastions of democracy may learn from Malaysia on the need to have laws that give it arbitrary powers to detain anyone it labels as a security threat.

But informed Malaysians know the vast difference between the anti-terrorism bills of the US and Great Britain which are largely aimed at foreigners suspected of plotting terrorist acts on their soils and our draconian law which detains our own citizens - leaders of legitimate opposition parties who threaten the stewardship of the present administration in a democratic contest.

Sept 11 has given a major blow to the momentum for democratic reforms because, rightly or wrongly, the world today is very suspicious and wary of political Islam with its link to terrorism. And it is an unfortunate fact that the opposition pact is made up of one such component.

With clever use of the media and government machinery on one hand and unfair restrictions on the freedom of expression by opposition parties on the other, the ill-informed public, especially the non-Muslims, has been goaded into that mind set.

'Islamic state' claims

But the unravelling of the opposition pact started before Sept 11, when cracks began to appear on the issue of the Islamic state. The public feuding only served to harden the party lines, giving scant regard to the broad goals of democratic reforms that were mutually agreed before.

Perhaps sensing that PAS can only take the more extreme position, and thereby painting it into a corner, Umno staked the 'moderate Islam' position with its declaration that Malaysia is an Islamic state.

Its non-Malay partners in the BN know full well that Umno has no seriousness in turning anymore Islamic than what it is today and happily go along with it. In fact MCA lends a hand by coining the term "secular Islamic state". Ridiculous, but brilliant.

It seemed to have worked very well to ensure support from its non-Malay partners, but if Umno's declaration had the purpose of winning back the Malays into its fold, it is a rather ill-conceived strategy.

Malays who cherish the idea that the 'Islamic state' is the only way Malaysia should be governed would have supported PAS long ago and would not be swayed by such pious platitudes. To this section of the Malay community, like the MCA and MIC leaders, Umno has no seriousness in going Islamic.

But to many Malays their disaffection is less about the creation of an 'Islamic state' but rather more about the restoration of justice, accountability, good governance, the rule of law and the sanctity of democratic institutions.

In this, the MCA has perhaps a better insight then the DAP in matters of practical politics. It probably knows that the idea of an Islamic state is not something that is uniformly accepted by all sections of the Malay society, and that the DAP's fears that political discourse in Malaysia from now on will be driven by Islam to the marginalisation of the non-Muslims, though theoretically possible, is not grounded in reality.

But Umno's brilliant strategy in getting the non-Muslims on its side has one major flaw. It assigned an intellectually incompetent religious scholar to come out with that now infamous, embarrassing booklet, Malaysia Adalah Sebuah Negara Islam (Malaysia is an Islamic state). The booklet relies heavily for its argument on a text written by an eminent Shafi'i jurist of 11th century Iraq.

The use of the term zimmi raised the ire of DAP leaders, and rightly so, but in reality nobody would have taken the booklet seriously, its sponsors included. With such an awful design for its cover, it is really a booklet that is not meant to be read seriously.

Beyond petty preoccupations

If one is to be guided by the recent polemics between PAS and DAP, one would expect PAS to take a more extreme position on the issue of Islamic state vis-a-vis Umno.

But if a recent report

that appeared on this website holds any truth and that if my interpretation of it is correct, are we going to see PAS coming out with something that will look surprisingly more liberal than Umno's, with emphasis on justice, meritocracy, morality and most importantly, the upholding of the present constitution?

One wonders what took PAS two years to consider coming out with such a somewhat reassuring stand. What will lead PAS to this about-turn, to give the impression that it is today a party of Islamic liberal democrats?

Could it be that is trying to restore its badly battered image in the eyes of non-Muslims, realising that a theocratic state is electorally an impossible proposition in multicultural Malaysia and that the bitter lessons of Islamic fundamentalism especially after Sept 11 have finally reached home?

Obviously, issuing such a blueprint, if the contents are what it says, is just as good as Umno's declaration, more so given PAS' long-standing hardline image among the non-Malays.

It needs real commitment to the restoration of justice and basic human rights, good governance, a belief in pluralism and a reasonable, practical programme for health, education and poverty eradication, which is what the common manifesto is all about. The issuing of mere platitudes to win back eroded support is dishonest.

This more liberal vision of Islamic polity may provoke some disaffection among its traditional constituents in the Malay heartland, who, for two decades have been fed on the fiery rhetoric that secular politics equates Umno equates godlessness.

But nobody said honest politics is meant to be easy. Abstract ideas like democracy and human rights, judicial independence, good governance and complex international issues may be difficult for PAS' traditional constituents to grasp.

It is far easier to shout the slogan that the 'Islamic state' will take care of everything. But this is exactly what responsible politics is all about, the slow, painstaking political education of voters.

In the final analysis, anybody can write the perfect constitution, Islamic or secular. Just ask Thomas Jefferson. But a nation is ultimately judged by how close it can live up to her written ideals.

At the same time, PAS' former coalition partner needs to realise that its obsession with the idea that secularism has no place for God is obsolete.

No secular democracy is exactly a copy of another though the guiding principles are the same. Local culture, religious beliefs and traditions will inevitably be reflected in its laws and institutions, with sufficient safeguards and compromises that ensure the rights and interests of smaller groups are protected.

Very few modern nation states are constituted of a single race or religion and even within a particular ethnicity there will always be groups and classes with competing interests and ideas.

Unless the political opposition can rise above these petty preoccupations - well, petty if we see the larger picture of what Malaysia really needs to propel itself into the ranks of modern, prosperous, just and open nations - the present administration will be able to merrily go on with its scandals, embarrassments and curtailment of the people's fundamental freedoms.