I refer to the Malaysiakini report PAS owes explanation over unity talks .

One sure thing that came out from the just concluded PAS annual meeting is that its leadership is now split into two, which if not corrected quickly will tear the party apart like what had happened to many political parties all over the world like the Congress Party in India.

On one hand, PAS President Haji Hadi Awang and his deputy Nasharuddin Mat Isa (who retained his post by garnering a mere 40 per cent of the delegates votes), want to form some kind of ‘unity government' with Umno and Barisan Nasional.

While PAS spiritual leader and Kelantan Menteri Besar Nik Aziz Nik Mat and his protege Husam Musa (who lost in the fight for the party deputy presidency to Nasharuddin) are totally against the idea because according to Nik Aziz, PAS had at one time been taken for a ride by Umno when it joined Umno in government in the past.

Down the line, PAS immediate leaders and ordinary members either share Hadi and Nasha's view that PAS should talk to any party for the sake of the nation.

While those who go along with Nik Aziz and Husam feel that this is politics and PAS and Umno have different objectives all together and that was why the religious groups in Umno left Umno 56 years ago to form PAS.

While this is happening, the PAS Supporters Club whose members are non-Muslim Chinese and Indians are with Nik Aziz and Husam because they fear that if Hadi takes PAS into Umno in whatever form, they will be left in the lurch.

At this point, people may ask, if Hadi and Nasaruddin's sole objective is not to take PAS into Barisan Nasional or PAS into Umno or whatever, why talk about a ‘unity government'.

Are Hadi or Nasharuddin using different terminologies to hide their overzealousness to become ministers in an Umno-dominated ‘unity government'? After all, Nasharuddin's victory, to some extent, was due to the campaigning by Utusan Malaysia.

It is rather curious as to why Utusan took the trouble to campaign for Nasharuddin. As an independent observer, my analysis is that both Hadi and Nasharuddin feel that following some measure of success in the last general election, that they are now occupying the political high ground, not realising that they merely won because of the strong anti-Umno and anti-BN sentiments.

That plus the sense of disgust at what was perceived to be acts of injustice meted out against PKR leader and former deputy prime minister Anwar Ibrahim.

The question is, is Umno entertaining these talks of a ‘unity government' by Hadi and Nasharuddin as a ploy to buy time to correct and re-energise itself and regain lost ground? Thus the only way for PAS to succeed in this endeavour is for Hadi and Nasharuddin to convince everyone in PAS including Nik Aziz.

Convince them that this time around it is different, that Umno has changed and it is now ready to be 'Islamised' ie to adopt PAS struggle to make Malaysia (at least Peninsular Malaysia) a truly Islamic nation.

Otherwise it would a sheer folly and PAS should punish Hadi and Nasharuddin accordingly for sabotaging the party's true struggle.

The wins by the incumbent PAS Deputy President Nasharuddin Mat Isa and before this, that of Khairy Jamaluddin as the new Umno Youth chief, both by a mere 40 percent vote from the delegates also clearly shows that our system of electing leaders in every sector must be changed to that ‘PR' or proportionate representation.

This 'first past the post' system which had been our practiced since time immemorial should be discarded immediately and replaced by PR. It is definitely more reflective of the majority of either a popular vote or the delegatess votes.

Of course, there are various systems of PR which we can study from different countries and we could choose the best one to suit our socio-political landscape. Or we could adopt a three-round voting system with a clear winner from the last two top winners from the earlier rounds.

We don't have to go to Scandinavia or Australia or even to Iran to learn the true canons of democracy; just look at Indonesia whose democracy and voting system are far more mature than ours.

I am not calling for changes to just our voting system in political parties. I mean it for everything - trade unions, sports bodies, school boards, mosques and temple committees etc.

Why can't the chief justice, the chief of police, the attorney-general be popularly elected by the people?

In parliament and the state assemblies and also in (the appointed) local councils, the silly three-line whip should also be done away with. Everyone should be allowed to vote according to his or her conscience or according to the interest of his or her constituents. Otherwise the NGOs will end up defending the rights of the constituents.

We Malaysians always like to shout about 'thinking outside the box'. I think up to now, we are only good at 'shouting from on top of a soap box'.

We dare not even begin to use indelible ink during general elections to prevent people from voting more than once.