DAP's national chairperson Lim Kit Siang said that the Ketari by-election might well be the last by-election before the next general election and mused whether it would result in Lunas II or an Indera Kayangan II.

For it to be Lunas II there must be a fresh outrage against Barisan Nasional, otherwise it would end up as another Indera Kayangan.

In Indera Kayangan, Lim analysed a political "sea-change" after Sept 11 attacks in favour of the ruling coalition as a force of religious moderation, which the other opposition parties failed to grasp at their own peril.

For Ketari, the conditions outlined above still subsist in BN's favour. There is no national issue or controversy for the opposition to leverage on. The fact that the premier has to pick on a non-issue like Chinese education, and how the government could not stop it without legal challenge, simply shows the BN's difficulty in even identifying an issue that will make it look better (its faults being submerged under Lim's "sea-change").

The same cannot be said of DAP. Its main political capital has all along been credibility, and in Ketari, it faces challenges to its credibility never before for the following reasons:

If the DAP left Barsian Alternatif ostensibly because of its principle that it could not accept PAS' Islamic state, tacitly acquiesced to by Keadilan and PRM, and for this same reason could not be seen to campaign for Keadilan in Indera Kayangan, and even took one of its party stalwarts to task for so campaigning in his private capacity for Keadilan, tell me, by what noble principle upon which DAP stands that it should now seek and accept assistance from its former political allies that it has abandoned in Indera Kayangan?

The justification of opposing BN as common enemy and to restore "justice, freedom, democracy and good governance" as Lim said is simply logically unconvincing because such an argument was as applicable to Keadilan's request for help in Indera Kayangan as DAP's now in Ketari.

It is not then common enemy but PAS' Islamic state that remains the issue.

If the Islamic state issue was the reason for DAP's not helping or be seen helping Keadilan in Indera Kayangan, then for this same reason Keadilan's help should not be now solicited and accepted for Ketari.

Besides, what is the real difference in leaving BA formally and then collaborating with its components thereafter?

It is like the analogy of a wife filing for divorce from her husband for his infidelity and immediately thereafter jumping into bed with him ostensibly for the common goal of (say) keeping an amiable facade for their childrens sake!

How credible is this behaviour? Why file for divorce in the first place if common interest is more important?

Bystanders will question whether this woman has forgiven or condoned the ex husband's infidelity or perhaps even the allegation of infidelity itself might have been falsely made up.

Others may interpret her actions as attributable to money or lust but never ever will they empathise with her protestations of high principles!

Which brings us to the next question: what and how important is this "common interest"?

We are told that it is the common objective to defeat the common enemy, the Barisan Nasional.

The question however still remains: After defeating the ruling coalition, what is installed next — DAPs pluralistic secular democracy or PAS' theocracy?

To even DAP's supporters, if a defeat of common enemy will eventually result in installation of DAP's pluralistic secular democracy, at least there is some justification in its present solicitation of assistance, albeit sullied by self-interest.

But if it were going to result in installing eventually PAS' theocratic state, the very raison d'etre of DAP's split from BA, then what DAP has done in asking for and accepting its former allies' assistance to undermine the common enemy is not only foolish and subversive of its own cause of restoring "justice, freedom, democracy and good governance" but represents an ultimate betrayal of the beliefs and support of its own traditional supporters, let alone the larger Malaysian electorate opposed to the theocratic state!

The help offered by Keadilan (sealed by formal request by DAP) to campaign in Ketari cannot but only help it and PAS look magnanimous — and the DAP, unshameful, against the backdrop of its refusal to help Keadilan in Indera Kayangan.

In the aftermath of Sept 11 events, Ketari may well prove a "seachange" of support not only in favour of BN but that against the DAP for breaching its record of sticking to its principles.

On premises stated above, if Ketari voters are swayed by strict analysis of principles than traditional grievances on local or national issues, they will, in answer to Lims ponder, deliver a result that promises to be an Indera Kayangan II.