According to the report Keadilan, PRM meet in ongoing effort to resolve Islamic state issue (April 29), Keadilan supreme council member Ng Lum Yong said, "We can attack PAS like (former BA ally) DAP or we can talk to them and persuade them to understand the views of non-Malays."

There is of course no necessity to attack PAS: even a political divorce may be amicable, without acrimony.

The question is whether to stay "married" with PAS within the Barisan Alternatif coalition.

For making PAS understand the views of non-Muslims  by which expression, I understand it to mean, persuading PAS to either drop entirely or soften its demand for an Islamic state  is not a realistic or viable option, and the sooner Keadilan and PRM realise this, the better.

The views of non-Muslims  or even Muslims  are not an issue at all.

According to PAS' spiritual adviser, Nik Abdul Aziz Nik Mat, "Islam is a religion from God for all human beings on the face of the earth, no matter if he were Arab, Malay, Chinese, English, American, it doesn't matter... Rain water comes from God, and Islam also comes from God" (Kean Wong's interview with Nik Aziz in Saksi

#6, July/August 1999).

Setting up the Islamic state based on the Quran-hadith [the traditions of the Prophet] is the very raison d'tre of PAS  and the reason of being, without which there is no, and there cannot exist PAS.

This is an absolute demand about which there can be no compromise, double-think or double-talk.

Its objective has to be embraced as a whole, not in parts. According to Nik Aziz, "How can we accept one part of Islamic teachings and then reject others? If you were to buy a car for instance, you would buy the whole thing, its steering wheel, its seat cushions, and the tyres too. Even if the tyres are covered in mud, you would have to buy them. As such, you would buy it only when the components of the car are all there. Similarly, when we accept Islam, we have to accept it all".

To PAS, there is but only one absolute position for Keadilan and PRM  they are either committed to PAS' Islamic state or they are not.

If they are so committed, there is certainly no need to hold the dialogue with PAS with a view to persuade it to drop or soften its insistence on an Islamic state.

To PAS, it would be ludicrous to suggest that its pursuit of the original Islamic state should take into regard non-Muslims', or for that matter any other communities' reservations.

It is doubly more ludicrous to hint that this agenda be temporarily shelved or softened for the limited purpose of securing non-Malay votes in an imminent general elections, after victory of which the Islamic state may then subsequently be installed by the PAS-led government in power.

This is because, to PAS, the Islamic state is a munificent gift of God for all concerned (including non-Muslims) and if they know better, they should accept it.

There is no need for subterfuge of purpose or appeasement of any community for their votes to attain it.

For one thing, even if PAS were to soften its stand merely in order to accommodate its political allies within BA, none of its detractors will believe or be convinced that it has changed its unwavering stand.

On the other hand, by doing so PAS will alienate its own devout constituency who will see this as a sell-out by their party to Keadilan/PRM for nothing more than the temporal purpose to secure political power.

Either way, PAS will not emerge triumphant in such a compromise with Keadilan/PRM  or any other party  for their political objectives.

For these reasons, any attempts by Keadilan/PRM to forge a middle way, a compromise with PAS on the Islamic state issue, is bound to be an exercise in futility, which DAP had earlier acknowledged when it pulled out of the BA coalition.

They are just wasting precious time as the prospect of general election draws nearer, and nearer.