The real winners in the recent Pendang and earlier Lunas by-elections are the Chinese voters. They voted wisely using their 'marginal' numbers in the relevant constituencies to provide the winning margins to the victors.

In Lunas, they told the Barisan Nasional government that they were not too enthusiastic about the Wawasan (Vision) schools. In Pendang, they voted against PAS over the hudud (Islamic penal code) laws issue.

They give clear messages to aspiring political coalitions that they have to be broad-based if they were ever to have a chance of forming a government.

The Barisan Alternatif is in shambles because of PAS' insistence on forming an Islamic state. So it looks like BN will be in power for a long time, glorifying in its 'divide and rule' dogma that deploys corruption and cronyism to keep the elites of the various races happy.

Meanwhile the Malay electorate remains split. Not between Islamists and secularists, as BN would have us believe, because Malays never really had that strong a conviction about those issues. The split is between Malays who are caught up in selfish material pursuits and those who believe in the fair interplay of worldly forces without sacrificing their spiritual beliefs.

Under BN, the former hopes to receive material gains without reciprocating meritocracy. It is a very attractive proposition after decades of deprivation under colonial rule, and then having to compete without adequate capital and know-how in the pre-New Economic Policy era. It is immediate gratification rationalised as rewards of their ketuanan Melayu (Malay supremacy).

The latter group comprises Malays well aware of the general weaknesses of their race and their penchant for easy gratifications to the detriment of their race. They see no real hope of changing the Malay mind-set through the existing political discourse because of the entailing corruptive elements that make their race so susceptible. So, true to form, an appeal to higher forces is a convenient route. Generally speaking, it is a choice of convenience, not conviction.

PAS provides for these Malays the glimmer of hope that by God's grace, good will triumph against evil, and Malays, like everyone else, love to be on the winning side. This is not to belittle PAS' beliefs and struggle, for they may be as pure and true as those revealed in the Quran.

It is the convictions of their followers that are questionable. It is a contradiction in terms that people who lose out in fighting for their worldly principles would chose eclectic principles which are much more challenging to maintain.

So it is not about fundamentalism or secularism. It is about being Malay and all that it entails. The modern Malay will one day earn its identity. It will not be through worldly or eclectic shortcuts. Right now it is in transition, and we should beware of those who exploit these growing pains.