Shaukat Ali states that "one cannot fight against inexorable demographics - where Malay-Muslims will form 70 percent of the Malaysian population well before 2020", to argue for the inevitability of a PAS-led government in the future.

He assumes that the bulk of Malay-Muslims are ready to turncoat against today's BN government - for which I have my doubts. It only takes half the Malay-Muslim vote and almost 100 percent vote of the non-Muslims to guarantee BN's continuity. (Not that I'm a great fan of the BN - I only think it is the lesser of two evils)

The real inevitability of the demographic changes he describes is the unsustainability of the NEP (New Economic Policy) and Malaysia's racist policies today. In the 1970s and 80s, 45 percent of the population discriminated against by the NEP could help "subsidise" 55 percent of the population that benefitted from the NEP. Once this ratio goes to 30:70 in 2020, the NEP becomes unsustainable. Global competition will be the second nail in the NEP's coffin.

Shaukat also implies that disenchanted (presumably non-Muslims) who consider leaving Malaysia to avoid his inevitable Islamic state scenario as "mad" and "lemming-like".

Perhaps he could also explain why the lemming-like rush to Islamic statehood in Iran 25 years ago has reversed into an equally mad rush to dismantle the Islamic state by its citizens? Why are the same people who supported the late Ayatollah Khomeini now turning against the ruling clerics?

Why did Turkey choose to remain a secular democracy despite the overwhelming voting of the Islamist AK Party into government? Perhaps they already had their answer in Iran. Also, why did Indonesia recently reject attempts by Islamists to impose shariah law? Do they know something we don't?

The strength of a secular democracy is that it allows citizens to vote out the incumbent government peacefully. The threat of being voted out of government is the best check we have on our political leaders.

PAS religious leaders disguised as political leaders have no such checks. How can you question them without questioning the God they claim to solely represent? Where is the possibility of electoral change in an Islamic theocracy? Once you choose an Islamic state, you cannot return to democracy peacefully.

So stop pulling wool over our eyes regarding PAS' "good intentions". The road to hell is paved with good intentions. If you want to be a lemming running towards PAS' Islamic utopia, be my guest.