I'd like to answer the questions posed by Dr Syed Alwi Ahmad on PAS' policy conundrum.

1) PAS 'economic and fiscal policy': Why do you differentiate fiscal policy from economic policy? How can one work without the other? And even alone, is there something specific in fiscal policy that Dr Syed has in mind? Truth is, there's no such thing as 'fiscal policy' per se. Just as there is no such thing as economic policy per se. Don't believe what the (neo-classical) economic textbooks and teachers say.

2) PAS' foreign policy in the 'post-Cold War era': The Cold War is said to have been over since 1991. Some even say 1989. Others, like me, have been arguing against proselytisers like Francis Fukuyama and Tom Friedman that the Cold War isn't over but has taken on a new face. Yet what has changed since 1989/91, or indeed since 9-11? And, as above, which specific aspect of foreign policy? Mind you, I'm still searching for Malaysia's foreign policy since 1967.

3) PAS' Middle East policy: Is Dr Syed serious? What do you think PAS' policy will be? More fundamentalisms? Ridiculous extremisms? Maybe even murderous jihadisms? Or maybe Kelantan's Nik Aziz is too busy keeping an eye on all those Malay-Muslims who throng Sungai Golok, across its border, for some southern Thai recreation?

4) PAS' Middle East policy vis-a-vis US investments: Mahathir has been ranting like a madman against US policy in the Middle East and thus far not one US multinational company has closed shop in Malaysia as a result of his big mouth. Why should it change with PAS also shooting its mouth off? And that's all it'll dare to do. Things is, there's no correlation between Malaysian policy and the Middle East that links it to US investments, despite threatening noises lately by pinhead 'neo-cons' in Washington DC. There's a politico-economic dynamic at work here, but don't be fooled into thinking that it's so integral that it couldn't possibly have a dichotomous existence (outside of geopolitics).

5) PAS' 'Islamically approved' tourist industry? Don't make me laugh. What will PAS have international tourists do? Don't even go there. But can you just see PAS rolling back 'globalisation' when this sector is critical to the government's foreign exchange earnings coffers?

6) PAS' 'Islamically approved' stock market? Oh, stop it: it tickles! Finance capital, already so fickle, will be the first to run away, followed closely by non-Malays and I daresay even a great bulk of the 'modernised' Malay's capital. The result: think 'Humpty-Dumpty'. And points five and six are related.

Dr Syed said: "By focusing on vice, once again PAS is telling the world that it does not have the political maturity to manage modern Malaysia." I agree.

Thing is, PAS' problems are entirely of its own making. And as long as it chooses to stick it head deep in the bowels of an archaic Arabist world, it'll flounder into ignominy and irrelevance. Why? Because like Mahathir, Abdullah Ahmad Badawi will ensure that capitalism reaches every nook-and-cranny of Malaysian social and political life so that the stench of PAS and its repulsive Islamist brand is sprayed over with the pesticide called capitalism, replete with all its corrupting influences, whether branded Malaysian or global.