PAS has finally unveiled its Dokumen Negara Islam (Islamic State Document) and at the same time assured all that are listening that it will not establish a theocratic state.

Quickly the BN component parties, PAS' former comrade DAP, and even its present BA partners have criticised the document which envisage a state where Syariah law will be supreme over the Federal Constitution.

What led PAS to formulate and release this document? The underlying reason is the strategy used by Umno and PAS to win the hearts and minds of voters in the Muslim heartland. Both these parties have chosen to use Islamisation as the means of winning over voters. This is something the government of the day has been doing regularly over the years.

Some two years ago, our just retired PM Dr Mahathir Mohamad had challenged PAS to put its Islamic state objective in writing. Then PAS president Fadzil Mohd Noor rose to the challenge. Mahathir further put pressure on PAS with his subsequent unilateral declaration that Malaysia is already an Islamic country/nation/state.

The document is obviously PAS' answer to these pressures and is also its strategy to win more votes in the 11th election. After the last election, the handsome gains made by PAS, showed that in the competition for the Malay votes, it was ahead compared to Umno. It hopes this trend will continue and result in more seats from Malay-majority constituencies and even winning and controlling a couple more Malay-majority states.

As both PAS and Umno have decided on the strategy and the new PM has an Islamic pedigree, would there be a better platform on which to fight for votes?

In this light, whether the document is acceptable or not to non-Malay voters is of minor importance. BN components like MCA and Gerakan have really very little to worry about. The PAS proposal is consistent with its 'two manifestos' policy.

If anything, this proposal may only drive fence-sitters into the arms of BN, which is what worries DAP and Keadilan. Will they now have to distance themselves from PAS? DAP has been working very hard at this ever since it left the BA, will Keadilan have to and will it do so?

It appears then, that the importance of this document lies in whether it will help garner more votes in the states of Pahang, Kedah, Perlis and Selangor. These are the states which PAS has targeted for takeover.

This is what is probably worrying its rival Umno and its new non-elected president. To lose even another state to PAS will spell trouble for him when the next Umno election comes around. We await the 11 th election and its results which will have far-reaching after-effects.