It is a delight to know that my first letter published evoked such a strong response from my fellow Malaysians.

I applaud them for their highly intelligent and critical comments. They should be glad that I share some of their outlook and I assure them that I am neither promoting Malaysia to become a fundamentalist Islamic country nor am I proposing that we shun modernisation and globalisation.

Additionally it was the malaysiakini editors that came out with the title ' Not planning to adopt a Western liberal lifestyle ' as my original email had a totally different title.

I would however like to clarify on some matter since it seems that a tad too many readers have the assumption that I believe that PAS has the perfect solution for a multi-racial country such as Malaysia.

As a citizen of Malaysia who has no political inclination to any of the political party, my letter merely pointed out that it was naive to group PAS as an extremist Islamic party. More importantly as the country braces itself to face another election year, I believe it is vital for the opposition to consolidate themselves instead of arguing who is better.

Whatever their struggle, DAP/Keadilan/PRM/PAS have a duty to all concerned Malaysian citizens to put up a strong fight to deny BN another two-third majority in the Parliament.

Yes (surprise, surprise!) I'm not asking any of the readers to vote out BN as I believe that their complete ouster would cause too much instability to the country. However, by denying them their two-third majority, all Malaysians would be assured of a government that would be forced for greater accountability and a better sense of justice.

Absolute power corrupts absolutely and no matter how fanatical you are as a BN supporter, it would be foolish to deny that the current (and past) BN governments have been tainted with corruption scandals.

For all those voters who are afraid of PAS and their hudud laws, I would just like to remind them that PAS would never ever be able to command a two-third majority to pass any legislation to allow hudud to be implemented in the country. Sure they can pass laws in Kelantan and Terengganu (and maybe Kedah) but on a national scale they lack the number of MPs. In fact they don't even run for more than two-thirds of the available parliamentary seats.

On the contrary, the continued participation of PAS in the democratic process in their struggle for Islamic laws should be much welcomed as it discourages Muslim activists to be involved in more dangerous militant organisations.

Shunning PAS and labeling them as extremist just because they have a certain belief is certainly not very liberal minded. It would be the same as saying some Chinese are extremists for wanting Chinese-medium schools instead of integrating with national-type schools, which is of course far from the truth.

The truth is we are now living in a modern world. To rashly pinpoint any community and labelling them as extremist is both wrong and foolish.

As a young democracy, Malaysia needs a proactive participation from each and every community and forge a common ground so that future generations can continually reap its benefit.

It doesn't mean that we have to whole heartedly adopt a liberal lifestyle or become fundamentalists. It just means that each community should respect each other's needs and desires in a peaceful manner.