Should PAS capture Kedah and form the state government, this will be the third state that they have taken from BN. If there are any valid reasons for such a feat, the answer lies in the excesses of the BN leadership under Dr Mahathir and the presidents of the component parties over the last 21 years.

The BN leadership never seems to learn that the electorates are getting more savvy and will no longer tolerate the excesses of corruption, abuse of power and the intolerant dictatorship of the leadership of the component BN parties. The recent move by Samy Vellu to exclude his deputy Subra as a candidate in the poll is a case in point of the old leadership style still being practised. What Samy did to Subra is the same as what Dr M did to his former deputy Anwar. Remember what Dr Ling of MCA did to his deputy Ah Lek? The presidents of these parties practise what has been around for thousand of years... If your deputy becomes a threat to your position ... clip his wings.

What is sad is that the DAP leadership plays the same game as BN. Remember Lim Kit Siang got rid of Fan Yew Teng and a few DAP stalwarts in the 70s and 80s who were a threat to him.

Two parties in Malaysia, PAS and PRM stand out as different to the lot. The politics of inclusion is evidenced in both PAS and PRM. I do not think that PAS president has a hidden agenda to remove his deputy to consolidate the president's power.

The political parties in Malaysia in general have not kept up with the development around them.

In Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom, the deputy leader of the party is elected by caucus (the governing body of the political party) and the president of the party has no authority to replace or sack his deputy. The checks and balances put in place by western democratic parties ensure that a dictatorship never arise within the party.

As a non-Muslim, I will vote PAS if they have no Islamic state agenda for Malaysia as their president is not power crazy like those in BN and DAP.