People who elect not to wear their religion on their shirt sleeves are not necessarily people who have no religion or are anti-God.

Having witnessed how self-professed believers of various religions persist to commit the worse of forbidden sins prohibited in common by all religions, even in the name of God, and so copiously documented down the ages, even by the very self-professed religious guardians, is it inconceivable that people who take their religion very seriously prefer not to be identified with any organised religion?

Agnostics, atheists and so-called 'free-thinkers' may not necessarily be people who are anti-God or have no religion, but perhaps people who view their accountability as a way of life? And, who know that at the end of the day, it is a matter between a man and his god. Each individual alone is accountable for his acts and in-actions in this life, not any priest or professed intermediary. No amount of peer pressure or man-made laws then will have any reach.

Putting aside all the chaff of election rhetoric, today's elections is not about registering a protest, sympathy voting, party politics, personalities, opposition representation, stronger or otherwise, etc.

The real issue is, the choice is between those who will allow us to freely choose or those who would impose their beliefs on all, irrespective. Contrary to contemporary belief that there is no choice, the choice for 2004 is whether we would take religion seriously, and prefer substance over the form. In 1999, the DAP rode the Trojan horse of religious intolerance, and have since been backpedalling.

Ironically it is the 1999 PAS-DAP led Barisan Alternatif that brought this 'choice' to stark reality, albeit by accident; a virtual wake-up call to all Malaysians that the exhortations of religious zealots were no mere rhetoric, and if ignored will have to be painfully reckoned with.

Religious intolerance presents a clear and present danger.

It is not merely the religious zealots that must be sent a clear message, it is those who would recklessly flirt with these issues and gamble with our future that must be also be rebuffed.

This is the choice of the first Malaysian general election of the new millennium.