Arbibi Ashoy, who wrote the letter Vote Islamic state or police state? should blame the opposition parties and politicians - or even the Malays - for BN's staying in power, not the Chinese minorities.

The Chinese cannot be faulted for having to choose between the lesser of two 'evils' because that's what you have to do when you are not in a position to get rid of both the 'evils' altogether. It's common sense - you just have to make the best out of the extent to which you are allowed to 'choose'.

For the Chinese, PAS is no doubt a bigger 'evil' because of the revolutionary changes they would bring to the country. This despite the rampant corruption and abuse of human rights by the current BN regime.

Take the simplest and current example - if the video clip incident had happened when PAS or an Islamic state government was in power, rest assured that the people of Malaysia would not have even heard about or seen the clip in the first place for the following reasons:

It would have been unlikely that the media would have been allowed to expose such scandals involving the government and towards this, the 'ulama council' would have a tight control over the media. Any criticisms against the government would be easily labelled as anti-Islam or blasphemous or from an infidel because the government would rule in the name of Islam, in a totalitarian manner.

It would have been outrageously lewd to show the hair of the naked woman on the front page of national newspapers and television, not to mention her bare shoulders and back. As such, there would not have been any outrage against the police and government as the images would not have been shown or published.

Teresa Kok, the member of parliament who first exposed the scandal, would not had been in the Parliament as she is a woman and an infidel.

Arbibi might want us to believe that such worries would be academic because a PAS government would be more likely to be corruption-free due to their leaders' supposed piety. However, the key to a strong and progressive democracy is the ability of the people to voice their dissent and to hold the government accountable or in contempt when necessary. That possibility would be nil when you have a totalitarian government which rules in the name of God.

So, if most of the Chinese voters had in fact voted for Umno, then they would have rightly rejected the option which would have destroyed Malaysian democracy altogether, though in favour of one which would (only) deteriorate it.

From the analysis by various readers, it is clear that Umno was placed in a passive position right from the beginning - the number of PAS voters was fixed and Umno could only hope to scour whatever swing votes they could find or manufacture, especially the Chinese voters.

In other words, those swing votes were there for the taking by PAS. But this opposition party has chosen to be stubborn and dogmatic, therefore to be unelectable. No voter should be blamed for refusing to elect the unelectable.

The real question we should ask is, why have we (Malaysians) ended up in a situation where we have to choose between the lesser of two evils?

The Chinese and Indian Malaysians (as well as the Dayaks, Dusuns, Ibans and Kadazans and the rest) being the minorities, really can't do much. The question should be posed to the Malays instead. It is only when the Malays decide to reject the racist and feudalistic Umno as well as the religiously fanatic PAS, can a strong, meaningful alternative focusing on moderate and progressive agenda emerge.

If - and only 'if' - this happens, can you then blame the Chinese and all the other minorities for still voting for BN.