I would like to respond to the letter 'No options in sight' (Nov 8) by Farish A Noor. I have to say that Farish is really trying his best to cover his actual stand on the current repressive laws in Malaysia by blaming others.

Allow me to highlight a few points. First, his resistance to a certain Islamic party whom he claimed would be far more repressive then the current regime. His quoting of an "out of context" incident in an apostasy issue and its call for the usage of ISA is really appalling.

Since the actual call was actually intended to smack BN in the face. If they can use the ISA for political reasons why now hide behind the excuse that there is no law for apostasy? It is by no means a form of support for the ISA.

He came up with sweeping judgements that the Islamic parties in Malaysia cannot provide alternative to the present oppressive regime.

Such conclusion is derived from the fact that these Islamic movement doesn't share his secular/liberal ideology. Yet, he never brought any proof of success of secular/liberal ideology on the Muslim ummah, especially in Malaysia.

In Malaysia, the secular ideology has failed to develop Muslims into a progressive and competitive people that is able to compete in any field. For example, Muslims in Malaysia, despite being themajority, can only control less than 20 percent of the nation's equity.

In spite of the long list of failures of Muslims living under oppressive and decadent secular/liberal regimes throughout the world, it is weird that Farish keeps saying how backwards Muslims would be if they were to live under the rule of Islamists or mullahs.

He generalised that if we do no adopt Western ideology, then we are actually rejecting progress, democracy and good governance. Maybe we can tell that to the blacks in US and asked them about how much democracy has helped them in the last 250 years.

His attempt to quote Iran as an example of 'mullah oppressiveness' is also funny considering that the reform movement in Iran right now is led by a certain Mullah name Al Khatami.

Also, it is really weird that he claimed the Iranian revolution went disastrously just because the mullahs took over. My question is what has actually gone disastrous in Iran after the revolution?

The country went into war and through economic blockade after the US puppet regime of the Shah was toppled by mass popular movement led by the so-called mullahs whom Farish hates so much. Yet they still record economic growth and now they are clearly progressing better than Malaysia. At least, their football team got into the World Cup finals, where is ours?

I cannot see Farish's logic in his support for the current repressive regimes that are ruling the Muslim nations throughout the world. This is especially when Farish cannot show what the Islamic movement has brought into the Muslim ummah that is negative in any way.

All I can see is that Farish is unhappy with the resistance of Islamic movements to his secular/liberal ideology. Thus, he parrots the classical propaganda tool of the West against these Islamic movements.

The two examples he mentioned in the article are clearly biased and out of context and he is still unclear about the repressive laws and regulations used by the current regime to stay in power.

Ironically, he also mentioned that the laws are un-Islamic yet he never denied his support for the force behind the laws.

The fact remains that options are in abundance for those whose mind are open and capable to weigh between good and evil. For those who opt for fanaticism of the Western ideology, Farish can always welcome them to his club.