Malaysia's last general election of the 20th century is set for tomorrow. After nomination day (Nov 20), Barisan Nasional took out five, full-page newspaper advertisements with these screamers: "Don't Let Hatred Win", "Don't Let Violence Triumph", "Don't Let Anarchy Rule", "No To Violence", and "Don't Let Mob Rule Lead Us".

Observing this alarmist electioneering, one would worry that Malaysia is about to be torn apart by racial or religious strife. The truth is remarkably quite different, even if many BN politicians are busily appealing to chauvinism.

Some appeals began indirectly, such as when Prime Minister Dr Mahathir criticised Malay students and academics for lacking merit-based academic achievement. Of course, Mahathir was not going to dismantle the "dual meritocracy" he installed in Malaysian universities 25 years ago when he was minister of education. He only meant to make some Chinese feel good at hearing what they themselves could never publicly say.

It is one thing to offer faint praise, but something altogether different to instigate mistrust.

Now, the Chinese are cautioned that only the BN can be their provider of stability, their protector against ethnic violence, and their defence against an "Islamic state". Thus BN politicians have repeatedly referred to Kuala Lumpur 1969, or Jakarta 1998, even Rwanda.

The Malays are warned that Umno alone can preserve their "Malay dominance" (ketuanan Melayu), their New Economic Policy (NEP) gains, and their sovereignty against western recolonisation. Hence there are endless reminders of the fate of Bosnian Muslims and Kosovo Albanians (but why not East Timorese?).

And foreigners, whether they live in New York (where Mahathir recently appealed for support from the American Council of Foreign Relations) or within earshot of Malaysia, are specially served the spectre of "Islamic fundamentalism".

I don't know if terrifying three different sets of people in three different ways is one of the seven habits of successful politicians. But I know it cannot be the practice of trustworthy ones.

Let's consider some basic facts of contemporary Malaysian life.

Thirty years of the NEP's "eradication of poverty" and "restructuring" saved Malaysia from the kind of mass resentment towards "Chinese economic dominance" which lent itself to frightful manipulation in Jakarta last year. Conversely, 17 years of Malaysia Inc. have produced corporate figures of all races, many of whom had to be bailed out after the "East Asian crisis".

A generation of non-Malays have grown up since the passage of the National Language Act of 1967 for whom Bahasa Malaysia is just that, not the bone of bitter political contention that it was for the preceding generation. Meanwhile there has been an influx of about 40,000 Malay children into a thriving system of Chinese schools, entering without fanfare, studying without controversy.

Many Malays hail the Democratic Action Party's (DAP) Lim Guan Eng as a hero. As they put it, his was an unparalleled sacrifice of liberty and career "for the sake of a girl not of his race or religion". Likewise, many non-Malays regard the "Anwar affair" not as a "Malay affair", but as the latest and most dreadful confirmation that much has gone wrong in Malaysian public life and institutions.

Finally, the protests over the "Anwar affair" showed a total absence of racial or religious quarrels. It is common knowledge that the protestors were "shopping for justice", peacefully demonstrating along Kuala Lumpur's main shopping thoroughfares, not indulging in violence, rioting or anarchy.

The violence that was reported by eyewitness accounts belonged to two main categories: riot police attacking and then arresting hundreds of protestors, and isolated cases of "rampage" suspected to have been started by agents provocateurs.

It was as much outrage over this suppression of peaceful dissent as concern with Anwar's treatment that brought many citizens, non-governmental organisations, and political parties together to form what is now known as the Barisan Alternatif.

These facts of contemporary Malaysian life show a society not riven by racial or religious divisions on the eve of its last election of the 20th century. They belie any campaign to alarm Malaysian voters. The coming election is not about "Race" or "Religion" or "Riots".

Those "3Rs" are constantly raised to distract voters from a serious evaluation of the real issue in this election: Can the BA, by winning at least one-third of the parliamentary seats, give birth to a two-coalition system that will not just transform, but reform, Malaysian politics?

Those who are not party strategists really have no need to enter into elaborate electoral calculations. However, hardly anyone expects the BA to form the next Malaysian government. Realistically, though, if there is insufficient support for the BA's effort to become a feasible second coalition in Malaysian politics, then the BN's near monopoly of power will sideline as irrelevant the pressing need for prudent management, good governance, a vibrant civil society and revitalised public institutions.

If that happens, Malaysian society will have merely suffered through the July 1997 currency crisis and the September 1998 Anwar crisis without having learnt anything of lasting value.

The choices for the Malaysian voter are simple and direct.

Mahathir once promoted the idea of a Bangsa Malaysia which could overcome the inter-racial animosity of past years. You don't have to believe Mahathir if you don't want to.

Before he fell from power, Anwar popularised the idea, Wo men dou shi yi jia ren ("We are one family"). You don't have to believe Anwar either if you can't.

But do not pretend that these ideas of multiculturalism, which had genuine appeal in the 1990s, could have arisen in a society about to be torn asunder by racial and religious divisions - as Malaysia has increasingly been depicted to be as we go to the polls tomorrow.

KHOO BOO TEIK, Visiting Fellow, Asia Research Centre, Murdoch University, Perth, Australia is the author of "Paradoxes of Mahathirism: An Intellectual Biography of Mahathir Mohamad".