The competition between Umno and PAS has escalated to dangerous levels and could spell disaster for the bedrock of the country's social contract, says DAP national chairperson Lim Kit Siang.

That is, unless the DAP is returned in the next general election with a strong presence in Parliament in order to "to put the country back on track of a democratic, secular, multi-religious,

prosperous and progressive Malaysia."

Lim said this in a speech last night in Sri Kembangan near Kuala Lumpur where he addressed the Islamic State blueprint unveiled by PAS last Wednesday.

Since suffering its worst electoral defeat in the elections of 1999, Umno has felt the need to prove its Islamic sentiments by declaring that Malaysia was already an Islamic state, said the DAP leader.

In addition to Dr Mahathir's "929" declaration to that effect, "his attack on Jewish global domination made him the hero in the Muslim world," he said.

Now, PAS has 'upped the ante' with their blueprint and this will have grave consequences for the country's large non-Muslim minority, Lim warned.

Although he dismissed the possibility of PAS actually putting its Islamic State blueprint into practice, the DAP chief warned that the competition would have other undesired effects.

"The PAS Islamic State blueprint can have far-reaching consequences to change the Malaysian nation as it will ratchet up the Umno-PAS competition to a new and unprecedented level with grave damage to the very fabric of the 46-year social contract."

Lim did not specify the changes, but DAP had previously expressed concerns that the Umno-PAS competition had resulted in the gradual 'Islamisation' of the country.

No hope in MCA, Gerakan

To stem that tide, DAP provided the only way by which Malaysia can retain its secular, democratic and multiracial constitution, he stressed.

"The next general election will be the last opportunity for Malaysia to put a stop to the spiral of competition between Umno and PAS to out-Islamise each other," he said.

Lim also said that other non-Malay parties within the BN, such as MCA and Gerakkan, could not be depended upon to voice concerns against an Islamic State.

"The only political force that could have checked the Umno-PAS competition to out-Islamise each other no longer exists, as MCA and Gerakan could never play such a role" said the DAP leader.

Gerakan President Dr Lim Keng Yaik had said that Malaysia qualified as an Islamic state because Islam was already the national religion and the religion of the King.

In addition, Keng Yaik pointed said that some 60 percent of the country's population are Muslims.