In aggressively promoting his "No to 911, No to 929, Yes to 1957" People's Awareness Campaign, DAP chief, Lim Kit Siang is one political gadfly that Deputy Prime Minister and Home Minister, Abdullah Ahmad Badawi finds hard to swat.

Port Dickson police recently arrested Lim ostensibly on the same ground of "sedition" for distributing campaign pamphlets as his first arrest in Ipoh on June 5.

Lim has not even been charged for his first arrest and the original RM3,000 police bail had even been cancelled on July 5.

The authorities are locked in the horns of a dilemma. They cannot prosecute him because if they do, he would surely raise the defence that he was merely defending the secular nature of the 1957 Federal Constitution. Which in law and fact is true.

Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad 's declaration of Malaysia being already an Islamic state on Sept 29 last year was based on various considerations.

With 60 percent of the population Muslim, political points will be scored if Malaysia is internationally recognised by other Muslim countries as a model modern Islamic nation harmonising secular development with moderate Islamic values.

For the needs of secular economic development and accommodation of foreign investors, it is imperative that our laws and constitution remain secular.

Besides in the contest between Umno and PAS, non-Malays' support is of decisive importance and Barisan Nasional component parties like MCA and MIC cannot help deliver their votes if their constituencies were alienated by the secular character of the constitution being changed.

Indeed, the main basis of opposition of the ruling party against PAS' enactment of hudud (Islamic penal code) laws in Terengganu is that such a move contravenes the secular constitution.

On that premise, there is no way the ruling party can procure nor afford a successful prosecution of Lim for sedition without at the same time implicating a court judgment being handed down to declare the 1957 constitution as not secular and that Kit Siang's defence of its "secularity" as baseless.

Simultaneously, it is extremely irritating for the ruling party to have the DAP disseminating "No to 911, No to 929, Yes to 1957" message to secure non-Malay/Muslim votes at BN's expense and diminish its struggle against PAS.

The authorities cannot afford to let Lim carry on the campaign nationwide, yet neither can they afford to stop him by threat or execution of prosecution.

If it were DAP's intention not to support PAS-led Barisan Alternatif because of PAS' Islamic state and at the same time fight and undermine the common enemy BN, the "No to 911, No to 929, Yes to 1957" is effective to deprive both BN and BA the votes of non-Malays,.

However, BN stands to lose more as its non-Malay support will be affected. To this extent, the DAP is actually indirectly helping PAS to be nearer to its objective of installing the Islamic state which it is ostensibly opposed against.