I am an ethnic Chinese Malaysian professional. I have never voted even once out of cynicism and disgust with the intolerable conduct of our money-grubbing, corrupt and racist BN politicians.

I find Yusof Saat's comments on Dr Syed Alwi Ahmad's letter apt.

Nevertheless PAS has probably not succeeded in projecting an image of moderate progressive Islam to non-Muslims in Malaysia.

Its seeming preoccupation with hudud law, suppression of traditional cultural practices, and the outward forms of dress and gender separation in public spaces in Kelantan does not exactly inspire confidence in secular-liberal leaning non-Muslims in Malaysia.

I dare say that the fairly typical pork-eating alcohol-imbibing all-night karaoke-ing and 24-hour gambling ethnic Chinese Malaysian voter will not be very assured.

On the whole, I find non-Muslims tend to consider political authoritarianism to be a lot more palatable than religious authoritarianism.

PAS has not focused on issues of public accountability, transparent government, and honesty in elected officials as much as it could have.

It has not continued to press on issues of corruption, cronyism, nepotism, independence of the judiciary or fundamental human rights and freedoms as much as it could have - issues and principles of vital concern to all responsible Malaysians, Chinese, Malays and Indians, Muslims and non-Muslims alike.

I do not think Dr Syed Alwi's ethnic-racial-religious scaremongering is very convincing. Neither the Malays nor Chinese are easily fooled nowadays. But the point I wish to make is that PAS has not projected itself as well as it could have to ethnic minorities.

As a non-Muslim, I have several questions of fundamental concern and hope someone knowledgeable about such matters will be able to explain.

What is the role accorded to cultural and religious diversity and pluralism in an Islamic state as envisaged by PAS?

Will non-Muslims have an equal say in the politics, judiciary and government of an Islamic state?

Will non-Muslims be excluded in any way from the artistic, literary or cultural life of the nation?

Will non-Muslims be subject to hudud and syariah laws?

In the same way that ethnic divisions have been used by BN to suppress democratic practices, and foster wholesale corruption and patronage to perpetuate its own misrule, will religious issues and divisions prove as debilitating to the nation under PAS?

Will political issues be turned into religious disputes? When charges of blasphemy against an American Muslim professor were used to get a scientific paper withdrawn from a recent Aids/HIV conference, many of my friends were less than impressed.

The last thing non-Muslims want is for charges of apostasy and blasphemy to be part and parcel of daily political discourse in Malaysia.

The only thing more likely to lead to public disorder than ethnic disputes are religious disputes. In this region, the first victims of public disorder are the racial minorities.

What is PAS' vision of an Islamic state?

Will Islamic PAS be able to forge an effective alliance with secular-humanist liberal democratic political parties like DAP?