Vijaya Shankar and Paul Warren have both been spot on in their respective assessment of PAS.

I believe today there is a danger that some Malaysians, who do not really want PAS as the federal government, may do so as a frustrated attempt to rid themselves of the BN. Vijaya Shankar hit the nail on the head when he viewed PAS' Mustafa Ali in Hardtalk as "constantly shifting ground, saying different things to different people." There is no doubt that PAS is being two-face, presenting only the 'moderate' one to the non-Muslims. It wants their votes. Once these votes send it into federal power, what 'face' will it reveal? What fangs will it bare?

And I reckon Malaysians ought to ponder carefully over Paul Warren's belief, which I share completely, that despite the BN's shortcomings, it is definitely far, far superior than PAS. Look at Malaysia - it may not be perfect but it is undeniably better than a lot of other countries in our region. It has brought us admirable prosperity and stability. Apart from the May 13 tragedy, we have had relative peace compared to some of our neighbours, let alone those even more unfortunate scattered around the globe.

To those Malaysians who are thinking of voting BN out, don't forget that in doing so, you would be voting PAS in, as it is the next most powerful party in Malaysia. By then it will be too late regretting the exchange of the musang (fox) for the ferocious tiger.

Remember, no political party that employs religion to ensure its power base has ever been tolerant. Witness Nigeria, Pakistan, Israel under the Likud Party, Afghanistan under the Taliban, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, etc. Read the history of Europe when the Christian Church was politically supreme, and why the Europeans came to the conclusion that the church must be separated from the state. Look at the behaviour of the right-wing Hindu organisations in India. The list goes on and on about the total intolerance of religious-based political parties.

A tiger may promise you that if you release it, it will be a vegetarian. However, once released, you may be assured that the tiger will be the tiger. And PAS will be a very hungry tiger.