opinion PAS has been rightly criticised by many Muslims and non-Muslims alike across the political spectrum for its emotional response to the anti-terrorist campaign in Afghanistan, especially its declaration of jihad in defence of the Taliban regime in Afghanistan. It leaders, members and supporters should listen at least to friends, if not rivals.

As human beings, it is only natural to feel sad and aggrieved if one sees and hears members of one's community being perceived to be 'bullied' by 'others'.

However, there are also different modes of expression and channels to show concern and even solidarity in balanced ways so as not to go beyond the publicly reasonable or acceptable limits, and become counter-productive. US president George W Bush, for example, has withdrawn the use of the word "crusade", and both he and British Premier Tony Blair have also repeatedly restrained overzealous Americans and Britons from stereotyping all Muslims as "terrorists".

Anger and grief, on all sides, must be counter-balanced with justice, mercy and prudence.

PAS president and Parliamentary opposition leader Fadzil Noor began his response well by condemning the terrorist attacks in Washington DC and New York in unambiguous terms, and reiterating that Islam means peace. The original position Fadzil took is certainly more acceptable than some of the extreme and irrational anti-American opinions in the Chinese-language newspapers.

Double game

But the sentiment has somehow changed. There are many reasons to account for that, and the chief one being that while Umno and its Chinese allies like MCA and Gerakan try to project an anti-Taliban image in the English and Chinese media, the Umno-controlled Malay-language newspapers suggest to the Malay-speaking Muslim masses that Umno is sympathetic to all Muslims in Afghanistan.

For example, a few days ago, a front page headline in Utusan Malaysia played up the story of a mosque that was allegedly bombed by US and UK armed forces in Afghanistan. The story was not published in the prominent pages of the English and Chinese newspapers.

As the Muslim sentiment has been inflamed by such reports in the Umno-controlled Malay media which many westerners and non-Malays do not usually read, PAS has to respond for fear of losing ground to Umno where the ethnic Malays are concerned. Seen in this perspective, it could be argued that PAS whose channel of mass communication - the ceramah (public talks) - has been severely curtailed and restricted, was provoked into making imprudent and rash statements.

Umno, MCA and other component parties of Barisan Nasional which control almost all the mainstream media, plays the double game: one view for the consumption of Muslims and another for non-Muslims.

True moral courage

So PAS tries to neutralise Umno's showsmanship by engaging in one of its own. In the midst of sectarian opportunism and imprudent idealism, former deputy prime minister Anwar Ibrahim offers true intellectual, moral and political leadership, even within the confines of his jail, by writing an article titled 'Who hijacked Islam? Repressive Muslims regimes are partly to blame for bin Laden's rise' for the Time magazine.

The reality that a former deputy prime minister had to pass out his message to restrain opportunism and what many non-Muslims see as extremism to be published by a foreign magazine, in my opinion, speaks volumes of the sad state of affairs of press 'freedom' in Malaysia. As friends from the region and all over the world told me in their e-mail, while the world and Malaysia need a moderate and principled Islamic leader to give hope to the Muslims and non-Muslims alike, the very man is sadly under detention.

Many controversial accusations have been levelled against Anwar Ibrahim the person, but the ideas contained in his article in Time are sounder than anyone else's. Let us be reasonable and agreeable, at least for once, even if we may personally do not like his person or his past. It takes true moral courage, not intellectualism which is often made the camouflage for opportunism and sophistry, to say what Anwar said in his article.

It would take even greater moral courage for those who once openly accused and secretly believed Anwar to be an "Islamic fundamentalist" to admit their own mistakes and errors of judgment, if not intentional malice.

It is the worst and best of times for Malaysia. At this historic crossroads, Malaysia needs leadership, not showsmanship.

JAMES WONG WING ON is chief analyst of Strategic Analysis Malaysia (SAM) which produces the subscriber-based political report, Analysis Malaysia. James is a former member of parliament (1990-1995) and a former columnist for the Sin Chew Jit Poh Chinese daily. He read political science and economics at the Monash University in Melbourne, Australia. While in Sin Chew, he and a team of journalists won the top awards of Malaysian Press Institute (MPI) for 1998 and 1999.