There is now much speculation that the Democratic Action Party (DAP) is about to break away from the Barisan Alternatif Alliance that is dominated by the Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party (PAS). While the leaders of both parties deny rumours that the split within their ranks has become as serious as the reports claim them to be, it is difficult to doubt the claim that all is not well in the BA camp.

Should DAP decide to break away from the BA alliance, the decision will come as a major blow to those who have tried to forge an instrumental coalition between the various ethnic and religious communities in the country.

It will bring Malaysia back to square one, with the major political parties in the country once again trapped in their narrow and exclusive discursive economies, unable and unwilling to speak to those who happen to be beyond the pale of their own political, ideological and cultural horizons.

But who is to be blamed should the BA coalition fall apart in the end? There are, of course, the usual suspects and contenders: the mainstream media in the country has done its part in trying to demonise PAS as the great 'fundamentalist' menace that is poised to take over the country and impose its own narrow interpretation of Islam on Muslims and non-Muslims alike.

Sadly some of the followers and supporters of PAS have given more ammunition to the mainstream media by behaving in a way expected of them: calling for women to wear the veil and demanding gender segregation in public places does not in any way restore public confidence in a party that is already being labelled the 'fundamentalist threat' ...

Then there are the opposition parties themselves, who have played their own part in sustaining the ethnic, religious and cultural divides that have kept Malaysian society fragmented and disunited all along. Both DAP and PAS have shown that they have their own share of bigots, racists and pedagogues to match their opponents in the opposite camp.

DAP's appeal to maintain and defend non-Malay cultural rights has, on many occasions, been predicated on essentialist notions of cultural authenticity and even cultural superiority. Likewise PAS's appeal to the Malay-Muslim constituency has often been couched in equally narrow and exclusivist terms which presents the Malay-Muslim community as one that is morally and spiritually superior to the rest.

One can only stand back in amazement and watch this political drama play itself out to its ultimate illogical conclusion. We cannot help but ask the obvious question: how on earth do the supporters of DAP or PAS hope to come to power if they cannot even imagine how others react to the political message and image they are trying to project?

Perhaps the leaders of PAS still do not realise the fact that most non-Malays and non-Muslims in the country do not like being referred to as those 'kafirs' ...

Consider, for example, what might happen if a fictional party calling itself the 'Pan-Malaysian Christian Party' tried to win the support of the Malaysians as a whole. Now the leaders of such a party might claim that Christianity is a universal religion that is based on essentially universal values and principles - something that few of us would disagree with.

The problem, however, is not so much the universal appeal of Christianity but rather the specific cultural, ethno-social and historical traits of the creed as a whole that render its appeal limited to a specific community of believers.

Now would any Malay-Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, Taoist or even atheist vote for such a party? The answer, I believe, would be 'no' for many of us.

If that is the case, why do the leaders of PAS think that their universalist claims can possibly overcome the specificities of the Malay-Muslim experience of Islam and thereby serve as a bridge between the communities?

The same question can be directed to the ideologues of DAP who need to understand that their own ethnocentric appeal to the Chinese community alienates them from the rest of the non-Chinese citizens of the country.

It was this commonsensical observation that moved the third president of PAS, Dr Burhanuddin al-Helmy, to forge instrumental coalitions with the other Malaysian opposition parties not on religious but secular-ideological grounds.

During the 1950s and 1960s, he attempted to bring PAS closer to the socialist parties that were led by men like Ahmad Boestaman. The parties worked together and struggled together in broad, non-communalist issues such as anti-colonialism, workers rights and improving labour laws. (DAP was not around yet at the time).

Sadly for both PAS and the DAP, as well as the rest of the country, the politics of commonsense has given way to the rhetorical pyrotechnics of demagogues and the ulama instead. Ever since the 'young ulama' faction took over control of PAS in 1982, the party's new radical-Islamist orientation has been its biggest vote winner as well as its biggest vote loser.

After the elections of 1999, PAS found itself in the unique position to be able to bring about a radical political and cultural change to the country. The fact that it has chosen instead to concentrate on seemingly trivial things like banning pop concerts and threatening to close down unisex hair saloons would suggest that the party's own leadership is not clear about what it wants to do and how it wants to do it.

By sticking to its Islamisation programme PAS has shown that its unprecedented victory has not led to the creation of a new agenda - its trajectory as well as its political horizons remain fixed. But sadly for PAS and the rest of the country, its dream of an Islamic society split between the 'good believers' and the 'minions of the evil 'Mahafiraun' is not the dream of everyone.