It was with sadness and ambivalence that I read in The Star yesterday which quoted PAS deputy president Abdul Hadi Awang as having admitted that the party does not accept the policies of DAP and Parti Rakyat Malaysia but is co-operating with them to topple the Barisan Nasional government.

He goes on to liken members of the opposition as 'dogs' and affirms a common goal, i.e. to topple the present government.

No wonder the present government justifies using the ISA. After all the very intelligent debate in malaysiakini and other forums, when speaking on behalf of PAS, whose stated objective is to invoke Islamic Statehood on the country, it is indeed worrisome to read that Hadi has set his sights on toppling the government without any mind given to what the 'dogs' are supposed to do after achieving their common goal.

If indeed the opposition parties, who are members of the Barisan Alternatif are dogs which gang up to quash the enemy and once that is done they will go back to fighting amongst themselves, what we shall see is a situation where the Barisan Nasional having a combined hold of, say, less than 50 percent seats in Parliament. The rest would be spread between PAS, DAP and Keadilan with no one holding anything greater than BN's total.

Having achieved their goals of toppling the government, I guess in Hadi's estimation, the 'dogs' can then go back to their own fighting leaving no one to run the country. That would only mean the Barisan Nasional might be in a far better position to continue governing despite holding less than 50 percent majority in Parliament.

The irony is that before1999 when DAP was the opposition leader, PAS had maintained a quizzical silence, only interested in anything that was Islamic in nature. DAP led in debates of all kinds.

Now with their dominance in the opposition, they are not exactly doing what DAP was able to do in Parliament. Instead, they are more interested in coveting a governing role after the next general elections, assuming for themselves a great victory which will give them, and only them, control over two-thirds of the parliamentary majority that shall allow them to change the Constitution as they so wished.

It would seem like PAS' assumption might be that even with a simple majority of 50 percent and having control over the executive, that they could ignore parliamentary and constitutional propriety and proceed with implementing their desired goals of an Islamic state.

It seems to me that, to them, the notion of an Islamic state overrides any other judicial system. To set aside the constitution, therefore, all that would be necessary for them, would be two minutes of control over the executive. In doing anything at all in the name of Islam, the 70-odd percent Muslims in the country would find it almost blasphemous attempting to object to this and in this way PAS can indeed control the entire nation, just like the Taliban does in Afghanistan.

PAS has so far only committed itself to abiding by Islamic Nationhood. I have not seen them commit themselves to the Federal Constitution of Malaysia.

In achieving intermediate goals, therefore, PAS would wish to work with DAP. Having achieved those intermediate goals, there is no guarantee that they will defend the Federal Constitution.