Singapore Senior Minister Lee Kuan Yew's remark for his not preferring PAS to rule this country and his fear for the insurgence of the Islamic militancy is indeed sinister and uncalled for.

Lee's wish to close deals with Malaysia now rather than later, anticipating that 'later' might be ruled by the PAS-led government, implies that he prefers to negotiate now with a senile, desperate, falling tyrant rather than with intelligent, far-sighted, democratic leaders later.

So, what they actually did was to scratch each other's back, with one looking for a long-term gain and the other, the desperate one, hoping for a short-term gain to ensure his survival.

The terms 'militant' and 'extremist' are widely used by those usually in power - the US and its allies - on Muslims who dare to rise up, through constitutional and democratic means, against tyranny and injustices.

This allegation of 'militancy' is just a ploy to instil fear and insecurity among the non-Muslims and thus their abhorrence to Islam and its politically active followers. This is a manifestation of divide and rule tactic - one aspect of the Machiavellian strategy - the end justifies the mean.

History bears testimony to the fact that for centuries when Islam ruled over a major part of this earth (before its downfall in the early 1920s), there was no record of non-Muslims being persecuted, brutally tortured, slain, nor of their wives and daughters being repeatedly raped before their very eyes and made sex-slaves for the army, nor of their houses and properties being torn down and confiscated, nor of them being forced to flee their homeland, nor of their pregnant wives who've had their wombs ripped apart, nor of killing carried out under the guise of 'ethnic-cleansing'.

After the downfall of the Islamic empire in Turkey in the early 20th century, there were no cases of non-Muslims turning out in huge numbers to tell the whole world about the unbearable, fearful and tormenting experience their forebears had when living under Muslim rule and thus denouncing vehemently Islam as a religion worthy of embracing.

These misleading terms like 'militants', 'radicals' and 'extremists' branded on Muslims are concocted to cover up the tyrannies, injustices and corruption already committed by the Umno-led government and such concocted accusations will justify further Umno's tyrannical action against the opposition.

Such Machiavellian tactics - concocting events - were applied by other despotic rulers known throughout history, to create a gruesome perception of the opposition in the minds of the citizens.

The once ill-equipped Afghan freedom fighters, who were fighting against the invading, well-equipped Russian army, were called Afghan 'rebels', to play on the world's perception.

Have the Palestinians become radicals and militants or is it the illegitimate Israel regime that commits terrorism, ultra-racism, radicalism, militancy and extremism?

Worse, who among these two, are being sponsored and protected by the US and its allies? Who actually condones terrorism and militancy committed by this illegitimate regime? Where does Lee Kuan Yew stand here? We have already heard of dealings between Singapore and Israel.

We already knew the atrocities and 'ethnic-cleansing' committed by the Serbs against the Bosnian Muslims were brutal, savage and barbaric. Can we then call the Serbs as 'ultra-racists', 'extremists', 'radicals' and 'militant Christian Crusaders'?

Similar cases had also happened in Chechnya, and are now surfacing in some parts of Albania where the victims are, in fact, Muslims. Can we say that there are 'militant Christian Crusaders' re-emerging in Europe?

Have we heard of such atrocities being committed by Muslims against its non-Muslim citizens during the time of the Islamic empire? See how the power of perception can affect the minds of the people!

Why would there be 'militant' Islam when the opposition is gaining ground, when the confidence is high for the opposition to win more seats in the coming general elections?

Even in the past years, when the opposition lost heavily, they never resorted to militancy, so why should it be so now when the opposition is in a favourable position to defeat Umno?

One more thing, Lee Kuan Yew failed to notice, or he purposely disregarded it, the party who is opposing the Umno-led government is not PAS alone but other components which made up the BA, Keadilan, PRM and DAP. What makes Lee think that it will be a PAS-led government? The resulting merger of Keadilan-PRM may surely be a force to be reckoned with!