LCH is probably tired of what he described as Machiavellian politics in Malaysia ('Opportunistic politics is endangering the country', Nov 28).

No nation - no matter how sophisticated - is perfect. Hence there is the exchange of ideas and a programme called democracy, to allow people to express themselves on matters bound to affect their daily lives, all in the process of improving the latter's quality.

The rest of the world, including our neighbours, is grappling, too. They may be moving from secularism towards pluralism; which just prove that secularism, albeit implemented by many so-called modern nations, is now acknowledged as not a solution to managing social programmes.

Pluralism also has its weaknesses. Though admitting multi-culturalism and promoting globalisation, pluralism doesn't automatically accept all opinions as equally true and beneficial. There is still the notion of guided society with sometimes 'archaic' laws (eg. penalising those who show their penises in public even if one claims it as a form of art) put in effect. Pluralism is still 'imperfect'.

On the other hand, one of the basic objectives of an Islamic state is to establish a just government-people relationship; to protect individual's life, property, dignity, ethnic, and religion. An Islamic state, by virtue of the word 'salam' contained in its title, values peace and prosperity, looks for negotiation tables first instead of battlefields to solve problems. It doesn't kill off democracy; it enhances it. It supports multiculturalism and multi-ethnicism, plus it empowers society to respect each other.

A big 'but is, it asks the nation to accept that in order to develop a society, religion i.e. Islam and moral guidance supercede other rationalisations. All other faiths, save free-thinkers (some subscribers claim their free-thinking ideology is a religion by itself) are freely practised up to their respective scriptures' teachings.

Should the scripture and its most accepted jurists say nothing about eating pork, the Islamic state government should not negate that allowance; it needs only to regulate it.

It resembles what most of us desire of a perfect society but are not sure of what it is called, doesn't it? Well, it is called an Islamic state.