I am prompted to write in response to Susan Loone's analysis, 'Party members uneasy over Lim's new secular front bid' (Dec 19). Secularism is simply the only way forward for a multicultural society like Malaysia where 40 percent of the population (non-Muslims) is simply far too big a figure for the state to be ruled by the mainstream religion.

Most important of all, it has been proven again and again, all religion-based politics have been proven to be failures, at least economically (just like communism - a perfect ideology but can never work in reality), as religion (pure) and politics (dirty) are just like oil and water. I might be wrong but please quote me a country that is religion-based (any religion) but doing well (economically).

Having said that, let me also stress that the ultra-corrupt Mahathirism is another unacceptable form of administration as it is simply a mega time-bomb waiting to explode. All the ill-effects of "sweeping all the problems under the carpet", "spend till you drop now, think of the consequences later" and "competition is a dirty word" will only burden our future generations.

Looking at the magnitude of economical and political decisions that have taken place, the effects will be very severe, just like a blue-collar worker with a dozen credit cards, who has spent to the maximum and has yet to find a way to generate more income.