The role of Islam looks set to dominate Malaysian elections like never before in the country's 46-year history, as a row brewed over an Islamist opposition leader's promises of heaven to Muslim voters.

New Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi vowed on Sunday he would not flinch from tackling the thorny issue of religion in a multi-faith nation, whose Malay Muslim ethnic majority accounts for around 60 per cent of its 25 million people.

?This is an issue that we have to face. We cannot put it aside,? Abdullah, himself the son of a respected Islamic scholar, told reporters after a political rally in the southwestern state of Malacca. ?We have to have answers, explanations for the people. Otherwise, there will be views and edicts that are unsuitable, that will influence Muslims, if left unanswered,? he said, a day after meeting with 2,000 ulama, Muslim scholars, in Putrajaya, the country's new administrative capital.

<B>Mahatir campaigns for UNMO</B>

Abdullah's multi-cultural Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition is sure of victory in the March 21 election, but his own United Malays National Organisation (UMNO) is seeking to turn back an Islamic tide sweeping the northern Malay heartland. The large Chinese and Indian minorities, who make up around one-third of Malaysia's population, can do little more than look on as UMNO does battle with Parti Islam se-Malaysia (PAS).

PAS spiritual leader Nik Aziz Nik Mat was quoted by the Star newspaper on Saturday as saying that the Koran states that ?those who rally behind Islam are also those who want to live under divine laws laid down by Allah?.

?And naturally, they will go to heaven for choosing an Islamic party, while those who support un-Islamic parties will logically go to hell? he said.

Nik Aziz said he would continue to highlight that issue until just before election campaign starts. The Election Commission has warned that candidates who promise favours from God could lose their seats. PAS wants to introduce strict Islamic law to the country, including amputation of limbs for convicted thieves and execution by stoning for adultery. The party governs two of Malaysia's 13 states but its influence wanes outside the rural north.

Mahathir Mohamad, who retired in October after holding the premiership for 22 years, derided Nik Aziz's logic that a vote for PAS was a ticket to heaven.

?In that case, rogues and rapists will also enter heaven if they are PAS members and had voted for the party,? said Mahathir, who will campaign for UNMO but not stand for a seat.

The Islamists's religious agenda has dwarfed the imprisonment of opposition hero Anwar Ibrahim as an issue.

Mahathir sacked Anwar as his deputy in 1998. After mounting a challenge and allying with PAS, Anwar was sentenced to 15 years for sodomy and abuse of power. PAS was the main beneficiary from the subsequent protest vote in the 1999 polls, when less than half the Malays backed UNMO.

The Keadilan Parti, headed by Anwar's wife Wan Azizah Wan Ismail, currently holds just five seats and is expected to struggle in the coming polls.

Gains by the Islamic opposition would unsettle the wealthier ethnic Chinese and heighten concerns about fundamentalism in a region that is a front line in the US-led war on terror.

Lim Kit Siang, a veteran leader of the largely Chinese opposition Democratic Action Party was alarmed by the contest between UMNO and PAS to prove their Islamic credentials.

?When I was in parliament for 30 years, from 1969 to 1999, I never heard anyone talk about an Islamic state. The term was never used because the mainstream nation-building agenda was for a secular democracy with Islam as the official religion,? Lim told Reuters.

He feared either side could use the election result as a mandate to pursue a religious agenda, even though he believed Abdullah personally stood for an Islamic way of life without an Islamic state.

Jahabar Sadiq