KOTA BAHRU, Malaysia -- Malaysia's opposition theocratic Islamic Party (PAS) sees Chinese support as crucial to its bid to head an alternative broad-based multiracial coalition party capable of taking over the federal government of Malaysia in future, and is working very hard to dispel their fears of its cardinal principle -- an Islamic state.

Since emerging as the largest opposition party in Malaysia's last general election, PAS has been inviting Chinese from the west coast states to visit its two bastions -- the 95 percent Muslim-majority eastern states of Kelantan and Trengganu -- to have dialogue sessions and judge for themselves how the concept of an Islamic state has been implemented.

The aim is to persuade the Chinese to cast their votes for PAS in Malaysia's next general election in 2004. As PAS -- with its deeply-etched image of fanatical Malay leaders sporting goatee beards in traditional Muslim long flowing robes with white turbans and skull caps on their heads -- is still distrusted and feared by many Chinese as "an extremist Malay party," the task of reaching out to them is left to its two allies in the Alternative Front (AF) coalition: the Chinese-based Democratic Action Party (DAP) and the secular-oriented Malay-based National Justice Party (Keadilan). The latter is headed by the wife of former deputy prime minister, Anwar Ibrahim.