During the recent PAS general assembly, one of the hotly-debated issues was the use of the term "Islam" in the party's name.

PAS leaders and members were incensed by the fact that the Umno-led government is trying to prevent PAS from calling itself an "Islamic" party on the grounds that it will lead to sectarian politics in Malaysia.

The charge that the use of the term "Islam" or "Islamic" leads to sectarianism is ridiculous, considering the fact that Malaysian politics has been sectarian from the very beginning. PAS is not the only political party which practises sectarian politics. Umno, MCA and MIC are likewise sectarian parties that identify specific ethnic constituencies and it is well known that these parties are not open to those who fall these exclusive boundaries.

If we look further into Malaysia's history we can see that there have been sectarian parties of all kinds. Some have even been based on narrower local concerns: for example, membership of the National Association of Perak and the Perak Progressive Party, both of which contested in the elections of 1955, were not only limited to Malays, but Perak Malays in particular.

Therefore, to claim that PAS is somehow more sectarian than others simply because the party uses the term "Islam" in its name would be bordering on the absurd.

This is not the first time PAS has been accused of being sectarian, extremist and fundamentalist. As early as the 1950s, the Malaysian public have been treated to a collection of such lame accusations.

During the elections of 1955, PAS' party emblem was that of an open white hand on a green background. The party's leaders chose the symbol as they felt it represented openness and honesty, and it was meant to serve as an invitation for others to join the party and take up its cause.

The Alliance parties exploited the image and turned its meaning around. Umno leaders warned the public that the sign of the open hand was a warning to all that if PAS was allowed to come to power, the party would implement the harshest form of Islamic law.

Those who voted for PAS would be paving the way for an Islamic state where hands would be chopped off on a daily basis and we would soon be eating sup tangan for dinner.

After PAS gained control of Kelantan and Terengganu in 1959, Umno began its assault on PAS in earnest. Attempts were made to demonise PAS in every way imaginable. When PAS was under the leadership of Dr Burhanuddin Helmy, the party was dubbed a "Red Islamic" menace that was working hand in glove with communist insurgents in Malaysia and Indonesia.

During the time of Asri Muda, the party was condemned as a fundamentalist Malay-centric party. It was during this time that the charge of sectarianism was levelled against PAS. PAS was attacked for using the term "Islam" in its name and accused of presenting itself as the Party of God ( Parti Allah ).

The conflict intensified when Asri Muda was replaced by Ustaz Yusuf Rawa and PAS came under the leadership of the so-called " Ulamak faction " from 1982 onwards. Umno and PAS soon found themselves caught in the kafir-mengafir crisis of 1982-1984 with both sides were accusing the other of being un-Islamic.

The 1980s also witnessed many attempts by the Umno-led government to demonise PAS by linking it to a host of clandestine movements.

In 1980, the government proposed a coupon system - basically a forced savings scheme where part of the farmers' income would be retained - in Alor Setar, Kedah. This scheme proved universally unpopular with both pro-Umno and pro-PAS farmers who demonstrated in their thousands against the government and demanded a RM10 increase in the price of rice instead.

The Kedah state authorities responded by calling on the armed forces, the Federal Reserve Unit (FRU) and the Police Field Force (Polis Hutan) to disperse the demonstrators and arrest their leaders. By the end of the demonstrations, 90 farmers were arrested.

In the days that followed the government launched a media-orchestrated attack against PAS, claiming that PAS leaders and activists had masterminded the demonstrations. Seven PAS leaders, including a PAS state assemblyman, were arrested.

The government also claimed that another radical Islamist group called the Pertubuhan Angkatan Sabillullah was behind the "violent riots".

The state-controlled media began to claim that "subversive Islamist elements" were planning to launch a campaign of violence and terror in the state. During the round-up of Islamist activists and leaders, PAS ulama , Othman Marzuki was arrested and accused of masterminding Pertubuhan Sabilullah.

PAS leaders argued that the whole story was cooked up by the Umno-controlled media and that this was a blatant attempt to demonise the image of the Islamist party and of Islamist movements in the country.

In 1985, PAS was once again in the news when one of its prominent ulama , the fiery Ibrahim Mahmood (Ibrahim Libya) was killed, along with 14 of his followers in the village of Memali, Kedah. PAS was described as a party of fanatics that preached violence and revolution against the state.

The fact that Ibrahim Libya and his followers were confronted by a force of about 4,000 soldiers and police armed with machine guns, tear gas and armoured cars was something that the mainstream media were reluctant to emphasise. They also failed to mention the fact that one of the villagers was shot 14 times with an M-16 at close range.

In 1988, the state launched another operation against PAS members in Kedah. Operasi Kenari led to 31 arrests and detentions. Once again, PAS members were labelled in toto as extremist fanatics and trouble makers, despite the fact that there was no evidence that any of them had been engaged in violent activities.

These charges and the constant harassment that has been meted out to PAS over the years have had two important consequences:

Firstly, they have merely added to the Islamist credentials of PAS. By constantly attacking the Islamic party and labelling it as a fundamentalist party of religious zealots, the Umno-led government has, ironically, given PAS what they needed the most: stronger Islamist credentials and an image of a party that is truly struggling to uphold Islam in Malaysia. It is Umno's own hasty, miscalculated and clumsy attempts to demonise PAS that has made it the real and only choice for those who seek an Islamist alternative in the country.

If you were a Malay-Muslim voter who wanted to vote according to your religious convictions, which party would you vote for? One labelled as purist, uncompromising and dedicated to an Islamic state, or a wishy-washy liberal nationalist party? (It is truly amazing to think that with all the veteran politicians in its ranks, the Umno leadership has not been able to figure this one out).

Secondly, the scare tactics employed by Umno against PAS have begun to wear off in the same way that "the boy who cried wolf" eventually lost the trust of others. After decades of being told that PAS is a dangerous and fanatical fundamentalist party, Malaysians have begun to grow tired of the same old stories.

After it took over Kelantan in 1990, PAS under Mentri Besar Nik Abdul Aziz Nik Mat implemented a series of fairly radical socio-cultural reforms. But none of these changes have been as drastic as we were warned about.

If Malaysians are meant to be afraid of PAS' policy of forcing Muslim women to wear the tudung , then we can see that the same is already taking place in Umno itself, as more than 90 percent of Wanita Umno wear the headscarf today. When PAS claimed that it would ban things like the wayang kulit on the grounds that it was un-Islamic, most of it was mere rhetoric.

(Whenever I visited Kelantan in the past few years, I have always managed to catch a wayang kulit show in the capital itself. The same cannot be said of KL where all that are on offer are McDonald's and Kentucky Fried Chicken).

In conclusion, it could be argued that the attempt to revive the old "party Islam" issue is a weapon against PAS that is better left dead and buried. It did not work in the 1970s, 1980s or the 1990s, so why on earth should it work now?

The Malaysian population, and the Malay-Muslim community in particular, is not going to be scared of PAS just because the party carries the word "Islam" in its name. Furthermore, any attempt to force PAS to abandon its Islamic label will only backfire and make the Umno-led government look even more secular (read unIslamic, kafir , unauthentic, etc) in the eyes of the Malay-Muslims.

The person who first thought of the sup tangan joke in the 1950s is probably dead and buried by now, so it would be pointless to blame him for his mistakes. But the present leadership of Umno needs to do better if they really want to blunt the challenge of PAS.

The most obvious thing to do is for Umno to clean up its own act and get rid of the deadwood cluttering up in the party's closet along with all the skeletons from the past.

But do drop the lame jokes against PAS. Telling them again and again doesn't make them any funnier.