There are many Chinese voters, swayed by anti-establishment sentiments towards Barisan Nasional, who have been easily convinced that the Islamist party is perfectly acceptable and that hudud laws would not encroach into the lifestyle of non-Muslims.

So they take a light, if not cynical, response towards the call by the Chinese-based component parties in the Barisan and have dismissed the red flag raised by the MCA and Gerakan as no more than a scare tactic.

Last week’s report that a female Chinese hairstylist has been fined regularly by the Kota Baru Municipal Council for cutting the hair of male Chinese customers has revealed how the PAS agenda is affecting non-Muslims.

Salon operators have learnt the hard way that gender segregation regulations in the PAS-controlled state apply to non-Muslims as well. The KB municipal council by-laws forbid women from cutting men’s hair and vice-versa regardless of their religion.

E-Life Hair Salon manager Ong Lee Ting said she has been paying fines of between RM200 and RM350, adding that she was warned the licence for the salon would be revoked because of the many summonses issued to the operator.

While many of us may be used to the way the PAS state government has been running Kelantan with its strict religious regulations, including gender segregation at concerts and supermarket check-outs, some might not be aware that the party’s leaders in other states have been doing something similar.

In Bangi, Selangor, the PAS state assemblyman Dr Shafie Abu Bakar has stood firm against any proposal to set up a cinema in his constituency. A Chinese businessman reportedly tried to set up a cinema in Bangi but the PAS politician was the biggest stumbling block.

When the issue was reported in February, Dr Shafie questioned the need for a cinema in his constituency when one could watch movies on television and the Internet.

He claimed that his constituency was 97% Muslims who preferred to attend religious and educational classes.

In July, PAS in Kuala Selangor insisted on putting up notices in a cinema forbidding unmarried couples from sitting together. State PAS Commissioner Dr Rani Osman said the directive was made by the licensing department of the Kuala Selangor district council.

The state deputy commissioner Khalid Samad, who is purportedly a liberal, was reported as saying that the cinema was frequented by families and they had complained of couples making out there.

He also reportedly described it as a poor man’s nightclub!

In Kota Baru, the PAS state government at one time reportedly insisted that the lights in cinemas must be switched on during the movie to prevent patrons from conducting immoral activities.

In 1995, when PAS came to power in Terengganu, the first thing the state’s then Mentri Besar Hadi Awang did was to demolish the replica of a turtle at a roundabout in Kuala Terengganu, saying it was akin to idol worshipping. This is the same man who has indicated his interest to be Prime Minister of Malaysia.

But we must accept the fact that PAS politicians have always been very clear on what they want to achieve if they are in power. They have consistently and clearly made it known that implementation of hudud laws are on top of their agenda.

It is only the apologists outside PAS that have tried to reassure their non-Muslim supporters that this would not happen or that hudud laws, even if implemented, would not affect non-Muslims. Try telling that to a non-Muslim rape victim if the perpetrators are Muslims.

We should be on guard against politicians who try to pass themselves off as theologians, regardless of their religion. Those who challenged the authority of such politician­theologians have found themselves being reminded that dissent means challenging God’s laws.

They are also put down by such figures who dismiss their critics as unqualified and incapable of carrying out a debate because the challengers are not religiously qualified. Suddenly, religion has become the monopoly of these political-religious characters.

Malaysia is veering towards a dangerous situation where there are many non-Muslim voters who are prepared to vote in orthodox PAS leaders. They don’t realise that they would be turning the clock back with their political adventurism.

It could be a hair-raising experience!

With newer and smarter phones in the market, there are no other compelling reasons why I should hold on to the BB. It cannot download The Star’s e-paper, a digital replica of our print edition, and does not have the wide range of applications that help to make life on the move complete.

So, I am now in the midst of migrating entirely to my Samsung Galaxy Note. If the BB breaks down, it will not be repaired. It will just become a memory of the past, like my earlier Nokia mobile phones. We just have to move on.

Those of us who are older will remember the cassettes and cartridges that delivered music to us once upon a time.

Now, even the CD’s days may be numbered as it not only has to compete with smaller devices with higher storage capacity, but also WiFi processes that stream music direct to us.

I am also using a Samsung tablet and an iPad, but I must say that the Samsung Tablet 2 has better features and its slim size fits nicely inside my sling bag. I love my two Samsung devices, really, and it looks like Samsung is emerging as the big winner.

If there’s a lesson to be learnt here, it is about innovation. While Samsung comes out with a few different improved models each year, we used to have to wait for someone, dressed in his iconic black turtleneck and jeans, to unveil an Apple product once a year.

Phone users keep wanting new gadgets with better applications. They don’t have the patience to wait a year for a new iPhone.

Both Apple and Samsung are embroiled in legal battles over copyright infringement but seriously, look at the new iPad, which has shrunk in size. It is reminding many of us that Apple seems to be copying the Samsung tablet!

The Samsung-Apple case came up during my chat with Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak at the Chawan coffee shop in Bangsar on Wednesday.

The Prime Minister, who is using both the Apple and Samsung products, told our group that innovation has to be a part of the Malaysian vocabulary.

“We need to be focused, precise and innovative. The Germans, for example, are known for their precision, which makes them very good with machines. I can’t tolerate lebih kurang, that’s not good for Malaysia. It shouldn’t be in our vocabulary,” the PM said.

We, in turn, told the PM that Malaysia’s tolerance for mediocrity is well known and we seem prepared to settle for second best. With our “boleh terima lah” forgiving nature, we are definitely not helping Malaysians to excel.

But we have to keep changing and improving.

Apple, the world’s most valuable company in terms of market capitalisation, has reportedly slid 20% in its share value in less than two months. Its stock now is reportedly below the US$705.05 all-time high it hit the day before the iPhone5 was unveiled on Sept 21. It’s certainly far away from the US$1,000 valuation that some insane analysts had predicted.

It’s just over a year since Apple’s co-founder Steve Jobs passed away and his successor Tim Cook has found Samsung breathing down his neck.

Apple’s share of the tablet market has declined, reportedly falling from almost two-thirds to just above half between the second and third quarters. In fact, the media reported that Apple missed its last financial targets because of slow iPad sales.

The world is now crazy over anything and everything Korean and the sight of Psy trotting around the globe is likely to help Samsung products.

But China-made Huawei is also selling high-quality, cheap devices that’s giving Apple a fight in the Asian markets.

And what about the newspaper industry, where print is said to be on the decline? While many media companies whine and complain without doing anything significant, The Star stepped up to the challenge and introduced its e-paper in July.

In just four months, it gained close to 50,000 subscribers, which is an incredible figure and bucks the trend. Even the circulation of The Star’s print version has gone up, surpassing the 300,000 a day figure. Putting the newspaper on mobile devices like the Samsung or iPhone has certainly been innovative.

The point is that just like any business, innovation is the key factor for any entrepreneur to improve its products, boost sales and increase revenue.

Whining is the easiest part, and that seems to have become our national pastime when it comes to trying to make things better. But coming up with ideas and workable solutions and being able to execute them is the harder part.

If we are to stay competitive, innovation should not only be our buzz word, it should also be our way of life.

Last Saturday, the Oriental Hearts and Mind Study Institute (OHMSI) conducted a talk on “Islamic State: Which Version? Whose Responsibility?” with the keynote address by Dr Ahmad Farouk Musa, director of the Islamic Renaissance Front. The forum was held at a church in Subang.

But the person who captured the headlines was PKR deputy president Nurul Izzah Anwar who was one of the moderators. In response to a question from the floor, she found herself caught in a controversy over whether Malays have a right to choose their religion.

She was speaking to a largely urban non-Malay audience and, as seen in a video recording of the event that has now gone viral, she was greeted with loud applause.

The feisty politician has since denied making any statement suggesting that there should be no compulsion on Malays to be Muslims.

But she earned a royal rebuke from the Sultan of Selangor and she has quickly blamed Utusan Malaysia for allegedly distorting and twisting her reply to a member of the audience.

To make things more complicated, the person who posed the question to Nurul Izzah has now expressed her disappointment over the latter’s about turn on the issue.

Lawyer Siti Zabedah Kasim was quoted as saying by news portal Free Malaysia Today that “I believe Nurul Izzah was just trying to impress the people. She didn’t think of the consequences.”

For many non-Muslims, especially those living in urban areas, the issue was probably dismissed as a non-starter and seen as another political move to discredit Nurul Izzah.

But for conservative Muslims in the rural areas, it would be unthinkable and unacceptable.

Luckily for Nurul Izzah, the language used at the forum was English and the video that’s currently going around does not have Bahasa Malaysia subtitles, thus making the damage less severe – for now.

But for Nurul Izzah to deny it vehemently now would suggest that she has woken up to the grave political consequences of what she has done. If there was no impact, she would have just shrugged it off. She now wants to get out of this tricky spot.

The easy part is to blame Utusan Malaysia, which is well known for its nationalist slant, but the pro-Pakatan Rakyat news portal Malaysiakini also carried the same story using the same angle on Nov 3.

Nurul Izzah has also put PAS in a corner. On Friday, PAS spiritual adviser Datuk Nik Abdul Aziz Nik Mat said that if Nurul Izzah had indeed made her controversial statement on religious freedom, “then something is not right” while PAS president Datuk Seri Hadi Awang wanted to hear from her.

Their only purported concerns, or a way out, seem to be that they have doubts over the accuracy of reporting by the media.

DAP strongman Ngeh Koo Ham tweeted last week in support of Nurul Izzah, quoting Article 11 of the Federal Constitution which states that every person has the right to profess and to practise his or her religion. But Ngeh, a lawyer, did not say it has to be read with other applicable laws.

There are laws restricting the propagation of other religions to Muslims. Article 160 of the Federal Constitution, for example, is clear that all ethnic Malays are Muslims. A Malay is defined as someone who professes to be a Muslim, habitually speaks the Malay language and adheres to Malay customs.

The fact remains that the majority of Malays want this to remain as law and as practice and convention.

Nurul Izzah’s slip has been seized on by Umno because the fight in the polls is essentially over the majority Malay votes, especially in the rural constituencies which are heavily in favour of the ruling party. Of the 222 parliamentary seats, only about 45 are Chinese-majority in urban areas and there is not a single seat with an Indian majority.

Nurul Izzah’s case will also have a deep impact in PAS where the divide between those regarded as sympathetic to Anwar and the more orthodox ulamas is concerned. Former deputy president Nasharuddin Mat Isa, for example, is solidly in the Islamist party despite his overtures to Umno. He has regularly spoken up against the DAP, a PAS ally, but remains untouched because he is said to be protected by the anti-Anwar forces in the party.

The church in Subang has found itself in the spotlight for hosting the forum. Recently, another church which hosted a forum on the elections found its speakers and the media squabbling over the accuracy of some negative remarks made on Pakatan Rakyat.

There’s a lesson here – keep religion out of politics. But as long as there are politicians masquerading as theologians of their respective faiths, no one will take this advice kindly.

It is more likely that they will use their booty to buy drugs or pay off loan sharks for their escalating gambling debts. There is obviously a correlation between gambling and crime.

Nobody commits crime for entertainment or to make a point. That may happen in the movies but the reality is that most criminals do it to enrich themselves or simply to pay off debts.

Malaysians rank as some of the biggest gamblers in the world. In 2008, it was reported that authorities made 2,156 arrests and seized more than RM15mil in gambling assets. It was estimated then that illegal gambling raked in an astounding RM3.2bil in profits. One can only imagine what the figures would be today.

The New Straits Times reported that during the 2008 general election, gambling syndicates pocketed more than RM500mil from bets placed on the candidates. And Malaysians are not just interested in our own elections. They bet up to RM500mil on the last US presidential election which Barack Obama won. For good measure, the 2008 Olympics generated even more, with the figure reported at RM1bil.

The newspaper derived the figures from their own sources but no one should be surprised. It is now almost the end of 2012 and Obama is seeking re-election this week. We can imagine the kind of money that would be placed to bet on the outcome again. And come the Malaysian general election, you can be sure that the bets will also flow.

The Malay Mail reported that in 2010, police seized RM11.9mil in cash from illegal gambling syndicates when they conducted 270 operations during the 2010 World Cup.

The question is, if gambling is a highly regulated business, why is there so much underground gambling going on? What’s worse is it’s blatantly visible.

Something isn’t quite right, obviously. The underground gambling business has thrived simply because the operators know the authorities would never allow for more legitimate outlets, be they outlets or clubs. The Genting Casino is likely to be the first and last casino ever to be sanctioned in Malaysia.

The result is that illegal gambling dens, whether in the form of cyber cafes or online casinos, have mushroomed. In times of economic slowdown, gambling outlets actually perform better because desperate customers are driven to gamble for a supposedly quick fix to their financial problems.

Last week, The Star reported that illegal e-casinos, where computer gaming programmes and live games broadcast from the Philippines are used, continued to multiply in Selangor and Kuala Lumpur despite constant exposé by the media.

Even the few that had been raided and supposedly closed down had re-opened, according to my colleague who went undercover to investigate these places.

Starprobe revisited those illegal e-casinos which the team exposed in a report on Aug 2 last year and found that nothing has changed – they were still operating.

The Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission should start its own probe and not wait for a formal report. Checks around Selangor and Kuala Lumpur have revealed that there are easily more than 2,000 outlets operating and some districts reportedly have more than 500. That does not include the thousands of massage parlours which the local authorities in Selangor seem to be doing nothing about.

Again, something does not seem to tally here. These outlets are known to the public and yet the police and council authorities appear to be turning a blind eye to them. Can we be faulted if we suspect there are rogue and corrupt elements here?

While the politicians are fearful of allowing regulated gaming because it would be religiously and politically wrong, illegal gambling seems to be flourishing. The consequences are a massive loss in revenue from unpaid taxes, and criminal elements are allowed to work alongside corrupt officials to benefit from such underground operations.

So, while legitimate gaming is controlled and tightly regulated, we see more of these illegal operations flourishing.

Are we seeing more crimes being committed these days because of such gambling activities?

Well, many non-governmental organisation activists, including the Malaysian Crime Prevention Federation vice-chairman Tan Sri Lee Lam Thye and MCA Public Services and Complaints Department head Datuk Seri Michael Chong, share the suspicion.

There is just too much gambling going on now, legitimate or otherwise, and if we feel insecure after plenty of stories of being victims to crime, Malaysians must continue to speak up and demand answers for things that are not right.

Don’t gamble our safety away.