The only beneficiaries are those who get the contracts, those close to the centres of power, and those close to Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi (Pak Lah). So any discussion of it which ignores the facts misses the point.

About ten years ago, Syed Azman's helicopter carried a Malaysian business man, Tan Sri Yahya Ahmad, which crashed in the Pahang jungles, killing him instantly. The then deputy prime minister, Dato' Anwar Ibrahim, should have been on that flight 20 years ago, but he arrived late and missed it. Dato' Syed Azman then bought another. He has now lost two helicopters – a small price for the riches he has accumulated as a result. This is not unusual. When Tun Mahathir was prime minister, one Chinese business man took his then VIP guests on a boat ride. He made his staff follow the boat in another so that its passengers would be comfortable in the seas. He would not do that today for he gets nothing in return. In fact, this business man is forgotten today, as he was not in those days.

THE PETROL PRICE IS what it is, only the subsidy the government pays to the oil companies has changed. The subsidy withdrawn amounts to RM4.4 billion annually, and with it comes the promise that petrol prices would not be any higher this year. But the prime minister, Dato' Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, is worried. He has told UMNO to explain the fuel increase. But should it not be his government which should explain, not his political party? The government was ordered to withdraw the subsidy to meet the shortfall of RM20 billion for the projects proposed by his son-in-law under the 9th Malaysia Plan. As if on cue, the public ignored the larger amounts misused, and demonstrated against the withdrawal of the petrol subsidy.

DATUK SERI ABDULLAH Ahmad Badawi – formally but known to all and sundry, even himself, as Pak Lah – is trapped. There are many reasons why: his son-in-law, the deputy prime minister, Tun Mahathir Mohamed, his office, UMNO headquarters, the non-Malay and non-Islamic parties in the ruling National Front, Dato' Seri Anwar Ibrahim, his political enemies. The withdrawal of RM4.4 billion annually, because his son-in-law wanted RM20 billion for his projects, led to Pak Lah being trapped. Mr Khairy Jamaluddin proposed to meet a RM20 billion shortfall in the 9th Malaysia Plan by raising the petrol price. He had earlier proposed RM200 billion worth of projects, RM20 billion less than the plan. Pak Lah dutifully told Malaysians the government could not afford the fuel subsidies. It was a spin. But how does Mr Khairy, known in some quarters as 'Satan's son', sit in on official committees, when he has no right to and is not in the government. make proposals he cannot and should not? Pak Lah has trapped himself because he allows his son-in-law to interfere in the administration of government.

The New Straits Times has spawned The Malay Mail, Berita Harian, Harian Metro, among others. Every editor of the group is selected for his UMNO, not National Front, reliability. In recent years, the Prime Minister selects or okays the name. To make it easier to control, one of his close aides or man he trusts is made editor-in-chief. Tun Mahathir, when prime minister, had appointed latterly Dato' Abdullah Ahmad, a former MP from Kok Lanas, a former deputy minister and political secretary to the second Prime Minister Tun Abdul Razak. Pak Lah appointed Dato' Kalimullah Hassan, and after he left, Dato' Hishamuddin Aun. Dato' Kalimullah promised the NST that no action would follow the publication of the cartoon, even if opposition parties, including PAS, NGOs and others have lodged a police report.

In Malaysia, the opposition is seen as a useful check on the National Front. And they have grown in members who are united in hate: they hate a leader in UMNO, and all those who hate him, but not UMNO, rush to swell its ranks. It seems at first sight a party to watch, but it is united in hate. But when the principle hate figure removes himself, and is no longer an issue, whoever takes over UMNO sweeps the board. This is what happened in the 2004 general election. There was a surge out of UMNO as Tun Mahathir Mohamed continued to dominate the party. Those who moved out continued to love UMNO but did not like its then president. KeADILan, now Parti Kadilan Rakyat after it merged with Parti Rakyat Malaysia. The reformasi demonstrations were the larger because many of those in it did not like the UMNO president. When Tun Mahathir resigned abruptly in favour of Dato' Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi before the 2004 General Elections, he deprived the opposition of an enemy.

THE FORMER PRIME MINISTER, Tun Mahathir Mohamed, 79, is rushed to the United States after doctors at the Institiut Jantung Negara (National Heart Institute) ruled out a bypass for the second time. He had a heart attack about Christmas and left, according to sources, "at the end of 2005 or early 2006". Given his age, and his inclement health, the doctors here ruled out a second bypass; he had his first done in 1988. This would effectively rule him out from active politics for at least three months. This would affect the fate of the prime minister, Dato' Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, his son-in-law and the deputy prime minister, Dato' Seri Najib Tun Razak. If he comes back, it is a bonus for Dato' Seri Najib; if he does not, for Pak Lah and his son-in-law, Mr Khairy Jamaluddin. Tun Mahathir coming into active politics in 2005 has forced Pak Lah to cancel his plans for a cabinet reshuffle; all Tun Mahathir's men still in Pak Lah's cabinet were going to be axed. But Tun Mahathir met these men for his own post-Cabinet meeting at the KLCC every Wednesday.

The rebels against British rule in Malaya came from the titled: Dato' Bahaman, Mat Kilau, Maharaja Lela, Dato' Sagor were on the royal court. They failed because they could not get the people on their side in fighting the British, who hanged most of them. Our officials did not bother until Mat Kilau was found to be alive. There were intense discussions in the 20th century whether he ought to be given a dato'ship. I knew his son-in-law and daughter, and have stayed with them when I was in the capital he was Malaysian ambassador. He later became an official at the Organisation of Islamic Conference when Tengku Abul Rahman, Malaysia's first prime minister, was secretary- general. But until Mat Kilau was found alive, the Malaysian people, if ever, did not know the connection. Both are dead now, his widow died in a car crash. The people will not move unless led. UMNO was founded in the Istana in Johore Bahru, Dato' Sir Onn bin Jaffar its founding president, was a cousin of the sultan, and mentri besar of Johore. (His mother's sister, both Circassions from Turkey, was the wife of Sultan Abubakar, grandfather of the present Sultan.) Many of the earlier leaders of UMNO were from the palace. It is only the last two presidents, Tun Mahathir Mohamed and Dato' Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, were not from the aristocratic class, although Tun Mahathir's mother was from the Kedah royal court.

The Malaysian prime minister, Dato' Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, hosted this year's meeting, adding the ASEAN Summit chairmanship to that he already holds, of the Organisation of Islamic Conference and of the Non-Aligned Summit. He did not object when the ASEAN Summit decided that the fate of one Myanmarese woman was more than that of 4 million Malays. He hopes that the 4 million Malays will go away, because he does not think them important. But having said on taking office as Malaysian prime minister two years ago that they would not be, he had suddenly ignored them. But is not the Thai Malays any more different from Timor Leste? One was a Malay minority fighting with Buddlist Bangkok and the other a Roman Catholic minority fighting with Muslim Djakarta. But Timor Leste became independent by UN supervision, and Malaysia helped, while the Thai Malays are left to their own devises. They are now told that Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, whom the United States want to lead Myanmar, is more important than the Thai Malays. Pak Lah handed the Thai Malays over to the Islamic nations, and forgot about it. Recently, the head of PULO, now living in Europe, was persuaded to come to Malaysia for medical treatment, rather than in Europe, in May this year, and he was ordered out of the country last week in a stretcher, untreated. One in Malaysia, he was kept in a room with hardly any space to move about, and ignored. Meanwhile, Malaysia has sent back to Thailand Thai Malays who came to Malaysia. He was ignored by Malaysian officials.

WHEN DATO' SERI ABDULLAH Ahmad Badawi, or Pak Lah, was on his way to the airport on the morning of 6th December 2005, when the voters trooped in Penkalen Pasir in Kelantan to cast their votes, his aides told him that PAS would win that seat. But intelligence sources had decided the day before UMNO would get the seat by 130 votes. That prediction was like a chief minister of Sabah told he was returned in his constituency by nearly 10,000 votes - two days before the election. PAS, on the other hand, knew it had lost the seat if more than 80 per cent voted, with the UMNO majority rising as more than 80 per cent voted. As it is, 82 per cent did. An UMNO leader active in the campaigning sent out SMS congratulating his men for making the victory possible, adding that the 134 votes majority was coincidental to the 134 vote majority he had predicted! But as the votes were being counted, officials, not knowing the shenanigans taking place, thought that PAS had won by 70 votes. In the end, UMNO had won by a majority of 134 votes. There was a recount, of course, for the majority was two per cent of the votes cast. UMNO tried too hard, and the Election Commission worked harder for UMNO to win, that no one in UMNO or the Election Commission noticed that more votes were cast in the postal votes than allowed: 212 cast when only 195 votes were allowed. When this was pointed out to the head of the Election Commission, Tan Sri Abdul Rashid Abdul Rahman, he did not admit his mistake, but threatened he was ready for a bruising fight in Court!

The National Front is in disarray. Individual presidents chart their own course of action, known only at the beginning of their leadership. The moment Dato' Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi took over as Prime Minister, his predecessor, Tun Mahathir's view, was discarded, and Pak Lah's views now took precedence. Islam Hadhari was the order of the day. Everyone talked of it, as if a new religion had been formed. But it was not in Pengkalen Pasir. The National Front policy has its confrontational policies adopted by stealth. Islam Hadhari cannot be a matter of debate. It was all right in the early days of independence, or even when the New Economic Policy was implemented in 1970, but not all right in 2005. The National Front cannot order the youths to follow its president's dictates, let alone other policies, because the youths, often children of Malaysians born after Merdeka in 1957, have difference concerns than the founders of UMNO or the Alliance or even the National Front had in mind. The youngsters of today cannot get jobs, have concerns different when the National Front leaders were youths at the time of independence, will have the National Front racial components ignore them at the best of times. The youth will rally to it by promises of good times to come, but it has not come, and those from all races, join hands in unision against the National Front.

The Election Commission has castigated other parties for not accepting this as their political philosophy. The opposition parties believe the Election Commission should be free, but like the Malay government servant, it has a hidden agenda that conflicts with its legal duties. That is why Tan Sri Abdul Rashid was so arrogant about the results, in which the postal votes were more than allowed. He will see to it that UMNO will forever rule. The opposition parties are a nuisance to this hidden rule, and will be treated as such. To ensure this, he has taken to be mediator between the prime minister, and UMNO President, Dato' Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, so that UMNO will have a free run. He had two dinners with the Pasir Mas warlord, formerly of UMNO but now an independent, at the Crown Princess in Kuala Lumpur. He wanted Dato' Ibrahim to not contest the byelection, showing his charts and graphs which indicated he will get 400 votes. (This was why Datuk Khairy confidently predicted Dato' Ibrahim would get less than 500 votes.)

THE NATIONAL FRONT, OR rather UMNO, has won the Kelantan state constituency seat of Pengkalen Pasir. The National Front publicity machine is ecstatic about it, but UMNO does not think it a victory. They see it not as a gladitorial contest between UMNO and PAS but as between Khairy Jamaluddin and Dato' Seri Najib Tun Razak to see who would have the inside track to be Prime Minister after Khairy's father-in-law, Dato' Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi. The 140-vote win is neither here nor there. There were 160 votes spoilt, surprisingly the same number as postal votes. This is dubbed in UMNO as "Khairy's election". And Khairy Jamaluddin had set the tone: UMNO would get a 700 vote majority, and Dato' Ibrahim Ali, a former UMNO leader who has been expelled and stood as an independent, would get less than 500 votes. Khairy Jamaluddin could only deliver the second of his promises. Dato' Ibrahim Ali lost 1,100 votes less than he received in 2004. UMNO brought in 3,800 votes from elsewhere who were registered to vote in the constituence. Pemuda UMNO and Puteri UMNO said they were in control of the 2,000 new voters. UMNO should have got at least 6,900 vote majority, nearly ten times more than it had predicted, but got less than the postal votes. The efficient National Front propaganda machine has called it a victory, nevertheless, and the newspapers reported it as such and how the PAS state government in Kelantan is dithering because of it.

The Malay government servant can illtreat the tourist. The deputy internal security minister, Dato' Noh Omar, told tourists not to visit if it did not agree with what the authorities do to them. He was castigated, but not sacked, by his minister, who happened to be the prime minister, Dato' Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi. But government reaction to the fallout of the MMS videoclip has been at cross purposes. It cannot abandon Ketuanan Melayu policy. So it will fumble. It cannot order the decisions which will treat the tourists from Asia fairly. That would mean it would have to, God forbid, treat the Malaysian fairly! It is under pressure from its backers to get Chinese tourists back. So far, there is no indication that they would make the policy changes that would treat the Malaysian differently. Now the problem over the Chinese tourist is seen in the government at the facilities going to waste if he did not come. If it reaches a solution, it would at best be temporary. Nothing would change permanently unless the Malaysian is treated on par with the tourist. Because China is prepared to fight for its citizens - this is not how Malaysia treats its citizens - the Ketuannan Melayu policy is dented. It would not be erased yet. There will be other occasions when it would be dented further. Chinese tourists being treated fairly, as China demands, is a start. But it will be a long while before a Malaysian is at part with the tourist.

The issue has taken the proportions it has because the Chinese government has taken it seriously, and reacted. It does not matter if it is a Chinese citizen, although she seems to be. What happened to her happened to other women in police hands, and for such 'crimes' as leaving the passport home. When did leaving the passport home become a drug offence? But the police regard any woman it arrests a drug smuggler! The many statements the police have issued seems to suggest it is. Any statement issued to clear the issue has caused confusion. No one now knows what the police can do or not do. It is part of a larger malaise. Before more mishaps happen, it is best for the National Front government of Dato' Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi to rethink its policies so that it will be applied to the Malay as well as non-Malay. The government has ignored Sarawak and Sabah, making Islam the official religion when the majority religion is Protestant Christianity in Sarawak, and Roman Catholicism in Sabah. Otherwise, it would not be long before few non-Malays are around who will say the Malay is right even when they are not.

There is another problem: people in the government speaking at cross purposes in public. The deputy internal security minister, Dato' Noh Omar, said foreigners should stay home if they are not prepared to follow local laws, but he was immediately contradicted by his minister and prime minister, Dato' Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi. The man was not sacked, as he should have been. It showed Pak Lah to be weak as a National Front leader. What is important to the authorities is proof that the nude woman in the MMS videoclip is not a Chinese citizen, and who took it. The Malay policewoman supervising the ear squat, who has been traced, is not their concern. The foreigner in Malaysia is told to carry his passport with him at all times. He is harassed for carrying a photostat of his passport. The passport is, as any Malaysian knows, is a valuable document. Lose it, and it is a hassle to get a replacement, especially if you happen to be overseas. A foreigner in Kuala Lumpur with a valid passport and work permit has been harassed by policeman for doing just that. In which country in the world are tourists required to carry their passport at all times? In Malaysia you are told to. If Malaysia is a modern country attracting tourists, do you attract them by implementing rules like these?

UMNO has suggested PAS should resign if it lost Pengkalen Pasir next week. But that has been modified later by saying that PAS should resign unilaterally if it lost Pengkalen Pasir. Under the election laws amended after UMNO stalwart Dato' Shahrir Ahmad won as an independent in the Johore Bahru parliamentary byelections in the 1980s, any one who resigns is automatically suspended from standing for five years. There is no talk anymore of UMNO state assemblymen resigning. PAS state assemblyman would resign if they are asked to but UMNO state assemblymen would rather not. The UMNO elected official makes it his life time occupation. He cannot afford to be left on the sidelines. In UMNO it is the individual that counts, in PAS the collective decision. The federal cabinet under the National Front is so constructed that its members hold office for a lifetime. The ministers and other political members of the government puts the country in limbo so that they can survive. The prime minister dare not sack them or reshuffle his cabinet for fear they will join his enemies in the party. The byelections in Pengkalen Pasir is held not so the people can elect their representative to the state assembly. It believes that if the people of Malaysia accept its message, so will the people of Pengkalen Pasir. The media, which it controls, carry what National Front leaders from elsewhere are doing to ensure UMNO's continued relevance in the state. But it is not true.

THE PRIME MINISTER, DATO' Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi (Pak Lah) is furious with his deputy internal security minister, Dato' Noh Omar for having said that foreigners could go home if they thought Malaysia was cruel. But he does not drop the deputy minister from his government. He dare not, for Dato' Noh and his supporters may join his opponents in UMNO, which has the power in the National Front government. The home affairs minister, Dato' Azmi Khalid, who had to postpone his visit to China from yesterday to 20 December 2005, blames 'negative press reports". He makes a slur on the Chinese government, which the previous day had protested against Malaysia ill- treating its citizens. The Malaysian public is blamed, and anyone else, if only to tell the world that it is not the government's fault. The Malaysian Government illtreats its citizens and they keep quiet. Those from India, Pakistan, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Vietnam are, but their governments keep quiet; so it assumed wrongly China would too. Malaysia supports, or vaccilates in public about its departments and agencies illtreating the Chinese tourists, and cannot admit that it has done wrong. In this first crisis of its making, it is in dissaray. It thinks it can explain its side of the story, but no one, especially the Malaysian public, believes it. The foreigners, especially China, disbelieves it. The mainstream newspapers in Malaysia, which by and large is the National Front's public relations machine, has carried articles of police and immigration manhandled foreign tourists. The National Front government has no case, but acts as if it has. It could ask its experts to solve the issue, but they are chosen for their political reliability not for their experise.

THE MINISTER OF HOME Affairs, Dato' Seri Azmi Khalid, will not go to China as planned tomorrow. China has told him to sort out the mess in his department in two weeks, and come afterwards. The government was caught flatfooted when the MMS videoclip of a naked Chinese woman doing the ear squat was published. The police predictably have gone after the person who took the videoclip. The newspapers are full of articles which suggest that the police did the right thing. But the problem of police brutality is not new. The Tenaganita chief, Irene Fernandez, has in her files Indians, Bangladeshis, Nepalis, and others who have been brutalised by the police. The DAP MP, Ms Teresa Kok, has been investigated for having the videoclip. The police wanted to find out how she came to it. The police is not interested whether the videoclip is true until the prime minister, Dato' Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, instructed them to find out the truth of the videoclip. It has become important because fewer Chinese tourists affect Malaysia's bottom line. Genting Highlands casino lost millions of ringgit as a result of Chinese tourist high rollers staying away for two days early this year. Chinese tourists would not come to Malaysia all of a sudden. There has been two-thirds less tourists for the first nine months this year compared to the last.

But UMNO has been sailing into the sunset long before Dato' Abdullah Ahmad Badawi (Pak Lah) took over as prime minister two years ago. He strengthened his position by winning the general election last year. But he is more interested in keeping UMNO together as he is challenged by warlords in the party, and reluctant to even reshuffle the cabinet he inherited from Tun Mahathir for fear that those dropped would go against him, especially in the 2007 party elections. He is more worried about UMNO than general elections, a trait his predecessor also showed. He is unsure of himself, and there is talk in Kuala Lumpur that he will bring Dato' Seri Anwar Ibrahim into UMNO - one stone he hopes would kill his two major political enemies, Dato' Seri Najib and his predecessor, Tun Mahathir Mohamed. It was Tun Mahathir who sacked Dato' Seri Anwar as deputy prime minister for committing sodomy but would not appear in court to justify it. No one has asked if Dato' Anwar would rejoin UMNO, from which he was expelled. He is not even a member of Parti Keadilan or its successor, Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR), former after its amalgamation with Parti Rakyat Malaysia, although his wife, Datin Seri Wan Aziz binti Dato Wan Ismail, is president. He has since said in press releases that he would rather join the opposition. The scuttlebutt in Kuala Lumpur is that he would join PAS and be its president before the next general election.

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