In Malaysia, a similiar sort of control as in Iraq is in place. You are expected to believe the Prime Minister, Pak Lah, or his government, and forget the discordant voices. Pak Lah supports the United States in Iraq, and the people of Malaysia are expected to do so too. Discordant voices, except in UMNO, the ruling party, is not published in the mainstream newspapers. But the government has taken the Islamic route for which it cannot back off. It has turned Thai Malays into Thai Muslims, and calls its majority community as Muslims not Malays, though if you are both you are given a privileged place. The West has Malaysia in its pocket, but the people are not with it. And the government, with or without Western blessings, would not want to find out. This happens when a country is dubbed pro-West by Westerners because the government is pro-West. But there is a discordant political voice in the country, the Islamicists. The National Front, which governs the country and 12 of the 13 states, follows the national trend, believing as gospel what UMNO thinks. The Islamicists control one of Malaysia's 13 states, but it is disorganised now. UMNO has dubbed itself an Islamic party, but it cannot be one. It can push Islam as a political agenda but it will have to convince Islamicists that it will be an Islamic ruler as well. UMNO is caught in a transition, as PAS is, and Pak Lah is not confident of himself to lead UMNO as a president should. He is an accidental Prime Minister at a time when the UMNO warlords are showing their mettle. He could not remove from the cabinet those he should. In fact, he has not had a cabinet reshuffle since he took office, although it is time he did. He is afraid that those he drops would join his oppents. He is watched like a hawk, especially among the rank and file. And his oppenents, PAS and his predecessor as prime minister, Tun Mahathir Mohamed, and as deputy prime minister, Dato' Anwar Ibrahim. He will find he has no friends if he assumes that his word is law. And the rules made so that he has no opposition in policies will not last. His opposition in UMNO is severe, and those that are against him are former leaders of the party. He must find a way by which he gets ground support. He might think there is, but those who support him now support him as UMNO leader and Malaysian Prime Minister. He will be put out to dry by the ordinary UMNO member who supports him now, if he should ever be challenged.

A friend, who had retired from the civil service, and who missed his dato'ship because his boss felt it would do him credit if he had three dato'ships instead of two, told me that he went to one government department recently and he found food being prepared for the civil servants who had come for a meeting. In his day, he went for meetings but they broke off at lunch time to enable the participants to have their lunch, for which they paid. Today, lunch is paid for by the office, and meetings are held in exotic places at government expense. Civil servants in Johore Bahru would have their meetings in Langkawi. It is common for the senior officials in the civil service to spend hundreds of thousands of RM to decorate their offices, and continue spending as they climb up the civil service ladder. So Tan Sri Mutalib's farewell party is passe. What has upset him is the public scrutiny in the Barison Nasional owned mainstream press. He would have retired in the past, but he has become a pawn now between the urban Malays and the rural. The rural Malay is watching every step the urban Malay makes. And the urban Malay is nervous. The former Prime Minister started the ball rolling by accusing his deputy, Dato' Seri Anwar Ibrahim, of being a gay and removing from office. He is out of office but continues to repeat the allegation, the latest in Singapore. Dato' Seri Anwar has sued him, and this would be the clash between the urban and rural Malay, each representing one of them. Tun Mahathir finds his urban credentials and his 22 years in office disappear before his eyes, as Pak Lah flirsts with bringing Dato' Seri Anwar into UMNO. But Dato' Seri Anwar would not come into UMNO unless he is given a free pardon, for which he would not apply. But if Dato' Seri Anwar comes into UMNO, it would be to defeat Dato' Seri Najib Tun Razak, and in the bargain Tun Mahathir. Otherwise Dato' Seri Anwar would be in the opposition.

UMNO Baru, or UMNO the political party, remained strong while Tun Mahathir remained its head and the country's prime minister. But even he was careful not to cross swords with the warlords. The two times he did - the Johore Bahru byelection, which emerged Dato' Shahrir as a stronger figure than he was then and could well challenge Pak Lah in 2007; and dismissing Dato' Seri Anwar Ibrahim as a sodomist but refusing to attend court on his trial. Dato' Seri Anwar went on a rampage that proved his crowd pulling status, and he has ruled out rejoining UMNO. Pak Lah would like him in, provided he would agree to become deputy prime minister. I have not spoken to Dato' Seri Anwar on this, but his returning to UMNO would spell danger to the UMNO Baru deputy president and Malaysian deputy prime minister, Dato' Seri Najib Tun Abdul Razak. As I see it, Dato' Seri Anwar would come back into UMNO on a free pardon, which he would not apply for. This would enable him to challenge Dato' Seri Najib for the deputy presidency of UMNO Baru and be the next deputy prime minister. But in this scenario, Pak Lah has not considered that Dato' Seri Anwar may prove more dangerous than Dato' Seri Najib in the cabinet. The other version I had heard is that he would join PAS as its president. Either way, it would be a defeat for former UMNO president and Malaysian Prime Minister, who probably had heard of the moves to slander Dato' Seri Anwar once more. Whatever Dato' Seri Anwar might do about a legal action, Tun Mahathir had lost. Tun Mahathir would be remembered in history books for having sacked Dato' Seri Anwar, and not for which he should be. He fights a rear guard battle, at 79, to prevent this happening, but he is not leader of all he surveys now. But he represents a major political force against Pak Lah, and all those who does not like him automatically gravitate towards the ex-Prime Minister.

The minister of international trade and industry and UMNO women's wing president, Datin Serii Rafidah Aziz is the next cabinet minister proven corrupt. The mainstream newspapers and mainstream TV media have confirmed it. Which means it is true. There are other stories of cabinet ministers and others corrupt, but if the alternate media write about it, then the laws of defamation apply, and they are stopped in their tracks. One UMNO leader has said he would have sued a mainstream journalist, but would not since that fellow does not have money. In other words, money is used to bankrupt the fellow. If one the other hand, an alterate journalist seems to be winning or gets a fairer corum of jiudges, on appeal, then the case is delayed as long as possible. The cynicism extends to UMNO members who are used to defame opposition figures. They are dropped and they are not supported in court or are not helped with the amount ordered by the courts to be paid to the opposition figure. So, Datin Seri Rafidah Aziz, like the warlord before here in the cabinet, Tan Seri Isa Samad, is banned from UMNO for corruption but will not resign nor be sacked from the Pak Lah cabinet. The Prime Minister sacks from his cabinet only those who defy him personally: Tun Ghazali Shafie, Dato' Shahrir Samad and Dato' Seri Anwar Ibrahim, all by the then Prime Minister, Tun Mahathir Mohamed.

THE ROYAL MALAYSIA POLICE is up in arms about a crime committed. To make sure that it means business, it informs the press. There is only one problem with it: the story is false. But falsity about anything matters little with the press, particularly the New Straits Times. There is before the RMP a slew of police reports – about cabinet ministers and their corruption, with assorted proof – that the former deputy prime minister, Dato' Seri Anwar Ibrahim had filed for which the judge who sentenced him in the sham trial and for which he has since been acquitted by the federal court has now been appointed to that bench – which the RMP takes no notice of. But it jumps at this report that Tun Ghazali Shafie, former foreign and interior minister, has been cheated by his former personal assisant. I did ask the Tun when he was in hospital recently about the state of his dispute with him former secretary, who has not returned him documents in her care, which he said he valued more than the "baubles" in her care, which his former driver told the police about, and which the New Straits Times reported in wrongful detail a few days later. The point is he Tun Ghazali did not make any police report, he had long ruled it out in this dispute with his former secretary, who is closer to his wife, from whom he is estranged.

The PAS change took place peacefully. The press, radio and television reported it, hoping against hope as the muktamar wound its way to its close for the fireworks would make it worth their while. And got more media coverage than it would have otherwise. But PAS leaders had decided that unless it made its message acceptable to both Malays and non-Malays they cannot hope to attain power except by accident. They succeeded beyond their wildest expectations. And got the best press coverage it had had in decades. For at the end of the muktamar, PAS emerged into the mainstream of Malaysian politics firmly as never before, and locked horns with UMNO for Malay support and, ultimately, leadership. It accepted the principle that politics is the art of the possible, and invited the jailed former deputy prime minister and UMNO deputy president, Dato' Seri Anwar Ibrahim, to lead an opposition coalition in the next general election, and even called for a royal pardon without which he could well have to sit out the next general election.

To keeps the great unwashed happy and contended, the BN government initiated policies which kept them from rebellion: mindless education, universities by the score, foreign education on scholarship and bursaries, promises of Valhalla in the end. A political policy to cover up the rise of a well-educated UMNO aristocracy was put in place with no aim than to keep the great unwashed Malays in check. The non-UMNO political parties in BN did not have a say, not since the NEP, nor did they insist the dangers of this policy in the coming years. In any case, UMNO would not listen to them. If a non-UMNO leader in BN insisted on being heard, he would be warned gently of UMNO leaders who found their careers checked when they were near the top. The names of the former deputy prime minister, Dato' Seri Anwar Ibrahim, and the late Selangor mentri besar, Dato' Harun Idris, is brought out to remind them of their fates; if they persisted, it would be theirs too. They buckled under without further persuasion.

Corruption in Malaysia is endemic. It is only the authorities who insist there is none or at best manageable. It is in every sphere of activity. Anti-corruption actions are directed at the lowest rung of the corruption chain, and at those who quarrel with the National Front political leadership. It was this interpretation of corruption that landed the former deputy prime minister, Dato' Seri Anwar Ibrahim, in jail. He used his influence as deputy prime minister to order the police to investigate allegations of corruption against him. It was one he could not win. He had to be destroyed, politically if not personally. So, corruption was relied upon to twist the hands of those in whose hands his fate was. And the media orchestrated that he did not have a chance in hell to be acquitted. If he was, it would have forced the then prime minister, Tun Mahathir Mohamed, out of office. That of course was not the aim in persecuting and prosecuting Dato' Seri Anwar.

IT IS POLITICS AS usual. The animosity, even hatred, between Dr Mahathir Mohamed and his protege-turned nemesis, Anwar Ibrahim, is unalloyed. They punch in different directions, often viciously, but however hard they try, they end up punching each other. Each display an arrogance and overconfidence in what they consider their hour of triumph. One fell victim to it, the other about to. They hold Malaysian politics to ransom. It is, in one sense, an unequal fight. Dr Mahathir had the power and authority to sack, humiliate and jail Anwar in circumstances that precluded a fair trial. Anwar Ibrahim had only public support in Malaysia and overseas.

IT WAS THE MOST talked about TV interview in recent times. The SMS's flew fast and furious – I got no less than 20 in 30 minutes on the day to remind me – and a diversionary and irrelevant discussion if Astro would block the interview. No one blocked the BBC "Hard Talk" programme, many rushed home to catch it when it was aired at 07.30 pm on 10 May 2005. But it turned out much ado about nothing. The former deputy prime minister, Dato' Seri Anwar Ibrahim, whose name still evokes terror in the bowels of government, turned out a sheep in wolf's clothing. He missed so many chances to repair the doubts even many of his friends have of him. He was so intent on explaining himself that he allowed the interviewer, Steven Sackur, to dominate the interview.

This case hit the public eye because the government wanted a diversion from the political mess from the 2004 general election, the expulsion of Indonesian migrant workers, the Anwar Ibrahim affair, bilateral issues with Singapore, divisions in UMNO threatening the body politic, anti-corruption drive. It got that, and a black eye. And more if the others shirkers are not charged. The law, in Dato' Seri Najib's considered view, should take its course. If Malaysians are to believe that, the attorney-general must charge all national service shirkers in court. The BN government, which swears it believes in the primacy of the law, should insist on it. If it does not, it is the BN that would lose out.

A decade later, his deputy prime minister and UMNO deputy president, Dato' Seri Anwar Ibrahim, miscalculated Dr Mahathir's stranglehold on UMNO and the government, plotted to force him out. As Dr Mahathir in 1969, he failed. He was sacked from office, expelled from UMNO, took to the streets, was arrested, detained under the Internal Security Act, got a taste of what those detained in Guantanamo Bay after 11 September, 2001 went through, convicted in sham trials, and jailed. It would have broken a less determined man. But he was cut of the same cloth as Dr Mahathir's, with the same grit, political determination, single-mindedness, a view of Malaysia each would not allow challenged. But let us not forget, it forced Tengku Abdul Rahman out of office, as Dato' Seri Anwar's sacking forced Tun Mahathir out.

UMNO changes directions not that it needs to, but that its President wants it. But Tun Mahathir overestimated his own hold over UMNO and the government when he sacked, jailed and humiliated his deputy, Dato' Seri Anwar Ibrahim, who took to the streets. A more powerful UMNO figure, the late Dato' Harun Idris, tried it when he was arrested for corruption and misuse of power when mentri besar of Selangor. He went to jail and disappeared into the wilderness. Even Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah's revolt took him nowhere. Dato' Seri Anwar's did, and he emerged stronger than when he went in. The middle class, fed up with being held to ransom by UMNO and BN, took to the streets. Dato' Seri Anwar unleashed a revolution which frightened UMNO. He judged the ground mood was such that it would question UMNO as never before.

The BN government and the TNB management ignore public and staff concern as TNB turned into a private piggy bank for the exclusive use of its senior management and their political and crony masters. It should not be forgotten TNB funds were liberally used under a former chairman, now a cabinet minister, to humiliate the former deputy prime minister, Dato' Seri Anwar Ibrahim.

RAJA KAMARUDDIN RAJA Abdul Wahid. A former commando, so he is also known as Raja Komando, a member of the Selangor royal family, close to the Selangor house. A former UMNO member who left like so many ohers when it betrayed its deputy president, Dato' Seri Anwar Ibrahim. Joined Parti Keadilan Nasional when it was formed. He had in the years in KeADILan refused every offer to return to UMNO, including offers of money. The Selangor mentri besar, Dato' Seri Mohamed Khir Toyo, interceded with him not to take him on in the 2004 general election.

There was more. The BN presumed, rightly, that so long as the Malay, Chinese and Indian middle class backed it, the opposition had no chance. The opposition, hopelessly divided, did not help. The BN's arrogance it could do as it pleased and its total control of government and parliament allowed it to believe it could do as it liked. Until a middle class revolt appeared. It came from an unlikely corner: its own deputy president and deputy prime minister, Dato' Seri Anwar Ibrahim. Those who marched in his support when he was sacked, jailed, manhandled, humiliated were middle class Malaysians led by them. The government shocked at this retaliated blindly, set the police loose on them, as if they were criminals, when it should have paused to reflect what happened, and review its policies to prevent it in future.

It is this penchant for political reliability, when news organisations work overtime when an inconvenient politician must be politically destroyed – the Anwar Ibrahim affair, for instance – and it is first with the official news, with no attempt to get reaction from the target. A well-regard editor once, Dato' Zainuddin deserted his journalistic instincts to be handmaiden to authority, in the course of which he allows himself to be a laughing stock. Whatever he says would make no difference. RTM would function as irrelevantly as now when competence is punished, stupidity, incompetence and political reliability praised and promoted.

It is worse after the events of 1998, in the aftermatch of the arrest, detention, humiliation of the then deputy prime minister, Dato' Seri Anwar Ibrahim. The police made it clear then any who opposed the BN, especially if they came out on the streets, would be treated with utmost severity. This remains the rule today. Last week, the police prevented Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) members from attending a function where a high ranking UMNO member, a former deputy to the Selangor mentri besar, was to join the party. It did not matter. The meeting had to be cancelled. But he joined anyway. Soon, two UMNO stalwarts in Pahang, including a former deputy to the mentri besar, will join the party. All the police ensured is more opprobirum for itself.

The BN knows that if it did not do this, power would recede from it with each general election. It did badly in 1999 when the Malays deserted it in droves, in the aftermath of the arrest and humiliation of the then deputy prime minister, Dato' Seri Anwar Ibrahim. It was kept in power by a near solid non-Malay support. This would have been too in 2004 but for Tun Mahathir Mohamed's brilliant move to resign and hand power to Dato' Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi before the elections. Even UMNO officials admit that had he remained in office, the opposition would have done far better, capturing even his home state of Kedah. But Pak Lah, for his own reasons, had to fiddle with the electoral rules. He did not get what he wanted: annointment in office. He is today as unsure of his position in UMNO as on his first day as prime minister.

So I thought at the gathering to honour the victims of police brutality, and jailing, of reformasi activists in the kerfuffle who rose to support the just sacked then deputy prime minister and UMNO deputy president, Dato' Seri Anwar Ibrahim, who had raised the ante when he challenged his arrest and humiliation. That struck a common chord with the Malays who discovered their cultural and political common weal hijacked and reduced to hewers of wood and carriers of water. The gathering last night (13 March 2005) at the Century Paradise Club in Taman Melawati, which Dato' Seri Anwar attended, descended at times to farce. It harked back to its glory days, as if that guarantees its future. As UMNO would tell you, it does not. It must have a new focus and a new enemy. But for Hishamuddin Rais's brilliant skit on the prime minister, Dato' Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, which had the few thousand in the audience in stitches, and Dato' Seri Anwar's 30-minute speech, it was dated and irrelevant.

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