He cannot answer persistent Washington questions on why he allowed Osama bin Laden to have Bank accounts in Malaysian Banks, as it alleges. Nor why he allowed terrorists to meet in Malaysia as Washington alleges? It does not matter that Washington, aftering stumbling on the terrorist rendezvous at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport last year nevertheless gave them visas to enter the United States to under pilot training. What is allowed Zeus is disallowed the cow. But can Dr Mahathir seriously claim to be an Islamic leader if he does not accept and condone the Arab hurt and anger towards the West? Since he needs Saudi support for his role, can he refuse to allow Saudi Arabia to encourage the Taleban and others, imposing its Fundamentalist Wahabi sect of Islam into its worldview? (Curiously, the US does not target Saudi Arabia, although it is one of three countries -- the others are Pakistan and the United Arab Emirates -- which recognises the Taleban; but then Saudi Arabia is so drawn into the American network that she could be excused; indeed, has to be excused).

It is, as time proves, a brilliant recipe for disaster. Which is why IWK is back in government hands. Tan Sri Dato' Seri Vincent Tan laughed all the way to the Bank. And to drive home the point he is an international business man of unquestioned repute, he attempted to muzzle via the courts any who questioned his self-proclaimed status of an internationally known business man of unquestioned repute. That succeeded as brilliantly as his management of IWK and the debts his Berjaya Group ran up.

The remaining charges against him should have beenn dropped without bringing it to court, and a bigger mistake to have withdrawn it once it was. It is now seen as denying Dato' Seri Anwar to rebut the charges against him. So, whey did the Attorney-General's Chambers proceed with the charges in the first place? Did it not know the political consequences of whatever it did? It is fair to assume that the strongest charges, so badly mishandled, have all been disposed, those that remain are peripheral. So, why was it proceeded with? And before the UMNO General Assembly. Dato' Seri Anwar's genius and his devoted Bank of Anwaristas, rising by the day, have nothing to lose, and continue to punish UMNO and its president, his nemesis, determinedly go ahead with their political destruction. Nothing so far suggests that the reverse is true. There is little option now for the government, if it wants to survive, to release Dato' Seri Anwar and rebuild its lost reputation if it can.

Recently, the head of the Hong Kong monetary system was in town for a talk. Nothing unusual about it. Except that the man was once a high ranking official in Bank Negara Malaysia, went to the World Bank, when the ?glass ceiling? hit him as it does any who are not mediocre, and is now in Hongkong. He is not the only one.

In fact, Hicom had the best bid; somehow, after a re-evaluation, with the criteria changed midway by the Economic Planning Unit under the skilful guidance of one Tan Sri Ali Abul Hassan (who went to higher heights as Bank Negara Governor and is now economic adviser to the Prime Minister), Hicom was dropped and Tongkah chosen in its place. At that time, Tongkah's turnover was RM12 million, after this hospital support services contract, it rose to RM175 million.

UMNO demands an accounting of its assets after the breakup of the old UMNO in 1987, and its investment arm broken up. Daim, as UMNO Treasurer, has not given a detailed report of what is held and what its position is. In recent meetings of the UMNO supreme council, the pressure on him to reveal all is so great that not attending UMNO meetings would allow him time to write a report on how much it has lost. There is no reason to assume that UMNO holdings would be well taken care of when personal holdings are at the brink of Bankruptcy.

2:44pm, Wed: The ringgit is under pressure. Make no mistake about that. The billions the Banking system wrote off, and the all but worthless value of the holdings in Danamodal and Danaharta, the large foreign exchange debts these cronies, courtiers and siblings of the establishment took in Labuan is not talked about, but must be accounted for. The government thinks not, but it only postpones the inevitable.

More wrong one could not. Oda Saja Sdn Bhd is owned by at least two siblings of the establishment, including one from the Establishment. It has no ties with Pos Malaysia Bhd in selling personal computers under this scheme. It is brought in to make it look above board, and is not part of this elaborate uh, eh, hmm, oh, ehem, scam. This month, Bank Simpanan Nasional Bank gets into the act, open up another frontier of choice, with special deals to those who rush in and buy. I went along to the General Post Office to collect a parcel, and decided to look into the PCs it had for sale. If I am in need of a PC, I would not have bought it. There were a few examples of Dells, Gateways, Compaqs, and a few other brands, and for you to take it or leave it.

Amidst the furore over the transfer of the Chinese school in Damansara, the focus shifts to the appalling state of Tamil education in Malaysia. Unlike Chinese schools, which is supported by the community, the Tamil schools are not. They were set up for no reason than to provide a steady flow of near-indentured labour for the plantations. The plantations are not interested in the quality of Tamil education; indeed, they had a vested interest in keeping the Tamils ill-educated. The MIC slings on to Tamil schools, for its near-indentured vote Bank, and would do nothing to upgrade it. Education, as UMNO realises now, brings about a freeing of the mind, and nothing upsets the status quo than educated youngsters demanding their pound of flesh.

But pharmaceutical drugs cost more than in the rest of the region because of the monopoly shared by a company controlled by the Prime Minister, Dato' Seri Mahathir Mohamed's son, Mokhzhani Mahathir, and the finance minister Tun Daim Zainuddin-controlled Renong. No drug company can tender unless a Mokhzani-controlled company is paid a commission, variously between three and per cent, a commission which should make him laugh all the way to the Bank if it were not for his huge Bank loans.

The works minister, Dato' Seri S. Samy Vellu, says the government must compensate the highway concessionaires RM19 billion over 20 years. This is too onerous, he says, and a new formula is worked out to that they would get soft loans instead. The people must not be ignored, you understand, so how this would be done is "win-win" for both concessionaire and people. The people will not pay as much as they should, and the concessionaire would run gleefully to the Bank. What the government pays out to them for not hiking the tolls as they want is a small portion of this payment. The bulk of that is money handed to the concessionaires when their own inflated estimate of traffic is not met. This becomes a sore point, in the government and out. In 1986 the Plus Highway took over the existing North-South Highway, spent RM6 billion to upgrade it, in return for a 30-year concession. That would end in 2016, but Dato' Seri Samy now says it would not end until 2021.

When the Indian Prime Minister, Mr Atul Behari Vajpayee, arrives in Malaysia for an official visit, it is as leader of a resurgent India frightened of China's moves into Southeast Asia. It is also the first by an Indian leader with a well-defined plan to be involved in the security and other concerns and not just trade. India's role in the region is one of missed opportunities. Thirty years ago, she had four commercial Bank branches, today it has none. China then had none, today the Bank of China has reopened with the right to open 13 branches, one in each state of the Malaysian federation. His recent official visits to Vietnam and Indonesia saw defence pacts signed, and his current visits to Malaysia and Japan would also have this as the main focus.

Pandithan played his cards wrong in pledging loyalty to the National Front. He will not lead his IPF into the opposition. So, the National Front can lead him on. And little he can do. But the National Front cannot let him go either. His all-too-important vote Bank of Indians can throw up more Lunas typhoons.

FURTHER TO THE announcement made on behalf of the Directors of Ekran on 6 November 2000, Amanah Merchant Bank Berhad, on behalf of the Directors of Ekran, wishes to announce that the Board of Directors has granted approval to Tan Sri Ting for a final extension of time until 30 January 2001 for the settlement of the initial cash payment of RM50 million pursuant to the Settlement Agreement dated 29 June 2000 entered between Tan Sri Ting and Ekran.

The Super Bumiputra and other cronies, siblings, courtiers go along for a substantial fee in the form of projects and public ridicule so that others could make a great killing. So, he takes the fall for the SRK (C) school and laughs all the way to the Bank to settle his debts. There is more. The school grounds comprise a mere 0.38 hectares. It is attached to a squatter settlement of about six hectares, an old new village of squatters resettled during the Emergency to cut off supplies to the communists. Like all new villages, they were on temporary leases which have since expired. The squatters, which is what they are in law, are not given their titles to the land. There is no interest in government to carry through their frequent promises when its favoured supporters can make millions of ringgit out of it. The land titles, I am told, are now held back. At RM300 a square foot, they would continue to be.

As in Teluk Kemang, the lessons are the same. The voters expect more than assuaged feelings during election time. They want to be seen not as a predictable vote Bank which can after the elections be ignored. They want some one who would listen to their problems, and do something about it. The opposition understood this, and does that.

THE Bank OF CHINA returns to Malaysia after three decades with more branches that it dared hope or wanted. Foreign Banks are restricted to the branches they already have, with those establishing offices for the first time allowed only one. But the Beijing Bank is allowed 13 branches, one in each state. Its Kuala Lumpur office is at the ground floor Banking hall of Plaza OSK in Jalan Ampang, opposite Wisma MCA. Four parking lots are reserved for officers of the Bank in front of the building. The Bank of China arrives in stealth. The caution is understandable. The Malay ground see the Prime Minister in office only with Chinese support. The MCA president, Dato' Seri Ling Liong Sik, negotiated the deal with Beijing to claim credit with the Chinese community for bringing the Bank to Malaysia. Beijing is shocked and ecstatic at what is offered Bank of China in Malaysia. In early stages of the negotiations, China rejected Malaysia's offer of 13 branches for Bank of China in return for a deposit of US$5 billion with the central Bank, Bank Negara Malaysia. The Bank is allowed only limited Banking facilities elsewhere in the world.

The political confrontation of the past two years takes its toll. Add to it the disastrous re-organisation of the Banks, done not, as we are told, to meet globalisation's challenges, but to prevent Bankruptcy. The government set up two bodies, Danaharta and Danamodal, to save the huge corporations, like Renong and UEM, from its huge debts, and from its Bank debts. Wiping the debts does not put the economy right: the contingent liability of Danaharta and Danamodal still exist, and writing it off alone cannot work. But Danaharta and Danamodal is not available to those who need it, only to those who are close to the government. One middling public listed company, with similar connexions, is indebted four times more than its paid up capital of RM2 billion.

In 1980, the Malaysian business man, Dato' Chang Ming Thien, set up an education fund for RM10 million with Multi-Purpose Holdings, the MCA investment arm then, with MCA leaders, including its president, as trustees. Nothing was done of it that in 1990, Dato' Chang's estate demanded its return. The high court, after nine years, ordered its return to the Chang investment company, General Holdings. The MCA, in its 50 year existence, never managed other people's funds well. The deposit taking co-operatives its leaders set up in the 1980s led to some convicted and jailed. Tens of thousands of Malaysians who took the MCA leaders at face value were ruined, and many did not forget the loss of their life savings, which they entrusted to these deposit taking co-operatives for loans in the future to educate their children in universities. Dato' Chang Ming Thien, who once controlled the UMBC Bank and Faber Merlin and hundreds of other companies -- he once sat on 600 boards--, financed the corporate rise of the finance minister, Tun Daim Zainuddin. He died in a freak accident in the early 1980s, when he hit his head against his bed in his suite in the Hotel Merlin, now the Concorde Hotel.

The deliberate official slights against him were many, once he decided he would not support the Prime Minister in the years after UMNO was split in 1988. He was for years an adviser to the Standard Chartered Bank here; when it wanted to make him chairman of the Malaysian unit, all obstacles were put in his and the Bank's way. It is to the credit of the Bank that he was kept on until he decided, years later, to call it a day. His pain at the continuing confrontation between the Judiciary and the Bar was the more in what he insisted was the destruction of a judiciary that could hold its head with pride with the best judicial systems in the world. He was not an activist, he kept his own counsel, opening up only when amongst friends. I would often join him for lunch in the law officers where the former Lord President, Tun Saleh Abas, whose dismissal from office in the wake of the UMNO dissolution reduced the Common Law judiciary to its lowest depth since it made its appearance in the early 19th century. Quiet though his disposition is, he can be a great raconteur; his cryptic comments of the day given only after much thought. While those around the table sometimes made caustice remarks about the state of the nation, he would remain aloof, coming with a comment that often brought the discussion back to a less controversial discussion.

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