There is a shuffling of support in UMNO. Many have deserted Pak Lah for one of the other warlords in the party. Dato' Seri Najib will not move against Pak Lah, strengthened by Mr Khairy's threat. One man who can replace Dato' Seri Najib would not, unless he is invited, but he is popular with UMNO and throughout the country. Those around Pak Lah do not follow Malay mores and ethics to stop their rivals. Mr Khairy is a past master in that. But he fell more often than not, alienating the party and the country that he cannot survive for long after his father-in-law steps down. Whoever is next prime minister will see to that. He was not born with a silver spoon, but has made more than RM500 million in his early thirties, mostly be selling government assets to Singapore, and representing Singapore to buy Malaysian assets. He now tries so that Singapore will take over a local Bank, not a local company. He makes mistakes, the latest is ECM Libra, of which he is a director and shareholder, suing Mr Husam Musa, a PAS MP, for asking questions of how Mr Khairy came to his wealth.

The individual cabinet portfolios do not mean anything. Their holders are proforma appointees, not to strengthen the country but to ensure they collect ill-gotten gains and attack the whistleblowers. But this is not to say those droppsed were by accident. Datuk Kadir Sheikh Fadhir was dropped because he negotiated with Tun Mahathir about Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah being deputy prime minister. Pak Lah never forgets a slight, and given their background in UMNO, he went. Rest assured that the new cabinet has members who are either too corrupt, too effecient but corrupt, or useful for the vote Bank. The porftolios they hold therefore do not matter. At least until they show they do. The country is wound up by news media – either official or owned by one of other of the National Front partners or its members – of changes that would come in the cabinet reshuffle. But when the event takes place, the people are too tired to yawn.

THE HIDDEN STORY OF ECM Libra merging with Avenue Capital is not told. Avenue Capital used to be called Phileo Bank, which got its licence from the former deputy prime minister, Dato' Seri Anwar Ibrahim and was said to be his vehicle, but was taken over by the government after his fall, and which is controlled by the Prime Minister. It has in its portfolio the post office, with about RM3 billion in funds. The new entity will rival Commerce International Merchant Bankers (CIMB) as Malaysia's largest investment group. But CIMB. built brick-by-brick and therefore solid, is run by Dato' Nazir Razak, the younger brother of the deputy prime minister. Mr Khairy is the top dog of the rival. It must be noted that CIMB wants to take over Southern Bank, while Mr Khairy wants it to be taken over by a Singapore group. Malaysians are told the confusing pattern of corporate deals, while the political impact of the deal is not explained. Mr Khairy is a young man in a hurry, and the corporate deals he is part of is so that he can be prime minister after his father-in-law. But ECM Libra merging with Avenue Capital, worth over RM280 million, would not have happened if his father-in-law had not allowed it. In other countries, both would have gone to jail. In Malaysia, one could follow the other as prime minister!

Pak Lah did not want want those dropped from his cabinet go to Tun Mahathir; so, he could not reshuffle the cabinet yet. He should have reshuffled his cabinet immediately after his swept into power earlier this year. It does not matter now when he reshuffles his Cabinet; he loses lustre when he does it. He took the line of least resistance, and adopted his predecessor's cabinet as his own. But with UMNO divided, that was not wise. Pak Lah took over with much goodwill, but frittered it away by making statements he did not mean, barking at policy lapses instead of correcting them, taking no action on Malay head of government companies who had brought the companies to be rescued. No head of Bank Bumiputra has been punished for Bankrupting Bank Bumiputra, but the government rescuing it four times from Bankruptcy. More than 90 per cent of government guarantees of about $20 billion was to keep its companies afloat.

Why don't Malaysians enter details other than what is required in the state-of-the-art MyKad? The authorities have said that no one but the official concerned would get the details from a special reader. But the readers given policeman are such that he knows all the secrets you have. A lost MyKad is a hassle. You have first cancel the extraneous inform it contains, then pay a fine for losing it. A man is stopped by a policeman in the evening for speeding. He did not have money on him on him for a bribe. The policeman told him he had more than a thousand ringgit in his Bank account, and could draw from that. The policeman got into the car so that he could go to the nearest branch of his Bank, where he withdrew sufficient funds to bribe the policeman. The man was told by the police to lodge a report. He did not want to for that would have tied in knots. It would have been a wasteful effort, and would have cost him plenty. He did the next best thing. He removed from his MyKad all extraneous information and today it contains only what is the bare minimum.

The Malaysian press demonises him. He must depend on alternate channels to get his views across. So far, he has done well. But as he savours his freedom – he deserves his foreign break after six years in jail – he rebuilds his friendships, as he must, with those who could help Malaysia in the years ahead. I thought he answered well about his friendship with Mr Paul Wolfowitz, the "neocons" in President George Bush's inner circle who is now World Bank president. He has a willing ear now in World Bank headquarters, and should his and Malaysia's fortunes change in the coming years, he is a good friend to have. I do not believe a politician has permanent friends and permanent enemies. He cannot afford it. He has to sup with the devil if he has to for the larger interest: his own, his party's, the country's.

THE PRIME MINISTER, DATO' SERI Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, warns the civil service not to be corrupt; the deputy prime minister, Dato' Seri Najib Tun Razak, requires Malaysian politicians only to sing the government's praises when overseas; the deputy finance minister, Tengku Putera Tengku Awang, admits UMNO-controlled National Front (BN) states have mismanaged their states so badly that they cannot survive without federal help. A Petronas transfer of RM25 billion to the federal coffers, we are told, is proof all is well, but that its reserves have been depleted by the government's use of it as a private Bank for the hundreds of billions which Putra Jaya and other official extravagances cost. But the government continues to insist its treasury is so flush with cash that tens of billions are set aside for arms purchases and other pump priming projects for no reason than to assure us all that this country is run well.

But the central Bank, Bank Negara Malaysia, amongst other financial institutions, objected. He was to be a parliamentary candidate in the March general elections, but he fell foul of the traditional native leaders in Negri Sembilan and they blackballed him. He is now gone into business, appointed as adviser to the merchant Bank, ECM Libra, which is widely touted in financial circles as the only one Pak Lah favours.

Dr Mahathir's financial adviser to the Government, Tan Sri Nor Mohamed Yakcob, is the only new face. He is appointed a senator and second finance minister. Pak Lah says that as an unelected senator, Tan Sri Nor Mohamed has no political constituency to worry about. He can be relied upon to do an honest day's job. Can he? He wrote his name into Malaysia's fiscal adventures when, as head of currency trading at Bank Negara, he lost more than RM30 billion (the final bill - the government admits to only RM13 billion) gambling on the international financial markets. He is linked to the former finance minister, Tun Daim Zainuddin. His presence in the Pak Lah cabinet is proof yet nothing has, and would, change. This drift of the latter years of the Mahathir epoch can now confidently continue. He is where he is for his absolue loyalty to the two Tuns. This will not change.

MAIKA HOLDINGS BERHAD BEGAN life as an investment company of the Malaysian Indian Congress, to harness Indian capital for the common good. Hundreds of thousands of working-class Indians borrowed money to the hilt to buy shares and soon, like investment companies run by UMNO, MCA, Gerakan and other political parties in the National Front (BN) went Bankrupt or firmly on the road to it. The Maika Holdings Berhad mismanaged - and politically interfered by the MIC president, Dato' Seri S. Samy Vellu - from the start, saw the value of its RM1 shares reduced to about ten sen. It was re-organised, the original shareholders lost their money, many went into Bankruptcy, and the new Maika Holdings Berhad went into areas it knew nothing about, and quickly ran into debt. When shareholders asked about how the company is doing, they were either shouted down or warned.

This is, in perverse logic, taken to mean an ACA seal of approval for incorruptibility. Clearly under Pak Lah, the old rules are shunted aside. And the ACA is given a little leeway to investigate. The ACA can and did demand of Dato' Seri Nazri of his assets. He takes great exception to it. If he is a man of the people, why is he shy of revealing it? Or is he telling us that as a man of the people he is entitled to enrich his Bank accounts at will? What is curious about this flareup is that there was no need to. It was a routine investigation. The only explanation is that he did what he is accused of. Since he claims he is a political master and a man of the people, he should come clean - and tell us why one man got 6,000 taxi permits when thousands of independent taxi drivers, failing to get the permit, must hire one. Is this his idea of entrepreneur development? One can only assume he is caught putting his hands in the till.

How serious is Pak Lah in wanting to root out corruption? One should not take seriously his words in the first months of his prime ministership. He sets the scene, finds his ground, and says what he proposes to do. Wait until he is well into his prime ministership before deciding if he means what he says. For that wait until he acts. So the words pouring out on the evils of corruption, its trans-national links, and other theoretical notions of it are irrelevant unless they are backed by action. Why did Malaysia sign the United Nations convention. Here is Pak Lah: "With technological advancement advancements in ICT (information and communication technology and greater cross-border movement of ideas, people and finance, national borders are increasingly porous, and corruption too has taken a more international flavour. For example, the evidence of corrupt acts in one country can swiftly and neatly be hidden away in secret Bank accounts in another country." I think he means: Bribers and the bribed are so smart these days that they make use of secret Bank accounts overseas and out of reach of their governments. What is so unusual about it? This practice was current long before ICT existed, and as early as the Banking system.

Dato' Seri Samy Vellu's dilemma is real. Dato' Pandithan's IPF is quite well entrenched in the Indian political scene. But he does not use that clout effectively. By aligning himself to the BN, the IPF is neither here nor there. The MIC would not allow the IPF in BN. He made an ill-advised attempt to merge with PPP. With a vote Bank as the IPF has, it should have used that to bargain for a better deal and membership in the BN. But by insisting he would not desert the BN, he lost that edge. But it is still the best organised Indian political party. The MIC dithers and drifts aimlessly under Dato' Seri Samy Vellu, unable to make itself heard where it matters. There is no internal debate and any view that challenges the president's is veboten. If this view of the MIC leader has any basis, it is that MIC to strengthen its base has to merge with an irrelevant political party like the PPP. Its natural ally would have been the PPP. But Dato' Seri Samy Vellu would not hear of it, if only because Dato' Pandition is closer to Dato' S. Subramaniam than he is to Dato' Seri Samy Vellu. The newspaper editor who got the award is aligned to the MIC deputy president.

THE LANDSLIDE ALONG THE KARAK Highway - early reports that it had enveloped five cars and some deaths seem exaggerated - is frightening in that it is the first of many more to come. The highway was built shoddily, as befits many a privatised project. The government insists that only its cronies could privatise government projects. And twenty years on, every privatisation project is in shambles. The North-South Highway is in debt so deep that it cannot be repaid in a hundred years even if tolls were raised ten times what it is. It was more important to rip the public off than provide a service. All it ensured was a cash cow declaring Bankruptcy. All we see is cosmetic changes to ward off the problems, as the Karak Highway landslide, which come sooner than anticipated. When a tragedy occurs, the works minister, Dato' Seri S. Samy Vellu, immediately cannot contain himself and arrogantly orders people about. He orders the Malaysian Highway Authority to look into, as if it would not have done on hearing of it. Or is he telling us it would not if he did not?

IN THREE MONTHS, MALAYSIA has a new Prime Minister. Dato' Seri Mahathir Mohamed, in office for 22 years, finally gives way to Dato' Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi. It is a regime change no less. The cronies and business men who, towards the end, surrounded Dr Mahathir like vultures must now give to Pak Lah's cronies and business men. The Prime Minister, at the apex of the feudal structure in this democratic nation of ours, dispenses favours, contracts, businesses to his favourites. This is as it always has been, in this country and elsewhere. The only difference is that here it is blatant, and works to Bankrupt the nation. If the nation were a human being, it would have had multiple heart bypass surgeries, a federation of near-fatal diseases, and awaiting a heart and, possibly, a kidney, transplant; a virtual cripple who carries on with the good life with no thought of the morrow.

These two have five companies in all on this list, and involved in gambling and leisure. If the casino aspect of their companies are removed, they would not make the list in a hundred years. In this list are a handful of well-run companies - Public Bank, British American Tobaco, Courts Mammoth - but most are cronies of the Establishment. The Berjaya companies, RHB Capital, Leader Universal Holdings, Celcom, Hap Seng Consolidated, Malaysian United Industries, IOI Corp, YTL Corp cannot survive this list for long after the Crony chief, one Dato' Sri Mahathir Mohamed, retires by the year end.

Since the venture had no money, its success depended on Kedah state putting up front its RM200 million worth of land, as share capital, in the RM1,000 million venture, which could then turned into Bank loans. But the then mentri besar, Tan Sri Sanusi Junid, insisted on onerous conditions they could not meet. The venture collapsed. Tan Sri Sanusi and I have been friends since before he entered politics in 1974. The pair accuse me of having talked my friend out of this deal. Many believe it. But our friendship has lasted as long in our common love of books, and staying clear of each other's professional duties. That, however, is another story. But Tan Sri Sanusi remains, without doubt, my closest friend in politics, the bond strengthened after he left office. When I call him on the telephone, he always has time for me for he knows I do not bring a business man who wants an introduction. But this is a strange view in Malaysia, for relations are of no use if you do not make use of it for money.

It is easy for a professional to gut a computer system. He knows the tricks of the trade. And knows how to hack it so it would cause the most damage. A decade ago, the computer system of the Bank then known as Bank Bumiputra (it is now Bumiputra Commerce) crashed. It never said what caused it. But it was this cavalier treatment of its IT department, a threat to retrench without explaining why. That was restored in time, but it learnt its lesson. In a time of a declining economy, many companies find it convenient to cut down its IT departments. Its workers are not in the public eye, and it would not cause a public relations ruckus if a few hundred of them were retrenched, as it would if 50 office workers were.

A FOOL AND HIS MONEY, THE APHORISM goes, are soon parted. But not, it seems, if the Malaysian ratings agency, RAM, and the Labuan financial offshore authority, LOFSA, has anything to do with it. A Malaysian business man in Melbourne, Dr Adrian Ong, set up a company called Commercial IBT Pty Ltd, operated it from a business service centre there, built up, RAM and LOFSA confirms, shareholders' funds of USD 6.9 billion, successfully kept hidden from Australian financial institutions, its regulatory authorities, its financial press of this financial giant in their midst. Not RAM and LOFSA. Both gave CiBT their seal of approval, and this non-existent Australian Bank is now a deposit-taking financial institution in Labuan. Mark you, RAM and LOFSA investigate all applications as stringently and thoroughly as the best of its counterparts elsewhere in the world. So it claims. In Bolehland, that must be taken with a hefty pinch of salt. So it turns out.

Bank NEGARA MALAYSIA (BNM) AND THE ROYAL MINT of Malaysia (RMM) it privatised to an establishment crony are in what can only be described as a scam to sell the idea of coin collecting to children - who to them are not children but the younger generation - and, here comes the sales pitch, turn them, I kid you not, into entrepreneurs. As a child, I did not collect coins, stamps, matchboxes because I wanted to be an entrepreneur. I collected them because it was one of the more pleasurable things one did as a child. When I outgrew it, I gave the collection to my sister who has passed it on to her child. As no doubt tens of millions of children all over the world. But nothing can stop an entrepreneur from an idea from which he can make money not by his skill but how he can turn an idea into an easy way to make money. The BNM and the RMM have hit on children, turned a common school children's hobby into a money-making proposition. To help it along, BNM has released a new 25 sen coin series. If it is currency or only for numismatic collection it does not say.

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