The New Straits Times, which exists, for the moment, to praise Pak Lah and his stalwarts and decry their detractors, kept quiet about it. The Star misled its readers to ask if he would contest at all, for which post, wondered why he would when all the cards are stacked against him, and rounds with a stirring call for Pak Lah to be unchallengeable because he has proved his worth in his eight months in office. Bernama, the official news agency, obviously did not think it important to report it: if it had, all the newspapers would have carried it. The television station, TV3, however, did break ranks and mentioned that Tengku Razaleigh made his intentions clear in Gua Musang yesterday. But the Malay mainstream newspapers, especially the Utusan Malaysia, have been fairer in its coverage, that even a casual reader of this paper got the drift that Pak Lah would be challenged - and by Tengku Razaleigh.

THE MALAYSIAN PRIME MINISTER, Dato' Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, left for Los Angeles last week, with his wife for her medical treatment for cancer. He is on leave. He should have been allowed his private moments with his wife there. One has absolute sympathy for his state of mind, and his concern for his wife's health. He is due back this week, after an eight-day holiday, but his spin doctors would not let him be. They had to create him to be what he is not, that in his moment of private grief and family concerns, he rises to the call of duty. They made a mountain out of a molehill. Bernama was on hand to report it, and thus, inadvertently, put a knife into the man. It was as usual ill thought out. It did not have the impact it should or could have. For it was a time of two major events in the United States during the time he was there: the death of President Reagan, and the G-8 summit.

But why did the EC helpfully tell Bernama that by 1300, 60 per cent of the electorate had voted, and it expects 80 per cent to do so when voting ends? Yet it said nothing about Kelantan and Trengganu where slightly over 30 per cent voted by noon. If it talked about voting in Kedah, it should have for the whole country. Who is the EC to decide that 80 per cent of the voters would come out to vote? How does it know? But that is what the BN wants. But the EC went about its task so the Opposition is frustrated in what it does. The printed list of electors it gave the Opposition was as incomplete as what the BN had was complete. This is why it banned the Opposition parties from setting up information booths outside polling stations. But at the last minute, allowed the BN to set up booths, which contained the full list. The Opposition list it got from the EC was incomplete, and its candidates could not track the voters down. When this was pointed to the EC, it helpfully told them they should do so at ceremahs instead! It did not know that its own organisation is so destroyed from within that it could not do what it promised. But the EC offices in Sabah and elsewhere had a printed list that did not have all the names in the CD.

IGNORING THE PAST IS easy in Malaysia. The only view allowed is the official. It emanates from the top. Look how the news is reported. A newspaper may have reporters at the scene, but its editors only believe the 'true' version by Bernama, the official news agency. One newspaper stays out trouble by not bothering to report at all, with Bernama doing its reporting of local news. Television stations, other than the approved pro-Government, must rely on Bernama for their news content. A reporter may see but he did not see it if it is officially denied. Is it any wonder that rewriting and ignoring the past is a way of life. It does not matter what, look deep into it and you would find that what is, is not.

The Scholars are well-meaning and brilliant men and women who could in time be intellectuals in their own right. They are young, inexperienced, immature with a thirty-something view of the world that cannot take them anywhere. They have their hangers on, there for no reason than to fill the gaps to extend control. All are short on experience, skullduggery, deviousness. Its importance in Pak Lah's comfort is his nepotic cabal around him. Besides Mr Khairi, the Scholars include his wife and Pak Lah's daughter, Nori; her brother, Mr Kamaluddin Abdullah; their friends like Mr Karim Raslan, the lawyer and columnist; Ms Tan Siok Choo, the think tanker and former journalist, the daughter of the late MCA president, Tun Tan Siew Sin; Ms Zainah Anwar, another journalist and think tanker whose sister is widow to Mr Kamaluddin's late father-in-law. The hangers on include the Bernama chairman, Dato' Khalimullah Hassan. It is a well-knit group, and those not in the family know where they stand. It gives the individual members an importance they would not otherwise have. If the Scholars had another decade of experience, the Ninjas would have cause to worry.

UMNO, if it could, would have happily strangled Tan Sri Abdul Rashid. He managed his campaign well - it does not matter why - and the opposition welcomes it as much as UMNO and BN oppose it and insist the last word is with the police. The Inspector-General of Police, Tan Sri Norian Mai, however, agrees to election rallies, did not believe it would pose security problems, as they were not in the past, promised to allow or disallow one within 24 hours of asking for a police permit. "The police would try to be just and fair to government and opposition in processing applications," he said in a report by the Malaysian news agency, Bernama. If there is no security threat it would be issued, although the police may suggest changes in venue and impose conditions. He said: "The police would be guided by this principle in the next election." In other words, election rallies will be allowed for the first time in 34 years.

The two men are overconfident beyond belief. They belief that Sabah UMNO is so well entrenched in the state and that if it is controlled from Kuala Lumpur, it is so more development and perks can go their way. They believe it does not matter if it has not since they took office, but that will come in the future. The people of Sabah believe that which is why overconfidence reigns. Dato' Musa says Sabah BN works seamlessless. Tan Sri Khalil says the BN system, whatever it is, is well-entrenched in Sabah, and would face no hurdles for an opposition rout. In other words, Sabah BN would do the impossible and be returned in all 60 constituencies in the state election. Bernama, the news agency, agrees: "Political observers said that if the Sabah election was held first, a Barisan (BN) clean sweep of all the 60 state seats, would be a morale booster for the national coalition in facing the general election."

The Karak Highway landslide happened just before the tunnel leading to Kuala Lumpur at 6.50 pm on 29 August 2003. It created a massive traffic jam, on the eve of a long weekend. The Bernama report said: "Things eased only after two of the three lanes on the Bentong-bound side was opened to accommodate traffic heading towards Kuala Lumpur." And besides inconvenience to the public, there was nothing to report, no buried vehicles as earlier feared. It was Dato' Seri S. Samy Vellu who said the concessionaires, MTD Prime Sdn Bhd, were at the scene, not the company itself. Why should it when it is their handiwork that all but certainly caused it. The rain is only an excuse. And Dato' Seri Samy Vellu's excuse - "we did not expect such an incident to take place" - a classic Samy excuse when something goes wrong in his bailliwick. He is quick to shift blame: Investigations now go one to determine if the landslide was caused by land cultivation or water retention on hill slopes. Did not the concessionaire do regular checks to ensure that neither of these happened so the roads would be safe? Why should it? Its raison d'etre now is only to ask for higher tolls and collect them and laugh all the way to the bank.

ELECTED MALAYSIAN POLITICIANS WHO cross over to another party after an election has low morals, thunders the chairman of the Election Commission, Tan Sri Abdul Rashid Abdul Rahman, at a press conference which Bernama reported. This should not happen "in this age" though he does not say in which age it was. Was it when he was secretary of the Election Commission and he closed an eye to blatant party-hopping, backed with millions of ringgit, in Sabah and later, in parliament. It was so bad in Sabah that it passed a law forcing a byelection when a state assemblyman joined another party. That made it impossible for the National Front (BN) to seize power with the help of state assemblymen they bought. So he worked to have it removed. If party hopping was verboten then why is it all right now?

Bernama news agency announced, in all seriousness and without a hint of irony, the Indian prime minister, Mr Atul Bihari Vajpayee, has awarded the Malaysian works minister, Dato' Seri S. Samy Vellu, "one of India's highest awards", the "Bharatiya Samman". Nine other "eminent persons from around the world" received the award at the inaugural annual "Pravasi Bharatiya Divas" (Indian Diaspora Conference) in New Delhi last week. What is the Bharatiya Samman? Bernama explains: "The Bharatiya Samman, or the Indian Award of Honour" is given to people who have contributed immensely to the development of their countries". Other recipients include the Mauritius prime minister, Sir Aneerood Jugnath, former Commonwealth secretary-general, Sir Shridath Ramphal, South African freedom fighter, Prof. Fatima Mir, former Prime Minister of British Columbia, Mr Ujjal Dosanjh. What is the Indian Diaspora Conference? Bernama does not say, only that Dato' Seri Samy Vellu leads a 44-member delegation of senior MIC leaders, entrepreneurs and professionals to it.

With this view comes another: make hay while the sun shines. It is every man for himself. Projects and plans for billions or ringgit are announced not for its relevance or utility but for the kickbacks that only the government insists is not paid. UMNO is short of funds, and needs to replenish its treasury. The huge war chest it had, running at one into several billions of ringgit, has disappeared. UMNO itself awaits its own demise. How else it not be otherwise when the government ignores it except when it cannot. What saves it is the utter disorientation of the Opposition. UMNO exists so one man can survive. So, Dato' Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi protesteth too much about the new cabinet appointments. All his outburst showed is his continuing irrelevance in the government headed by Dato' Seri Mahathir Mohamed. He walks on hot coals with every move he makes. And Dr Mahathir does not mince his words when Dato' Seri Abdullah does something he does not like. One example again: the appointment of the some-time journalist, Dato' Khalimullah Hassan, as the new chairman of Bernama and who not so long ago was his financial advisor.

Mishaps notwithstanding, the deputy prime minister, Dato' Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, would succeed Dato' Seri Mahathir Mohamed. He needs to clothe himself in heroic grandeur to lift him out of the ordinary to be demigod successor of Dato' Seri Mahathir Mohamed. So, in an interview with Bernama, he makes the astounding revelation that his grandfather, Sheikh Abdullah Fahim, chose the exact time and date, midnight on 31 August 1957, through Islamic astrology, Malaysia would get its independence from Britain. The link is tenuous. He is unsure. As the Bername report says (The New Straits Times, p5), "Abdullah thinks that after hearing about the talks which would be held in London, they may have asked about a possible date for independent. 'What I know for sure,' he said, 'is that when they wanted to set the date, my grandfather, Sheikh Abdullah Fahim's suggestion was accepted as the most suitable date for the independence of our country.'" This could well be true but I am astounded that an important nugget as this is kept hidden during the 28 years Dato' Seri Abdullah has been in government.

What led to this remarkable diatribe? Last month, an Australian NGO, funded by big corporations to attack NGOs which challenge its funders' worldview, came on to this remarkable discovery, which the semi-official Malaysian newagency Bernama dutify reported in depth, that Malaysian NGOs are funded by sundry foreign groups and foundations -- none got more than US$10,000 -- and the Malaysian media jumped at the change to defame them. The local NGOs, instead of a principled response, whimpered and tried to explain away the contributions. But this red herring did not work. When the Prime Minister starts a campaign these days to divert attention, the public gets bored and look away. But he adds another issue for which he would be sorry he raised it.

The crony, strong as he thought he is, unexpectedly is tied in knots, and unties himself with a confidence that reveals not his strength but his weakness. What YTL and Tan Sri Francis Yeoh has exuded in the past few months is this weakness. In his emailed YTL Community News, he carried Bernama reports of the Prime Minister's recent visit to Russia, Germany and Poland. He had not before. Why? He makes mistakes that it would not be long before even the Prime Minister would walk the other way when he approaches. And all this after he gets to privatise KTM's Sentul Golf Club land, special deals to allow him to take control of choice land in Bukit Bintang, and huge contracts offered him on a platter. Now, who would succeed him?

Meanwhile, he tries to tell the world he is in control. He is now in Mecca to oversee the Malaysian preparations for the Haj. He tells Bernama Pakistan wanted Tabung Haji to organise her Haji programme on a more orderly basis. But it could not for two reasons: Parliament does not allow it; and Saudi Arabia would not allow it. If Parliament does not allow it, as the good minister should know, all he had to do was to ensure it is. But it is he who has to ask the Cabinet to have the Act amended. Has he? If not, why not? Similarly, Saudi Arabia's objections carry no weight. Is the minister telling us Saudi Arabia objects to a Muslim nation helping another to organise the Haji pilgrimage to Mecca? Pakistan is not about to ride on Malaysia's quotas. Does the minister seriously think that with the Organisation of Islamic Countries conference here next week, and with the Prime Minister, Dato' Seri Mahathir Mohamed, insisting Malaysia is an Islamic nation, he could not get the amendments done to carry out the Pakistani request?

The Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Dr Mahathir Mohamed, is a frustrated man these days. He is what makes Malaysia move, and to make that stick, no mainstream newspaper would dare write what happens, only so the Emperor in Putra Jaya would not be offended. Trying to second guess his thoughts is a chancy business, as several former editors-in-chief of UMNO-controlled newspapers can attest. Often, the Bernama version of an event is printed, if for no reason than to mollify their mea culpas. The options narrow by the day. UMNO and the National Front has to come to terms with the reality that the young Malay, in the universities and out, are alienated from it.

The Sun decided to have its own reporters to do the reporting. The New Straits Times and the Star relies more on the official newsagency, Bernama, than its own reporters. The Sun stretched the limits of what could be reported, and did it well. It is a practice it inherited. The Sun was sold to another business man who revamped it with editorial brilliance; when the deal fell through, for political than business reasons, the owners had a revamped paper it went along with.

Dato' Ruhani's allegation that it is an opposition organ hit it hard. It roared like a wounded mouse, it explained what its bounden duty is, how it covers parliamentary issues so well that it allocates one page, ONE PAGE! a day for it. It covers the irrelevant issues of the day, ignores what should be, usually depending on Bernama to set the tone, even with a phalanx of reporters in the parliamentary gallery. And assiduously cover the press conferences outside.

The New Straits Times, in a comment yesterday (12 Oct 2001, p2) by Ashraf Abdullah, insists that "the content of anything that sells itself as journalism should be free of any motive other than informing its readers". To drive the point home, he adds: "It should not be influenced by anything else." The Associated Press did not get the nuance right on what the Prime Minister said in Malay in Parliament about the Osama affair, and an emphasis other than he intended went through. As usual, the Prime Minister's press handlers did not release a translation, as they should have, for anything as newsy as his comment on the current war to pulverise Afghanistan is. Even Bernama takes its time to release the "proper" version of what he said. Why is it so difficult to have an English translation of what was said in Parliament available for important statements like these?

But a spokesman in that office was circumspect, to say the least: "If the ADC used this address, it would be because they are a client of the firm." Telephone calls to its "regional office" in Massachussets were unanswered, as one Sangkancilian found out. That its "regional" office is not in the Boston area is reflected in its telephone code of 413, instead of the more common 617. By Mr Perrin's own admission, the American Taxpayers Alliance, the ADC's parent body, has 10,000 members. Bernama no doubt is satisfied that these 10,000 members are so influential that they are a force to reckon with in a nation of nearly a hundred million taxpapers.

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