It is more important, he now says, to listen to the rabid voices from overseas than the considered views from within on how to go about it. "We have already informed them that we are very disappointed with the turn of events and we hope that Aung San Suu Kyi will be released as soon as possible," he said, adding that if "they are willing to defy the world, what can we do?" Besides expelling Myanmar from ASEAN?

Dato' Seri Ong now admits his links to one man, Ong King Ee, also known as Jackie Chan, an MCA branch leader, but he avers it was not as close as alleged. That is sufficient political grounds for Pak Lah to call on all not to link the MCA with the triads. That is not enough. The Registrar of Societies must act against all branches with known triad leaders heading it. The list is widely available, and the MCA president and his council should take the first step by suspending all suspect branches and the triad leaders. It is not enough to insist on due process which he would not give the whistleblowers. Given the powers of the MCA presidential council, that should be a simple matter. Besides, the MCA youth chief, Dato' Ong, gave Pak Lah, who is also home minister, of the triad leaders in MCA.

Malaysia believes this tough talk on water is to force the issue to be resolved on the battlefield. A book on Singapore's armed forces suggest it as a way of reinforcing its own security and ensuring the republic gets all the water she needs. When Jordan said she would divert a river from the Lake Galilee for agricultura, Israel warned Amman that would be a cause for war. Malaysian defence planners say that its armoury is outclassed by Singapore's. But the Malaysian fighting machine after the war is not. Besides, neither Israel nor the United States would rush to Singapore's aid should hostilities break out. Not after the quagmire of one in the Middle East and engaging another Muslim nation of the other. As one military planner asked: "Would Singapore cut its nose to spite Malaysia's face? For should war break out. Singapore would be destroyed no matter what happens. Is that the brinkmanship it displays?" The talks are preferable, but it is Singapore which must ask for it.

Besides, he does not understand the nature of Malay politics. The feudalism inherent in it, in which an open challenge is 'derhaka' (treachery), makes a Malay unwilling to confront and resorts to 'surat layang' (literally, 'flying letters', anonymous missives sent out to all and sundry) to show displeasure at their leaders. In Malaysia, they rarely surface when all is well in UMNO, which began as the saviour of Malay cultural mores in 1946 when the British colonial power wanted to remove the feudal powers of the Malay sultans. But the Malay ground moved away after a feudal 'derhaka' and UMNO fights hard to return to its past role, so far with little success.

So what can this regional centre do? Besides eventually being a cosy meeting shop in which nothing of interest is decided that governments would accept as justifiable reasons for acting against terrorism. Malaysia is riddled with the detritus of well-meaning regional bodies of all shades of opinions and products. None has maintained its pristine purpose years after it had been set up. I still run into people from overseas attached to centres that once held promise but is today only a centre for well-paid jobs for Malaysians and foreigners. But is this to be the fate of thecounter terrorism centre?

He does not stand on good ground. But he believes he is. How else could he persuade an UMNO newspaper to grovel for a wrong he committed? He did by twisting hands. Whose hands is left to your imagination. Would Utusan Malaysia have buckled under so swiftly if Tan Sri Vincent was not Dr Mahathir's super crony? Besides another Mahathir business crony has just bought half the 42 per cent in the Utusan Group UMNO owned. If Tan Sri Vincent believes his reputation has been besmirched, he must sue Harakah, the PAS MP, Mr Husam Musa, and the numerous political weeklies for writing about his Bukit Tinggi and Pulau Tioman illegal casinos. Obviously all is not well with his illegal casino empire. Otherwise why did the government cancel its licence at Bukit Tinggi without by your leave? And he should reflect on the political convulsions he roused by turning his casinos into a needless political issue.

Dr Mahathir, with his ingrained contempt for constitutional niceties, said this reshuffle is because, as The Star reported, "the Government needed replacements for certain posts in several ministries". Indeed. Besides, the replacements does not yet have the concurrence of the Yang Dipertuan Agung. This is a reversal from past practice, when the announcements are made only after royal concent is got. Did he seek a constitutional crisis to leave Pak Lah with a poisoned chalice? Or did he conclude that since UMNO is divided - the more UMNO leaders insist UMNO is united, the more it is not - he did not care what happened after he retired in November?

Several UMNO leaders, in the cabinet and in the states, lobbied hard to defuse the Harakah licence issue. "Let us face it," said a prominent UMNO supreme council member, "if there is no Harakah, we would not begin to know how to fight our coming uphill battles in our constituencies." When I asked why, he said: "Dato' Seri Anwar Ibrahim skewered the pitch for UMNO. So long as he is in jail, and PAS brings his detention to the countryside as effectively as it does, we are in trouble." Banning Harakah now, he thought, would add to UMNO's ills, especially in the coming general elections. It would be disruptive for PAS, but in the short term. "It has a well-defined propaganda and electoral machine, and its back-room boys, unlike ours, are well tuned to take advantage of mishaps and setbacks like this." When the government cracked down on Harakah, it developed a website that is so effective that UMNO does not know how to handle it, he said. Besides, "we don't want this issue to be used to attack factions within UMNO."

What happened in the Ampang Jaya municipal council has nothing to do with corruption: that it blew open before next week's general assembly is deliberate. Upstarts must be consigned to the dungheap before they get to be too powerful. Dr Toyo is generally regared as one of the Prime Minister's men; those against him, not. Where does Dato' Kayveas fit into all this. Well, it is widely believed, in the Indian community, that the Indians would have two cabinet ministers. The MIC believes it would be Dato' Seri S. Samy Vellu plus. But one important UMNO faction disagrees: he should be retired, the MIC deputy president, Dato' S. Subramaniam, and Dato' Kayveas be the Indian representatives. Besides, the latter has his eyes on one new parliamentary constituency, which he could well get. So you know now why the latter tries too hard to please.

As for the two ministers, it is left now to the voters of Rompin to sack Dr Jamaluddin from the cabinet in the coming general elections. Tengku Adnan, a senator, had hoped to be MP from Pahang. He can forget that. This bungled casino licence is once which could damage UMNO's chances, in Pahang if not elsewhere, if PAS runs with it. The Malay ground in Pahang is incensed at it that even the defence minister, Dato' Seri Najib Tun Razak, is not safe in his Pekan constituency. The PAS inroads into Pahang is more serious than UMNO believes. Besides, the man has enemies, that two influential UMNO groups, at least, work overtime to have him defeated.

The usual hype follows: the series is called, ungrammatically, "Coin in Education", is "deemed perfect" for its purpose, is touted as a first step to coin collecting, features twelve endangered animals, and released monthly. How much does this 25 sen coin cost a child wanting to collect it or, implausibly, so he could become an entrepreneur? Oh, only RM5 a month. Why not 25 sen a month? Of course, if the schools join in the scam, there is a discount for bulk orders, says the scam's sales and marketing director, Ms Hashimah Hashim. There will be an annual theme: flora, sea animals, wonders of the world. With a few million children in schools, what kind of response does it expect? Well, 33,000 coins. How does the "entrepreneurial spirit" come into it? As she explains it, if one child misses a few coins in collection, he would buy it at a higher price or exchange it from another in his collection. "This is where the hobby will prove fruitful," Ms Hashimah gushes. Besides the value of the coins would appreciate in time. No doubt as firmly as the share prices of Renong, UEM, Ekran, Berjaya and other discarded playthings of establishement cronies!

MALAYSIA'S SATELLITE TV CHANNEL PROVIDER, ASTRO, is, as only to be expected, run and controlled by a crony of the Prime Minister. You have to be one to get a lucrative monopoly. Those who subscribe to it must face the gamut of problems one expects from monopolies. It is by no means the only one. Show me a monopoly in Malaysia, it has creative illegal means to separate consumers from their money. Despite it, every monopoly in Malaysia loses money hands over fist that the government must take over. Every single one has, or is about to be taken over, and the government steps in periodically to take over its unacceptably high debt, and hand it back to the management to make further losses. Each takes the consumer for a ride, illegally. Few bother to protest. Taking on a monopoly is, in Malaysia, Quixotic. Besides, one cannot get justice in the Malaysian courts, which favour the rich and the powerful. The corporate boardrooms know this only too well, and run berserk. Creative means are found to squeeze the poor consumer of his money.

So, when she stood up in Jelubu over the weekend (06 April 2003] to demand that cabinet ministers and other VIPs should not be escorted to official functions, but that upset the people, she did not say that because she believed in what she said. It was to tell the people that although she kicked them in the past, she has reformed and now backs them. Only the Prime Minister and deputy prime minister should have the escorts. Cabinet ministers and VIPs should leave for functions early and not depend on police escorts to force their way. Besides, "the people would be happier if VIPs arrive at official functions without police escort". Not only that. "I myself would be angry if I have to stop my car just because a VIP's car is passing through." And, of course, "as VIPs, we need to be sensitive to the people's feelings." Besides, "the practice should be abolished in view of the police workload. They have to take care of many other things, like tackling crime and keeping the peace. It is better for them to concentrate on their work rather than escort VIPs to functions."

But once he was thrown into jail, Dr Mahathir had had to put him away. When the Anwar affair eventually gets to be told, one would find a conspiracy involving the good doctor himself to ensure Dato' Seri Anwar is jailed, by hook or by crook. Cabinet ministers, judges, officers of the court and law were roped in to ensure he would be jailed, to no longer pose a threat to Dr Mahathir. Besides, in the feudal milleau Dr Mahathir governed, Dato' Seri Anwar could not be acquited, for that would have destroyed Dr Mahathir then and there. So, a conspiracy was hatched to ensure Dato' Seri Anwar was jailed for a long time so that even if he should return to the political arena, Dr Mahathir and most UMNO leaders would have retired.

In other words, Dato' Ong has found a neat way to snare Dr Ling into losing his cool, and widens the fissures within the MCA with fresh allegations that has nothing to do with triads and gangsters in the MCA. These matters would normally be discussed within the party councils, but since that is not allowed, and the part councils controlled by the president, and even if they do raise matters like these, the president can expel any who disagrees with him. The MCA fissures is now back into the open. It was in the background and Dr Ling appeared to have a respite when Dr Mahathir decided he had a bigger fight on his hands with UMNO and did not want to open new fronts with the BN partners. Besides, the business man, Dato' Soh Chee Wen, has sued Dr Ling over unfulfilled promises in helping Dr Ling's son acquire a mountain of debt and eventual bankruptcy. Mr Ling Hee Liong, in the meanwhile, is an MCA youth leader in Perak.

Malaysia swamped the conference with a security so tight that it annoyed many a delegate. Mobile phones, radios andn other electronic devices were banned, but with no provision to park them when they could not be taken into the conference complex. It was made worse by those of the visiting delegations. For the first time, the armed forces was comandeered to provide the security surrounding the Putra World Trade Centre where the NAM Summit was held. It showed. The police took charge of security in the city at large. The Malaysian organisers of the conference worked on their own, unable to resolve conflicts that arose over the five days of the conference. To all this, add an abysmal ignorance on who is who, and a belief that the only VIP that matters, Besides the foreign guests, are the ministers and officials they recognised. One retired and ailing VIP, whom Dr Mahathir wanted to be with him when he had breakfast with the delegation leaders, was only allowed to enter the complex in his car after a long hassle, but his car could not fetch him after it. He had to find his way to a spot a kilometre away, as he told me, in front of a KFC fast food outlet in Jalan Raja Chulan.

Mind you, the Naza Group, the blanket company under which the minister's son-in-law operates, also offers, Besides the luxury cars, 40 Kia Carnival vans as official vehicles. It will provide 24-hour technical support. Besides, the foreign minister, Dato' Seri Syed Hamid Albar, says the government would rent 200 Proton cars in addition. After all, the national car manufacturer cannot be left in the lurch, could it. But what a fall for it from the sole supplier of Protons for those who came here for 1998 APEC Summit to a "gofer's" car at NAM? What a fall! Does this faze the good minister? Certainly not! "We need the contribution of other car companies to show that all companies operating in Malaysia look at Malaysia as a good place for doing business."

But it was sold as one that would resolve the island's traffic problems. All it did was to create massive traffic jams throughout the island, creating so many political problems that the Gerkan-led BN government in Penang had to resolve it if it wanted to remain in office. Another bridge is now needed, but that cannot be built without a comprehensive inland traffic dispersal scheme. PORR is the result, but it was done with no thought to environment or other concerns, and rammed down the throats of Penang, Besides promising to land the state in debt it could not in a thousand years repay. At RM800 million a kilometre, it is the most expensive road project in Malaysia. The project was not let out to competitive bidding, but given to an UMNO leader, but there is much opposition to it on the island, with a grass roots movement challenging the government at every turn.

Proof of the pudding is in the eating. When Dr Mahathir, as education minister, made the momentous and flawed decision to teach English only to communicate, he ensured English is taught as a subject, and not so he would find it useful after school. It lost its importance in the national schools, and those who taught it did so in Malay. The rot set in, and those who studied English were those whose parents insisted it be, by private tuition if necessary. The frightening fact of this skewed policy is that the country is divided as always, once it was between Malays and non-Malays, now it is between the English and non-English speakers, Besides the numerous other computations of racial, political and social divisions. This occurs in every society but in Malaysia it is mutually exclusive, and therefore cause for concern. English must be taught as a language, not as Malaysian Esperanto.

Does he really mean what he says? In the Trengganu state assembly earlier this year, when the PAS government tabled an administration of Islam bill, by the Prime Minister's reckoning, the BN (mostly UMNO) opposition should have voted against. They did not. They abstained. Why? And why did not the BN or UMNO initiate disciplinary proceedings against them as they now demand against the Penang duo. Or is what is allowed UMNO disallowed MCA? Besides, the BN chief whip did not instruct the BN state assemblymen in Penang as, almost certainly, in Trengganu on how it should vote. When he did not, the accepted parliamentary rule is vote according to one's conscience. The BN cannot act against the duo for two reasons: it has no constitutional authority, and the BN whip slept on his job. The more the BN harps on it, the more Chinese support it would lose.

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