The MBf Group Chief Executive Officer and President, Tan Sri Dato Dr Loy Hean Hong, like Mark Twain, has assured the world that rumours of his death are exaggerated. A day after he issued a statement about the financial health of his companies, allegedly after meeting his board of directors and senior executives, he emerged from his hospital bed where he is being treated for colon cancer, he told Malaysian investors in his finance company not to listen to rumours. Had no one told him that if the rumours were not spelt out, that would occasion further uncertainties since people hear different rumours. And since the Bolehland oracle has spoken, it now "ascertainted" that the run on the two days did not occasion significant withdrawals. If they were insigificant, why the panic in the boardroom? Why this subterfuge of showing the world that he was in Kuala Lumpur when he was not?

What is different is that in the 1950s, there would perhaps be about 5,000 ha forests opened for plantations annually, whereas today a plantation 20 times that in Indonesia is considered a "middling" one. So we have a forest area as large as Sarawak converted into plantations at once, thus ensuring an ecological and environmental disaster waiting to happen. Since it is Bolehland insistence that "big is beautiful", the Malaysians replicate good plantation practice in a big way to cause all the problems of ecological damage. Despite their proud boast that the environment is taken care to ensure minimal damage, I know of no plantation companies in Bolehland bar one that did have such experts on their staff with the power to overrule commercial considerations. So, we are still not looking at the issue in the way it should.

The long distance controlling of events seem to be an acceptable Bolehland business practice. There is a run on MBf branches in several towns in Malaysia caused by concern on the continued health of Tan Sri Dato Dr Loy Hean Hong is causing concern. In today's newspapers, there is a signed statement by him, as Chief Executive Officer/President of the MBf Group of Companies and on behalf of the Board of Directors and management of MBf Finance Berhad, assuring "valued customers and Business Associates" of the soundness of the company. He refers to "certain unfounded and untrue rumours" but does not mention the run on the company. The run started, as far as I can gather, on rumours that he is seriously ill with cancer -- of the stomach, I am told -- in a Paris hospital.

Like rats jumping off a sinking ship, Malaysian federal and state leaders will not miss an opportunity to leave the country at a moment's notice. Crisis or no crisis. The prime minister, Dato' Seri Mahathir Mohamed, is off gallivanting again tomorrow. to Cuba, Chile, Uruguay and Argentina. And like the pied piper of Hamelin, his will be accompanied by the usual entourage of Bolehland business men, posing for yet another photograph with the prime minister to adorn their offices to "attest" to their closeness. The chief minister of Malacca, Dato' Abu Zahar Ismail, leaves today on a visit to the United States, Canada and Britain. His excuse for leaving now: Dr Mahathir had approved it. Once approval is given, it would be a shame not to use it. Besides, he may not give the approval the next time. That would be a trip wasted. So, the trip goes on, he insists.

Merdeka celebrations at the Dataran Merdaka, the LIMA Exhibition in Langkawi, sports matches, weddings, formal opening of touristy hotels, open houses. All engage bomohs -- even if the practice is abhorrent in Islam, and out of character with the allegedly scientific world we are trying to create in Bolehland -- to ensure good weather. Why I wonder are these agents of nature called upon to remove the worst environmental hazard we have had to face in decades? Can they produce rain? I have not seen scientific evidence that they can, but I have seen the after effects of the bomoh's actions. They can, and keep them away as well. How do they do it? I do not know. But the proof of the pudding is in the eating, and there are bomohs who can. And are used by the very same people who now run helter skelter for a solution to the haze, when it is in their personal interest. Any way, these bomohs have a better record of success than the scientific rain makers in Malaysia.

We already have a number of firsts on this project, the sum total of which would entail an entry in, certainly, the Guiness Book of Records. Ekran Berhad, a property company, is entrusted with the RM13.6 billion Bakun Dam project. It is not known among the cogniscenti for its expertise in dam construction. The Bakun Dam must be the first project where one company attempts to be project manager, main contractor, proponent, handing out subcontracts to its subsidiaries or those of its ebullient executive chairman, Tan Sri Dr Ting Peck Khiing. The one common denominator in all of these, and TNB Engineers, if it becomes the contractor, is that none of them can claim any expertise in dam construction. All in all an ideal Bolehland group out to prove that they can indeed build South East Asia's biggest hydroelectric dam without cost overruns, and on time, despite the horrendous implications of a shaky economy and currency pressures. Even if no one else can or could. But one question intrigues me? Is TNB Engineers the company that Dr Ting had in mind when he announced, through Bernama, that the new contractor had been identified? Then why the two month delay?

The prime minister's statement about Ekran being allowed to choose new contractors. He originally delayed the projects because of the depreciating ringgit. That problem still rises, and it would be awhile before that is resolved, if at all. Bakun's continuance is conditional upon that. So any statement he makes now about Bakun and Ekran's involvement is meant for the gallery, and not for serious consideration. In any case, since the government "has no position" on this "national project", why is the prime minister belabouring the point? To all intents and purposes, the construction of Bakun under the Ekran management will go along within the best traditions of Bolehland.

The normally ebullient Dr Ting, quick to castigate any who challenged his handling of his "national project" and sued me in May for RM100 million for suggesting that a heavy cloud hung over ithe project, is strangely silent. In recent weeks, he alleged that "someone" had doctored the contract documents in which Ekran and Bakun had foisted with a "lose-win" contract, when it should have been "win-win". And this brings him down to the general belief of his role in the project: it was for the timber alone. Neither he nor his company has any known experience in dam construction, yet he also manages the project for a RM1,000 million fee through a project management company hastily formed to undertake that. Besides, Ekran is not even an engineering company; it is listed under "properties" in the Kuala Lumpur Stock Exchange. ABB and CBPO, on the other hand, are experienced engineering giants with a record in dam construction. It is a classic case of how Bolehland projects work, where political connexions precede expertise. But every cloud has a silver lining: Ekran was unchanged at RM3.48 on the KLSE but ABB fell 62 francs to 2,173 francs on Zurich, the Star reported today. As for Dr Ting's libel action against me, res ipso loquitor.

Amidst this ballyhooing, in typical Bolehland fashion, about the absence of problems, government ministerial statements tell a different story. The government may be forced to intervene, says the energy, telecommunications and posts minister, Dato' Leo Moggie, if the parties involved take "too long" to resolve the issue. Why should that be when the problem is "minor"? Why is he so edgy about it? After all, the two companies have met and some attempt is made to a resolution. So, why is there these threats of what could happen if the two did not negotiate a settlement?

So, to accuse foreign fund managers misses the point. These fund managers are not charitable organisations -- as a Tenaga spokesman told me recently that TNB was not when I complained of suddenly rising electricity bills; mine trebled in five months despite a marginal rise in electricity usage -- and they operate in the best interests of their customers to turn as high a profit as they can. They do not operate for the greater benefit of the KLSE or Malaysia. I understand every company listed on the KLSE works on that premise. I have not heard Dato' Nik Mohamed to inveigh against them when they were deliberately pushing prices through the roof. But when the shoe is on the other foot, Malaysia assumes Bolehland regulations must be applied across the board.

All this was put to further confusion last Saturday, 21 July, when the Selangor mentri besar, Dato' Abu Hassan Omar, came to grace a Bolehland function at a Moghul restaurant on that street. The restaurant had been in existence for perhaps six years, but the celebration was to mark the 13th year of its existence. From 11 o'clock to about three, the road in front of the restaurant was closed by the police. AFter all, it is not every day that the mentri besar comes to officiate at a little known restaurant. And when the mentri besar comes, the people must be inconvenienced. Inconvenienced was what the motorists were in that mad mayhem of cars running into dead ends amidst policemen disallowing motor cars to go through the road in the vicinity of the restaurant.

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