The government agencies are closed to the Chinese and Indian, so both have written off the civil service. The government is composed of UMNO, MCA, MIC, Gerakan and the other parties of the Barisan Nasional. But the leaders of these parties have remained in the cabinet for ecades, and reluctant to talk of their compatriots in government-run establishments. UMNO had taken this one step further. The prime minister, Dato Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, has stated that those in the government are not required to resign if they lost the party election, as many in MCA and MCA have, and MIC is due to have its elections soon. In the Gerakan elections for the party president, the loser is therefore allowed to remain in the government. Unless he chooses to resign. But resign he would not, if others are an indication. The former health minister, Mr Chua Jui Meng, resigned from the cabinet when he lost the MCA elections.

Dato' Seri Anwar's medical condition went from bad to worse, aggravated by the grievous assault in custody. Paralysis is threatened, which could be mollified by surgery. He wanted microsurgery by a pioneering German orthopaedic surgon and asked the government for permission to have it done at his clinic in Munich, for which he would meet all expenses. The government insisted it must be done locally and by open surgery. He persisted. The then health minister, Dato' Chua Jui Meng, rejected it in a statement to Parliament. From then on, how he is treated became a political, not a medical, issue.

This is not only in UMNO. MCA sources say its president, Dato' Seri Ong Ka Ting, wants to push his luck, after the MCA's good showing at the polls, by throwing hints that there should be a second deputy prime minister, and that he is the ideal man for it. But it the MCA's red rag to the UMNO bull. He should not press his luck. He ought to find out why the then MCA president, Tun Tan Siew Sin, failed in 1974, and why the party was marginalised since. He should have tested the waters at the BN supreme council. But he could, indeed would dare not. He should know by know - at least he should - that he could get what he wants only by persuasion and patience, not as an underling (pardon the pun!), of the UMNO president. Perhaps he thought that since Pak Lah dropped his friend, Dato' Chua Jui Meng and an MCA vice president, from the cabinet because the MCA president did not want him, that was proof his views would be heard on other issues. Nothing infuriates a divided UMNO than when an outsider demands more than his share: they would postpone their differences, unite and throw out the outsider. What we see in this is a metaphoric equivalent of the most powerful nation of earth held to ransom by ill-equipped Iraqis of all political and religious persuasions, with or without foreign help. The MCA does not understand the Malay ground, and the Malay only too well. Besides, MCA did well in the geneal election, so did UMNO.

THE NEW HEALTH MINISTER, Dato' Chua Soi Lek, like every new office holder, is in a hurry. He has two tasks: one to show the world that he is indeed the boss; and he must cut his predecessor, Dato' Chua Jui Meng, down to size. He must also convince the ground, who had not heard of him until he entered the cabinet, that he can be trusted to serve them, and he will not violate the trust they have, he believes, in him. He visits the Univeristi Malaya medical faculty, and he is horrified: outpatients in government hospitals have to wait, would you believe, for "three hours" before they are seen by a doctor! Why is he horrified? As a wakil rakyat, he is allowed the best medical treatment in government hospitals on command, often forcing aside others with confirmed appointments made months earlier. "Sometimes, up to 30 patients are told to see the doctor at 9am. The doctor cannot see so many of them at once, and they end up wasting time waiting," he told reporters. (NST, 06 April 2004, p6).

Pak Lah should have wielded the blunderbuss to prune his unwieldy cabinet into a lean workable one. He could not, for his political survival, do the pruning in UMNO before the party elections, which was to have been in June but it could now be in August, but he should have begun with the non-UMNO parties. He did not. He allowed his friends in the other parties - Dato' S. Subramaniam of the MIC, Dato' Chua Jui Meng of the MCA - to be sacrificed. He gives the impression that he cannot withstand pressure, and if sufficient pressure is put on him, he would give way. That is a dangerous frame of mind to be in now. On the surface, the BN victory gives him a strong hand. It does not. All it did was to strengthen the hands of the warlords, who are nominally loyal to him but who would not hesitate to move away if they are ignored. They would keep their counsel in the euphoria over the new prime minister and his election victory but would show their fangs should Pak Lah slip or lose control.

ON FIRST SIGHT, THE new cabinet Dato' Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi named does look like a dog's breakfast: it is too unwieldy, it is the Mahathir cabinet with a few new faces of his men, apart from the deputy prime minister, it is, collectively, as loyal as a poodle, one that would not ignore his master's voice. He had had to drop a few coalition politicians close to him - the MCA vice president, Dato' Chua Jui Meng, for one, the MIC deputy president, Dato' S. Subramaniam, thrown to the wolves because their party president insisted. In the circumstances, after his heady electoral win and the need to keep his political team intact, he is in, he could not have done better. He needs to strengthen himself within the cabinet against the still smouldering animus between him and his deputy prime minister, Dato' Seri Najib Tun Razak, wriggle out of, and distance himself from, the crushing embrace of his predecessor, Tun Mahathir Mohamed. He is, in one sense, in greater danger than if his electoral victory was not as oppressive. At best, this is an interim cabinet that, for his own sake, he must prune and drastically change after the UMNO elections. At it stands now, he is now unlikely to be challenged for the UMNO presidency.

The BN is a coalition of 14 political parties under UMNO's leadership. Its election committee is drawn from UMNO and the member parties: this time it consisists of three UMNO officials wearing BN hats: Tan Sri Khalil Yaakob, the BN secretary-general, Dato' Seri Najib Tun Razak, the BN deputy president, curiously, both from Pahang, and the BN's president's UMNO representative. There is a reason why this committee is UMNO dominated. Pak Lah has yet to meet the MCA president, Dato' Seri Ong Ka Ting, for one-on-one talks over lunch or dinner. It is not for want of trying. He has had similar meetings with an MCA vice-president. Pak Lah does not forget a slight. During the MCA crisis in 2002, an arrogant Dato' Seri Ong ensured that aplenty. There is a concerted effort in Johore to reduce the electoral chances of the one man in the Team B faction, the health minister, Dato' Chua Jui Meng, whose presence puts Dato' Ong's leadership in question. Similarly, the MIC president, Dato' Seri S. Samy Vellu, insists on holding on to his cabinet and party position at any cost, even after knowing that Pak Lah thinks it time he stepped down in favour of his deputy president, Dato' S. Subramaniam. Pak Lah is close to Dato' Subramaniam; it is his threat to offer the Indian cabinet seat to Dato' Kayveas that led the former MAS airline pilot to believe that he indeed does lead the Indian community.

The minister for health, Dato' Chua Jui Meng, should inform Parliament, what happened. He was only too happy on another occasion that Malaysians be thoroughly briefed on why the former deputy prime minister, Dato' Seri Anwar Ibrahim, should not be allowed to have his spinal problem and pain alleviated by a German doctor with no cost either to the public or to the government. All the more reason now when public donations have been so deliberately misused.

But the surgery she undergoes cost a third here than in Australia. Local orthopaedic surgeons claim they were not consulted over sending Miss Ras Adiba to Australia. Malaysia, which the health minister, Dato' Chua Jui Meng, proudly assured Parliament, amidst a crisis over another orthopaedic surgery, have excellent orthopaedic surgeons that the world could be proud of, and there was no need for surgery overseas.

A counter-attack is now seen. At the MCA elections later this year, Dr Ling's challenger for president was assumed to be the health minister and MCA vice-president, Dato' Seri Chua Jui Meng. Dr Ling would have won that with ease. A new name is thrown into the ring: the MCA deputy president, Dato' Seri Lim Ah Lek. He is popular, left his Cabinet post on principle, and accuses Dr Ling of not keeping his side of the bargain and resign too. Now, he is nominated by his Bentong MCA division. He is the coy nominee, but he cannot now back down. The MCA is split, between his forces and of Dr Ling's, and reflected in the MCA vote on buying the newspapers. The pressure is on Dr Ling. He outstayed his welcome in the MCA, in the cabinet, and as a Chinese adviser to Dr Mahathir.

Ling diverts attention by attacking his youth leader, Ong Tee Keat, in the camp of his urbane deputy, Lim Ah Lek. He wants to sideline his possible challenger for the MCA presidency next year, Chua Jui Meng, an MCA vice president and the federal health minister. And he reacts, as President Mugabe in Zimbabwe, to hold on to power when few want him there.

But that divided the party. The president and deputy president are barely on talking terms. Dr Ling, in fact, said he does not listen to his deputy any more, only when he wants to -- and he made clear he does not. He tries to neutralise Dato' Lim Ah Lek's faction by acting autocratically, justifying it by insisting he acts within the constitution. But his opponents strike a resonance within the community. The most prominent amongst them is the MCA vice president, Dato' Chua Jui Meng. With Dato' Lim having taken a backseat, he is the most prominent. The clash has reached a stage where Dr Ling cannot be allowed to be returned uncontested.

The MCA President sacks his vice-president and rival, Dato' Chua Jui Meng, as Kedah MCA chief for he reasons he himself did not know why. He told different versionsn to different newspapers, and when Dato' Chua rebutted his claims, questioning the timing when he had offered his resignation much earlier, he, as usual, dissembled, to hide behind the Prime Minister's shadow. Dato' Seri Mahathir Mohamed is not one who would desert an ally, however irrelevant he has cometo mean in his grand scheme of things, and quickly backed Dr Ling. The man had a right to do what he wants, and he did the right thing. But even he stopped at what Dr Ling's Talebans tell any who would listen: Dato' Chua be removed from the cabinet. No, said the de factor MCA president, he has no intention of reshuffling his cabinet. So, Dato' Chua would continue as health minister. Why he cannot have a cabinet reshuffle is his own insecurity, but that is another story.

He removes his vicepresident and bitter critic, Chua Jui Meng, firmly in the Ah Lek camp, as Kedah MCA chief. for an effect opposite to what he intends. He tells different versionsn to different people for the sacking: the New Straits Times today (04 October) says the Kedah MCA wanted it; but MCA Kedah is unhappy about it. The Sun quotes him that Chua tried to "kill" him; the Star, which he controls, says it shows Ling cannot be pushed around and now implicitly controls the MCA.

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