But this empowered Malay in the Civil Service is caught in a larger vice after the Anwar imbroglio. His cultural persona is anathema to all what the government stands for. While once he was encouraged in the official rush to ensure Malay dominance in all areas of government, he uses the same power to challenge the government he has now no cultural links with, and cuts the government down so its arrogance is not on strength but on fright and weakness. There is some reason to believe that these unpardonable events occurred because the civil servant is prepared to keep the government on its toes and in dissarray with decisions that redound on its credibility.

Then he is discarded when his use is over, in K. Nilakanta Sastri's evocative phrase, 'like sucked oranges'. He was referring to the Indian estate worker in Malaysia in the 1930s; but refers equally to the non-Malay in modern Malaysia. A Malay buying a house gets it cheaper, by fiat, than a non-Malay. He gets a head start in universities: he needs only poorer marks for disciplines which demands the highest for a non-Malay whose entry is further hobbled by a quota. You want to join the Civil Service? You must be lucky to be one of the 20 per cent non-Malays. Why is one surprised that in primary schools, the non-Malay child is so treated.

Non-Malays in every facet of Malaysian life experiences it: to buy a house, he pays 12 per cent more than a Malay; if he joins the Civil Service, he faces a glass ceiling, where a quota decides how high he would go; even then, there are small groups in each department who act to cut them down even further. One highly regarded non-Malay civil servant had to wait until his retirement before he was appointed a dato': the quote for his race was used up when his turn came. Do you, a non-Malay, want a scholarship to study? A quote applies, no matter how qualified you are.

Non-Malay officers in every branch of public administration face a glass ceiling, which they cannot, except as a token, break through. The MCA, MIC, and latterly Gerakan, slept through the deliberate hobbling of the non-Malay civil servant to promote him not on merit but on the same quota of four-Malays-to-one non-Malay as when he was recruited. The May 1969 racial riots refined it to become policy as the MCA and MIC in the governing Alliance tied itself in knots, frightened and unable to make sense of the hurricane over their political heads; the non-Malay civil servants' rights now further eroded by a small committee of civil servants which denies non-Malays their role in public administration. Curiously, the general Civil Service perception is that despite these handicaps, the non-Malay is the more reliable, hardworking and focussed than his Malay counterpart.

All this makes one wonder: why do ministerial wives go into business? Datin Indrani Samy Vellu is not the first; nor is she likely to be the last. The defence minister's wife, for instance, is now actively involved in defence deals. When her husband was heading the education ministry, she was also into wheeling and dealing, trying then to provide computerised teaching system; when her principal providers failed to deliver, the "Smart Schools" project collapsed. (They are yet to provide it.) One former information minister's wife insisted her short stories and plays should be broadcast on radio and television; when he lost his job, his wife's literary outpourings, too, came to an end. This seems to be officially encouraged: a strong Civil Service rumour provides ministerial wives with office space in their husbands' ministries. Why? The ministers are paid handsomely -- Don't believe the Prime Minister's complaint that he is underpaid! His salary is, but the allowances alone would make him rich even if he did not accept a salary -- so why this rush into business by their wives?

This wide gulf between what a leader says and what happens is worrisome. Dato' Seri Abdullah wants the book thrown at offenders, but the Civil Service defies him. If it is a national disaster, as he implies, did he discuss this with the cabinet, and senior officials, and a police reached before he announced how serious this open burning was? When asked, after chairing the National Disaster Management and Relief Committee, if those involved in open burning should be punished severely, Dato' Seri Abdullah ducked the question. He said it was a perennial problem, and a number of offenders were charged in court last year. How does this tie up with his call for deterrent sentences? But does the government speak with forked tongue? In agriculture, open burning is the norm in padi farming and sugar cane cultivation: both need to burn their stalks to stay in business. But this open burning is seen as a national evil to cover up the government's own inadequacies.

This was missed when the BN rejected the trio of parties as members. UMNO and the BN has given up its independence promise of racial and political integration. Instead, the country is fractured into myriads of groups of every conceivable definition: racial, religious, regional, linguistic, cultural, and under a Malay and Muslim hegemony. The country veers irrevocably to a Malay existence, with the non-Malays allowed to stay on sufferance. The Civil Service is so Malay- and Islamic-oriented that a small group of Malay and Islamic ayatollahs force-feed it. No one dare challenge them, and a newly appointed officer curries their favour by making sure he leaves his office more Islamic and Malay than when he took it. He does this often against opposition from his officers, but steamrolls it through, often without discussion, and presents them with a fait accompli. No one at this stage dare reverse it. Secretaries-general are frightened of them, and is helpless at this unsanctioned practice. There is a "glass ceiling" beyond which a non-Malay officer cannot aspire to, and applies to every ministry and office. It is roughly equivalent to the rank of major general in the army. And it is no more than one of two in every ministry.

It is not enough. The Civil Service is hostile, despite higher salaries and perks given to buy support. The young Malaysian moves away. They cannot get jobs. And they are told they are not loyal enough.

The director-general of the Public Complaints Bureau, Dato' Abdul Wahab Abdullah, thinks his bureau would do better if only the public use it more often. Mr Lee Lam Thye thinks it already is and should now be renamed the Ombundsman's office. Both miss the woods for the trees. The public would use it if it has time to waste and infinite patience. I know one whose bruising meetings with the PCB remain unresolved a decade later; no one now is interested in it any more, every officer passing the buck and wishing the man would disappear. I warned him it would come to this but he, ever the optimist, went ahead and its end is not in sight. Mr Lee thinks an ombundsman would not allow this to happen. He indulges in gobbledygook, spurious statistics, and a firm belief that what newly appointed heads of government say on taking office must be true. Nothing could be further than the truth. He does not understand or accept that an ombundsman can do his work only if the Civil Service would let him.

The cabinet ministers would rather cling to office than address the country's problems. And believe all is well when it is not. After all, the Prime Minister, Dr Mahathir Mohamed, says it. So it must be. But it is not. Nothing works. The great divide begins with the chasm between the cabinet and the Civil Service. And leads to the apartheid in national life, each using it to prove its point.

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