Malaysia's honour is besmirched. An Indonesian pressure group -- or as the Prime Minister, Dato' Seri Mahathir Mohamed, described it, "a small group of radical Indonesian nationalists" -- burned the Malaysian flag, the Jalur Gemilang, in Jakarta in continuing protests over Malaysia's caning of illegal workers, many Indonesian. He is sanguine about it. Malaysia would not seek an explanation. "We cannot respond to the action since it is not reflective of the Indonesian Government's stand," he says. But his response reflects not confidence but impotence. During Indonesia's confrontation of Malaysia 40 years ago, Mr (later Tan Sri) Melan Abdullah, then editor-in-chief of Utusan Malaysia, led a band of UMNO ultras to the residence of the Indonesian ambassador in Kuala Lumpur and burnt the Indonesian flag. Indonesia took umbrage, the name calling became worse, reacted by airdropping Indonesian commandos in Labis, Johore. Tan Sri Melan, of Javanese descent, would not go to Indonesia until decades later though he was the editor-in-chief of the UMNO-owned Utusan Malaysia and had risen to the inner circle of both UMNO and the then Prime Minister, Tun Abdul Razak Hussein.

The UMNO president, with his untrammelled feudal powers, assumes an omnipotence and authority which comes from being uncontradicted, even when he is wrong. As when he destroyed and humiliated the deputy prime minister of the day five years ago, one Dato' Seri Anwar Ibrahim. UMNO pays the price for that. The Oracle can fail, but cannot be contradicted. Even if as now, his writ does not run beyond his office. He makes his pronouncements which are promptly ignored. He is a prisoner of his own misfortune. He is hemmed in by the awesome irrelevance he is confined to, with events in South Korea and Indonesia, where the President's children are arrested, adding fear to his worries. The children of both assumed a persona more than of the first family, and built a business empire on credit and influence and which could not be sustained when the patriarch left or could not interfere in the process of justice.

UMNO had a wider view of the role of the Malay than now, was part of the prosposed Archipelago of Malay nations whose natural leader was Indonesia. Malaya was under British rule and Indonesia under the Dutch. They had adopted the "Merah Putih", the red white format of Indonesia's, Singapore's, UMNO's, and PAS's, flag. What distinguished one from the other is the minor changes on it. While PAS's more well-known symbol is the white moon on a green background, its letter head sports another: the Merah Putih with a a green moon in the centre. Not to be forgotten are the Malay leftist parties, similarly wedded to a Malay archipelago or Nusantara, as President Sukarno proclaimed it. The Socialist Party leader, Mr Ahmad Boestaman, had as principled view of this as the UMNO and PAS leaders.

When governments are run as autocracies, as in South Korea, Indonesia, Singapore and Malaysia, opposition to it comes in forms the leaders never expect. When the ideals of democracy are ignored, and the law enhanced to ensure continued victory for those in office, the people's anger takes long to form but eventually would burst out into the open. Sometimes this happens after the leader is gone, but occassionally in office. Mr Lee's children would have been praised for what they are if they were not his children. That they are in a Singapore where Mr Lee's elder son could well succeed Mr Goh Chok Tong as prime minister raises unwelcome questions of a family dynasty taking shape. It becomes, as in Malaysia, a convenient target to bring the issue into the public domain. Often this remains hidden, the penalties for raising it in public so horrendous it is foolhardy to do so. When it does, it is proof of the hidden public anger bursting into the public consciousness.

Dr Mahathir's statements on his return reveal an underlying fear that he may have committed more than he should have. He went to commit Malaysia into President Bush's global war on Islamic terror. But it was not on his terms. Washington wanted a regional satrap while it sorted out is preferred choice, Indonesia. This is how hegemons work. The US has India on its side in South Asia and Japan in East Asia to counter China's growing influence. Indonesia has her internal contradictions to sort out and Washington needed someone to stand-in. Dr Mahathir agreed. He had no choice. The Opposition was getting to be organised. Dato' Seri Anwar's fight for justice begins to grate on Dr Mahathir's reputation. It is survival more than national interest that is at stake. And gets into a needless confrontation with CNN.

Mr Des Alwi, the adopted son of an early Indonesian prime minister, Mr Sutan Shahrir, and who worked the hardest to end confrontation, was there, all of 75 years, the bon vivant he is. As those in Wisma Putra, all now retired and all deeply beholden to King Ghaz: Dato' Albert Talala, Mr Jack De Silva, Tun Haniff Omar. There was Tan Sri Rama Iyer, former federal court judge Dato' Zakaria Yatim, former court of appeal judge Dato' N.H. Chan, the former chief minister of Sabah, Tan Sri Harris Salleh, Dato' Herman Luping, Dato' Joseph Kurup, and numerous others. As the high commissioners of the United Kingdom, Singapore, Brunei and the ambassador of Indonesia.

The California Public Employees Retirement System (Calpers) withdraws its investment funds from Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines and Thailand for reasons as varied as poor human rights record and money. Malaysia decided it damns her, though she would not spell it out, for the travails of that unheard, unseen man forcibly whiling away his time in a lonely cell in Sungei Buloh Prison. Now, Tan Sri Ramon Navaratnam, the retired civil servant and corporate worthy, in a letter to the New Straits Times today (04 March 2002), insists US investors should not dabble in politics, and fears other countries could follow the US lead and skew the international financial structure. He does not say how, but says Calpers investment strategy would make nonsense of the long-term interests of the US and of "free and fair international trade and finance".

As jetliners land in Kuala Lumpur's ultramodern and empty international airport at Sepang at night, passengers see a ring a fires burning around the airport. If you drive to the airport in broad daylight, you cannot see more than 10 metres ahead as you reach it. The dry weather turned the peat forests around it, and elsewhere in the country, to tinder, and open fires burn not because someone set it alight but because the tinder caught fire. There is a conspiracy not to talk about it, but when the fires were in Indonesia in previous years, Malaysian politicians and newspapers did not miss a trick to attack them for their negligence; that those who resorted to open burning there were Malaysian companies, including government-owned and -controlled, opening up new estates was unmentioned. But we were told that Indonesian negligence brought this about. The Air Pollution Index must have reached a dangerous level -- since that is a state secret, we are not allowed to know how bad it is -- for, as an asthmatic, I have not suffered as I do now.

How many reports did his jailed predecessor make about wrongdoings in government? Since Dato' Seri Abdullah promises to investigate magazine publishers who flout the law, surely these would have been investigated and resolved by now. But the fact is: none are. Now would they now or ever. The police would act when ordered by the home minister, one Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, the last time I checked, or more often one Mahathir Mohamed, the ex-officio home minister. In other words, the police have become a political police force, one which act only against those they are ordered to. When Dato' Seri Abdullah threatens magazine publishers, the police are happy they have a new line of income. You have banned porno CDs? You make your own deals with the police. You will ban the Indonesian illegal from returning? UMNO branches along the coast will make their own deals and help them return. Usually within 48 hours of landing in Indonesia.

He runs the organisation as a bull in a china shop. He replaced the chairmen and most board members of its subsidiaries with his own men. And they run the subsidiaries as if they own it: one newly-appointed non-executive chairman voted himself executive chairman within weeks of his appointment. These changes come amidst an important change in the Tabung Haji management. Danaharta, the government agency formed to bail out the cronies and revamp their company management, is brought in to revamp Tabung Haji after a former chairman lost nearly RM1 billion in unwise investments in Indonesia.

He fashioned a role for himself beyond outside support, diminished it with his greed in power, but still has much support in Mindanao, and the Muslim world. His direct links with Sabah politicians, and his extended family there, is one Kuala Lumpur, or Manila, cannot break. Nothing would have happened to him if September 11, with its US follow-up, the global coalition against terror, had not happened. One distinction to disappear was the thin line between "our" freedom fighter and "their" terrorist. Dr Mahathir re-defined the rules by skewing it in his own country, targetting any and sundry as terrorists in a political exercise to retain power. He must act against Mr Misuari, since he falls within his own recent definition of terrorism: if Al-Maunah and Kesatuan Mujahideen Malaysia are terrorist organisations, surely the MNLF also is; since he hands over the Achenese terrorist, or freedom fighter (depending on who you talk to) to Indonesia and certain death, should he not Mr Misuari? Can he, and keep his political composure?

The Indonesian manpower and transmigration minister, Mr Jakob Nuwa, says Malaysian business men want cheap labour. Which is why Indonesians flock to Malaysia, and ready employment at less than fair rates. The law does not allow it, but this is cheerfully ignored. When the police decide to crack down, the business men shop these workers, and wash their hands off them. They are often not paid as they should, and the police are informed when they ask what they were promised. He tells only half the tale. But the risk is worth it. It is an unmentioned rule that if Malays cannot be found for menial work, muslim Malaysians and foreigners fill the jobs ahead of the non-Muslim Malaysian. This applies to every undertaking which depends on casual labour. And this daily quote is by Malays and Indonesians, and all but a handful of others.

In the 1970s, when the Vietnamese boat people swamped to Malaysian, Indonesian, Philippines, Singaporean shores, the world community was outraged that these nations would not accept them. Singapore, an island republic of 625 square miles, would not under any circumstances. The others, despite their harsh stance, did relent on the condition they were eventually repatriated. The Western nations wanted to pick and choose whom they wanted, and insisted Malaysia keep the rest. Malaysia has not been an immigrant nation since 1952, five years before independence, and since most were Chinese or Chinese-looking landing in the conservative Malay areas of her East Coast, Malaysia shooed them away. The other countries were unwilling and unprepared to accept foreigners in such large numbers would could in turn cause internal problems. Despite these, more than a hundred thousand of them landed in refugee camps and it took years before the last left for third countries or returned home.

It is doubtful he could see President Bush in Shanghai when APEC meets later this year. He would meet some Asian leaders, but from ASEAN, it would probably be four heads of government -- from Thailand, the Philippines, Indonesia, Japan -- and China. Dr Mahathir denies he wants to meet Bush, to make that even less of a chance of it.

When all is said and done, press freedom in Malaysia is iffy at best. We have not moved so far as Thailand or Indonesia has. That the best-read Malaysian newspaper these days is the Harakah, the political organ of the opposition Islamic Party of Malaysia or PAS, underscores the divide in the Malaysian media.

Far more serious is the palm oil price. Palm oil cannot be harvested by an individual settler by himself. The Felcra scheme harvests it for them, and the settlers bear the loss. It is not only the settlers who suffer. Malaysia, a high cost producer of oil palm at about RM750 a tonne, sells its produce on the international market at less what it costs to produce. Indonesia, on the other hand, with a production cost half this, does well. When India agreed to barter its defence products to Indonesia for palm oil, Malaysia thought it a good way too to reduce its burgeoning stockpile. When the Indian prime minister, Mr Atal Bihari Vajpayee, cancelled his visit to Malaysia, the minister of primary industries and chief palm oil salesman, Dato' Seri Lim Kheng Yaik, was not the only one disappointed.

When the Indian Prime Minister, Mr Atul Behari Vajpayee, arrives in Malaysia for an official visit, it is as leader of a resurgent India frightened of China's moves into Southeast Asia. It is also the first by an Indian leader with a well-defined plan to be involved in the security and other concerns and not just trade. India's role in the region is one of missed opportunities. Thirty years ago, she had four commercial bank branches, today it has none. China then had none, today the Bank of China has reopened with the right to open 13 branches, one in each state of the Malaysian federation. His recent official visits to Vietnam and Indonesia saw defence pacts signed, and his current visits to Malaysia and Japan would also have this as the main focus.

But when the ICJ, in an advisory opinion, the only type it delivers, said the UN rapporteur for judiciary and the law, Dato' Param Cumaraswami, had immunity for what he said within his brief, the Malaysian courts refused to accept it. This, despite a solemn assurance by the government it would abide by it. Is it national policy then, that it would support ICJ decisions if it relates to foreign countries but not when it applies to it? Or would it reject any advisory it does not agree with? Malaysia has at least two territorial claims before the ICJ: one with Singapore over who owns Pedro Branca, the other with Indonesia over who owns Sipadan and Litigan islets.

Superficially, the Singaporean holds his ground. An Indian diplomat once told me his Singaporean counterpart prepares his brief well, is impressive in the early stages but flounders once the discussion goes beyond the facts and figures; the trick is, he told me, to force discussion beyond his brief. Singapore stage-managed the regional crisis, but got its sums wrong when the frame of reference went beyond. Singapore misjudged the crisis in Indonesia, in Malaysia, in the Phillippines, though its initial successes were impressive. The most telling example of this is Mr Lee's recent visit to Malaysia: having come to back an embattled Prime Minister, he publicly criticised him. My Singapore friends tell me that was not his intention. Perhaps not. But that is how Malaysians perceive it. His subsequent near-panic attempts to correct the record only made it worse. Once an issue goes beyond the well-thought-out brief, Singaporean policy and action flounders. I have over the years talked to numerous Singaporeans, some who seek me out, and they come armed with a shibboleth of facts and figures and what can be gleaned from that, challenging every assertion I make with demands for proof. What I call the "X factor" -- the unquantifiables -- the Singaporean ignores or downgrades.

Has Malaysia prepared itself strategically and tactically for whatever happens in Indonesia? The fissiparous pressures in Acheh, Mollucas, Ambon, West Papua and elsewhere coupled with Western criticism of human rights abuses, many, especially Westerners, believe, would fragment Indonesia into half-a-dozen or more mutually exclusive states at war with each other. The Singapore Senior Minister, Mr Lee Kuan Yew, during his visit here, could not understand this Malay unconcern at this development and asked an old friend incredulously: "You mean the Malays would accept Indonesian hegemony over them?" But it is more than that. What happens in Indonesia after the fall of President Suharto is the normal power play when a dynasty falls. Those who lived through Confrontation and 1965, when the failed Gestapu coup brought General Suharto to power see President Suharto's predicament no worse than President Sukarno's under him.

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