That is a lie because the non-Malay knows he is not welcome. Not so long ago, the best friend of the Inspector-General of Police (IGP) was his Indian batch-mate at police training school, who retired as an assistant superintend of police. So it was in the army.

Every senior Malay civil servant leaves his post, having made sure the non-Malay is sidelined and is more Islamic and Malay than when he came in. The Inspector General of Police, Tan Sri Bakri Omar, who is to retire shortly, has designed a new uniform for policewomen in which the tudung is compulsory. This was modified on protest to be used only at official functions. But the tudung is worn by Malay, not non-Malay. women. To leave his office more Islamic than when he came in, he ordered the new uniform. It is not provided for under the police or civil service rules. But the PaK Lah administration or the Chief Secretary say not a word. The fear of Islamic religious administration, for these Muslims, is more important than civil service rules or the smooth functioning of the administration and the government.

I was without a computer last week, thanks to a private individual close to the levers of power, the MAS former executive chairman, Dato' Munir Majid. The Inspector-General of Police got involved, as I learned days after my computer was returned. Pak Lah is also minister of security, but Datuk Munir is close to a senior minister, who ordered my computer seized. But why is Pak Lah and the Inspector-General of Police involved in an action for defamation, if at all? The police got involved because there is in our law books, though not in several Commonwealth countries, punishment for criminal defamation. The aim was to find out who wrote the flying letters. But what is contained in the flying letters has made to the official media. So it must be right. So, is the cabinet working at cross purposes, as this shows? As the cabinet is with the governnent, UMNO with each other and with other parties in the National Front, and which together is on one side and the people on the other.

With the result, even the chief secretary, the highest civil servant, look to this group before he takes a decision. But this attitude pervades the uniformed services as well. A solitary Indian joins the police as an Inspector 33 years ago, good at his job that he was made the Malaysian representative to an international crime preventing organisation, retired as an assistant superintendent of police, never having gone on a beat, or served in the police districts. He was posted to district headquarters once, but that was because he was to be promoted before he retired. But one of his Malay batch mates became Inspector-General of Police, and several, all Malays, were in the chairmed circles surrounding him. There are no senior non-Malay police officers now who can interact with their communities.

He was the son of I.V.K. Nair, from Palghat, who had come to Malaysia in 1910, and was brought to the then Federated Malay States. He appointed agents later in all districts. That is how Inspector P.C. Joseph. from Alwaye, and my father, from Thalavady, came to Malaysia. It was to Inspector Joseph's house in Johore Bahru I was taken after I was born at the General Hospital in Johore Bahru in 1939. James Puthucheary, who joined the Indian National Army in his twenties, was in detention with Mr Nair, when his father in 1956 died. He was among the small band of Malayalis who provided the PAP with the left intellectual framework, for which they were exiled in old age. Mr Puthucheary studied law, died a rich corporate lawyer in Malaysia, believed to the end he had failed. He said to me he would title his autobiography, which he never wrote mainly because of the stroke that ravaged his last days, "The Autobiography of a Failure." He was banned for almost 25 years from the island, lifted after his friend's wife died in Singapore, he wanted to attend the funeral, and just before he did. As an aside, I was put on restricted entry into Singapore in 1971, and permanently banned in 1991. But as I told an Italian journalist, who put the quote in his book, "I have already done my shopping."

Thirty years after the New Economic Policy and that of Malay Dominance, by which non-Malays will hold no position in the government service that they cannot be promoted to any supervisory position in the lower services, and the promotions in the upper services are limited. After the nude squat scandal, the lack of non-Malays were highlighted. The official explanation is that they will not join the government services or the uniformed branch because they are paid better outside. It is the non-Malay view now. They took this view when they found they touched a glass ceiling early. There is an attempt to get non-Malays now, but the non-Malays do not trust the government now. A non-Malay promoted in the civil service means the Malay who recommended him would be penalised. No one wants that for himself, Malay or non-Malay. In the armed services, they retire as lieutenant-colonels or colonels, that latter rank given them in the last year of their service, while most of their Malay juniors had jumped over them. One examples will suffice: a non-Malay police officer retired as assistant superintendent of police, but his batchmate died as deputy Inspector-general of police. They had retired in the 1970s, which means they jointed the force in the 1950s, after Merdeka. This would not happen now because the non-Malay would not be selected.

Pak Lah washes his hands when it is convenient. He said he did not know that his son-in-law's company was taken over by a government firm, Avenue Capital, which had RM3,000 million in cash, in a complicated series of moves that had the main shareholders controlling it. He told that he did not know about the transaction. A RM3,000 million in cash is depleted from government coffers, and lhe, who is also finance minister, did not know! His son-in-law did not tell him? His officials never told him? The former finance minister, Tun Daim Zainuddin, had insisted that all payments, or projects RM20 million and more should come to him. But we are told RM3,000 million has been transferred to his son-in-law without his knowledge! But when he denied, a denial that was broadcast over the government media in great detail, Malaysians who are used to the government telling lies, believed the opposite. He issued the press statement, through Bernama, a fortnight after his involvement was known throughout the country. He still believes he can stop the flood when he feels like it. But Malaysians know the government never tells the truth. The former deputy prime minister, Dato' Seri Anwar Ibrahim was beaten to a pulp, by the Inspector-General of Police no less, while government spokesman said he was well treated. The police denied it had illtreated Chinese women tourists, but admitted that the woman in question who did the nude squat was Malay, not Chinese. In the meanwhile, a cabinet minister had gone to Beijing to apologise, two journalists had been forced to resign, a Chinese daily in danger of being suspended. But no one believes the official version, which often varies with the spokesman.

It is a mess. It always is when the government's view is challenged. But a Malay girl is produced to say she is the woman in question, and the world is told to accept that as fact. The nude ear squat is illegal under police rules, the commission of inquiry has said it is, but that is forgotten. The police take the view that is a culprit is found, in this case two editors, that it was not a Chinese national, and they should pay for saying otherwise. But the police in recent years only tell the truth to commissions of inquiry. It denied the former deputy prime minister, Dato' Seri Anwar Ibrahim, had been beat to a pulp, when he was, by the Inspector-General of Police, no less, who went to jail for so doing. The police has been harassing Chinese tourists for years, but have denied doing it.

It is in trouble now because it takes a generation, about 30 years, for policies to fruit. The NEP and Malay Dominance of those days is only now being tested. It was made clear then non-Malays would be looked upon with disfavour in the government and uniformed services. In 1973, only two Chinese and one Indian Inspectors were taken in. They have retired, but no one has a higher rank than assistant superintendent of police. A non-Malay chief Inspector is studying law, because he does not want to, as he put it, salute those he had helped train. Today, there are hardly non-Malays in either service, when they are needed the most.

But Islam is used to push Dominance. The former Inspector-General of Police, in his column in the Star, has repeated the canard that the non-Malay does not join the government services because of better prospects outside. But the New Economic Polict and Malay Dominance ensured that non-Malays would not, if possible, join the government services. In the early 1970s, when both these policies were implemented. the police only took one Indian Inspector and two Chinese Inspectors. All lthree have retired, rising to assistant superintendent of police, if he is lucky, and told bluntly they would not go higher. A non-Malay in government services or the uniform branch cannot rise high in his services so they would order Malays around. The non-Malay chief clerks or matrons still in service were appointed before this was in force, and the few that exist would retire soon.

IF THE MAYOR HAS been defamed in a book, he should have taken the author to court. Instead, the police showed they could do as they liked, decided that defamining the mayor was a threat to national security, began investigating two senior City Hall officials and the author, and jailed them for about a week - like common criminals. They should have done so after the mayor has won his action in court, if he dared take it. Even then, the police acting, as they have done, is illegal. They were illegal in arresting the former deputy prime minister, Dato' Seri Anwar Ibrahim, and the criminal case against him, for which he spent time in jail, is illegal. The then Inspector General of Police, no less, have apologised for beating him up and so have several people. Unless of course the government tells us clearly, and passes the required legislation, that it is an offence to defame either politicians or civil servants. That law would create problems on the ground, where it would be resisted, rightly. But because of the government in full control, with no opposition in sight, it do as it liked. The mayor is attacked because although he is a favoured civil servant, he should not have been appointed. The government is trying to cut dissent in the civil service, and uses the police to stop it. The book, in Malay, which upset the government writes of the newly appointed mayor's sexual affairs. He has not denied the allegations. Nor has he filed a defamation suit against the author of the book. So, who authorised the police to act as it did? Pak Lah must act against these man who lodged the police report, and the police for having harassed the author and the two senior City Hall officers. Since he is responsible for what happens in the government, he must take responsibility. He cannot act as his predecessor, Tun Mahathir, by repeating the allegations after he refuses to prove the allegations in the Anwar Ibrahim trials. He is now facing a defamation action by Dato' Seri Anwar for repeating the sodomy allegation after he has been cleared by the courts. But has he been investigated by the police? Why not? Is he lower in rank than the mayor of City Hall? Pak Lah cannot act as he pleases. He should have had the police investigate the former prime minister. What has not the police treated him as he treated the author and the senior City Hall officials?

Why? A "noble" career in the police force "uphold(s) the law and ensure the peace of the country and security of the people", he said at the function. The police should not rest on its laurels: it should aspire to be a world class force. Money is not a problem: last year, the cabinet – not parliament – allotted RM740 million last year and another RM330 million in 2005, with more under the Ninth Malaysia Plan. But structures do not a good police force make. The Inspector-General of Police, Tan Sri Mohamed Bakri Omar, wants policemen and women to imbibe "life-long" learning so the police can face the future with confidence. He is also grateful to the National Front (BN) government for its special interest in the police force.

THE FEDERAL COURT, AS expected, today (02 September 2004) quashed the conviction for sodomy and nine-year-jail sentence on Dato' Seri Anwar Ibrahim, six years to the day he was sacked as deputy prime minister. This hearing had been postponed several times, and the decision confirmed recent rumours of both his acquittal and of a deal struck between him and the prime minister, Dato' Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi. After his arrest and when blindfolded and manacled, he was beaten to an inch of his life by the then Inspector-General of Police, Tan Sri Abdul Rahim Noor, causing him now to be in extreme pain and a near cripple confined to a wheelchair. His medical condition is so bad that he had been in hospital for the past five weeks. He would be released from prison today and leaves for surgery in Munich tomorrow on a special flight arranged by the Saudi Arabian government.

When newspapers make it front-page news, or when some publicity can be extracted out of it, the Inspector-General of Police and senior police officers rush to the scene of the crime, especially if it happens in the Klang Valley, to direct operations, sidelining the officers in nominal charge. Their presence alone suggests the crime is worse than it is. When there was an outbreak of attacks on tourists, a tourst police was set up; when VIP and diplomatic residences were targetted, a special VIP force is set up.

In other words, the police have become the strong-arm division of the prime minister's world. The deputy prime minister needs to be destroyed. A whisper into the Inspector-General's ears, and he does the honors of beating him to an inch of his life while he is handcuffed, manacled and blindfolded before he is carted off to jail and after a trial that turns out to be a sham with each passing day.

But it raises disturbing questions. The ISA is designed to be used in extremis, when the laws of the land cannot cope with the emergency at hand, and is for that extra-legal purpose only. But it is now used by governments with similar laws to remain in power by detaining political opponents and circumscribing political parties they consider dangerous. Worse, the laws are amended over the years to remove the considerable safeguards the laws originally had so those arrested under it could have access to the courts. In Malaysia, the ISA is often used to threaten the government's political opponents. It is now a catchall law that allows people to be detained without proper investigations. It has over the years become a law that presumes anyone caught in it to be a national security threat. Its reach is so broad that it can be used at will. Even a former deputy prime minister got caught in the ISA maze, during which he was beaten to an inch of his life by none other than the Inspector-General of Police.

But it did not have the impact Pak Lah expected. The newspapers, radio and television gave Tan Sri Eric's arrest extensive coverage but it did grip Malaysians as, for instance, when the government considered serious proposals to cane rapists in public, chemically castrate them, put them to death. The melodrama of his arrest was to show how the ACA, the police, the Attorney-General's Chambers worked in tandem to arrest the man. The Inspector-General of Police said: "Several policemen were deployed to assist in the arrest ..." We are told he was arrested after a dramatic "chase" that began in Sungei Patani. Was it necessary? Tan Sri Eric is a diabetic, is confined to his house, moves about in a wheelchair. If he had been ordered to report to the police station, he would have, without the theatrics.

Yet, BN and UMNO leaders are quick to dismiss Dato' Seri Anwar as a failed politician who has lost his constituency. When he comes out of jail in 11 years, he would be a broken man, bereft of friends and support. In public, they are dismissive of him. They have to repeat it as a mantra, not to convince the electors and Malaysians but themselves that he is in the past who will not exert any influence in their future. But they know in their hearts that they are wrong. Five years after he was dismissed, arrested, struck with repeated karate blows by the Inspector-General of Police no less, detained under the ISA, convicted in sham trials and jailed, no UMNO leader with any future in politics can sleep in peace and afraid of what could happen if he should be released from prison, even on bail. Worse, if the courts should ever find that he is the victim of political machinations, though that is less likely than an iron tree blossoming. But some signs must disturb UMNO leaders: one political secretary cannot come to terms with his role in the destruction of Dato' Seri Anwar and wants to resign his post.

He says the police force should not be an employer of last resort. It must attract well-educated men and women. Crime is more complex by the day, a step behind or even ahead of the electronic revolution. The police force must have the men and women to stop it in its tracks. Pak Lah promises the Royal Commission would look into all this and more. He said the police must be careful when it dealt with people. The people are better educated than ever, they know their rights, would baulk at standing up for them. It is the first honest admission from anyone in high office of what could happen if it continues. But he does not go far enough. The RMP is politicised, and beholden only to the National Front (BN) government. In the two states where the Opposition PAS forms the state government, it looks to Kuala Lumpur, not the state governments, for guidance. The state governments in Kelantan and Trengganu cannot rely on the police on an issue the state UMNO unit is opposed to. For the police chiefs take orders from the Inspector-General of Police and the Home Minister in Kuala Lumpur, not the state chief minister.

The monolithic facade BN and UMNO presented to the world cracked, was no more. The Malay cultural and feudal ground deserted it, its right to govern in question, the government dissembled. And gets worse as creative ways are found to keep him in gaol as long as possible. Pettiness guides many a government action. The beatings he received from the then Inspector-General of Police, Tan Sri Abdul Rahim Noor, made his recurrent back problem worse. When he asked for microsurgery by a German orthopaedic surgeon, the pettiness in which the government reacted beggars belief. But pettiness and meanness is how the BN government has behaved in this sordid affair. And the more irrational the BN government behaved in the years since, the more support it lost from the one constituency it depends to stay on in power: the Malay. The Malay now sits on the sidelines, supporting neither BN nor the Opposition. But any support denied BN, especially from the Malay, causes it to lose more seats in parliament and state assemblies than it can afford.

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