So when the former chief minister of Sabah, Dato' Seri Salleh Tun Said Keruak, returns as a member of a Malaysian delegation to Iraq, he cannot contain his pride that Iraqi leaders have a high regard for Dr Mahathir and his sensitivity and sense in articulating world problems and conflicts without fear or favour. The Iraqi leaders thanked the Malaysian delegation for visiting Iraq "during the present period of uncertainty". But the Malaysian delegation did not, it would appear, bother to find out more about "this period of uncertainty". Leading it was the information minister and UMNO secretary-general, Tan Sri Khalil Yaakob, and they called on President Saddam Hussein, Vice President Taha Yassin Ramadhan and Deputy Prime Minister Tareq Aziz.

The UMNO supreme council is undecided, says the UMNO secretary-general, Tan Sri Khalil Yaakob, if the general elections or UMNO elections be held first. The Prime Minister and UMNO president, Dato' Seri Mahathir Mohamed, postponed party elections until after the general elections, to reduce fractious infighting. The UMNO supreme council, in its considered view, concurred. The Registrar of Societies, ever solicitious to UMNO and the National Front (BN) agreed. No doubt he would again. Even if it falls foul of both law and practice. Party elections in fact have been suspended. Tan Sri Khalil beats about the bush when he claims this postponement of party elections is not discussed. The UMNO President works in consort with the UMNO supreme council. None opposed his decision. As when Dr Mahathir wanted his deputy prime minister dismissed in 1998. Though, in both, it wishes it had not.

UMNO leaders threw a can of worms at the retired Imam of the National Mosque and now PAS MP for Baling, Haji Taib Azamudeen only to see it turn around and splash on them. They dare not respond. But when people in glass houses throw stones at passersby, one would pick a stone and throw it back. Haji Taib said he had a ticking bomb in his hands which would devastate UMNO leaders. Dato' Zainuddin Maidin, the former editor-in-chief of Utusan Malaysia and now parliamentary secretary in the information ministry, challenged him to reveal it. Four weeks later, at the end of April, the information minister, former mentri besar of Pahang and UMNO secretary-general, Tan Sri Khalil Yaakob, and the UMNO vice president and former Selangor mentri besar, Tan Sri Mohamed Taib, taunted him to reveal it. On 7 May 2002, he did just that. He picked up a stone and shattered the UMNO glass house.

But the affection he enjoys amongst those who came into contact is enormous, as evident last night at the "Sentidos Tapas" restaurant in the Starhill Shopping Centre in Jalan Bukit Bintang. It was a gathering of the forgotten men of Malaysia's recent history, interspersed with those of more recent vintage. The Yang Dipertuan Negara of Negri Sembilan, Tuanku Jafar ibni Almarhum Tuanku Abdul Rahman, the former Yang Dipertuan Agung, was there: as he pointed out, as a career diplomat, he was one of King Ghaz's boys. The deputy prime minister, Dato' Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, rushed from Penang to attend. The information minister, Tan Sri Khalil Yaakob, like King Ghaz from Pahang, was there, as was the Sultan's brother, Tengku Abdullah. There was Tan Sri Shariff Ahmad who, in great magnanimity resigned from the cabinet so Tan Sri Ghazali could remain. But it only postponed his exit by two years.

That is not all. When the Selangor mentri besar, Dato' Seri Mohd Khir Toyo is accused of irregular land dealings, he decides that condoms could only be sold to married couples under prescription. When the Johore mentri besar, Dato' Ghani Othman, is faced with explaining what happened to all those hundreds of millions of missing funds, he wants Malay couples getting married to undergo an AIDS/HIV test. So, when the information minister, Tan Sri Khalil Yaakob, wants the education ministry to investigate these ten-minute homilies when he does not to explain his negligence in allowing a booklet about Malaysia as an Islamic state came to be edited and printed by his ministry and which should have earned them all a free holiday at the government-run hostlery at Kamunting. Those who produced that booklet, and the minister, are as anti-national as UMNO insists these lecturers are. But what is allowed Zeus is disallowed the cow. More so in Bolehland than Ancient Greece.

Not only in Selangor. The mentri besar of Malaysia's smallest state, Perlis, rapes his forest reserves. The accusations Dato' Fauzi Abdul Rahman hurled at the former Pahang mentri besar, Tan Sri Khalil Yaakub, centred on alienating forest reserves. Tan Sri Muhiyuddin Yassin is a wealthy man today becasue as mentri besar of Johore, such opportunities as alienating forest reserves came his way. One mentri besar of Perak, the father of the present, became so wealthy that the sultan, as in Johore against Tan Sri Muhiyuddin, rebelled. He went on to become Malaysia's ambassador to the then United Arab Republic, now Egypt. As the former mentri besar of Trengganu, Tan Sri Wan Mokhtar Ahmad, is now ambassador to Saudi Arabia.

Tan Sri Khalil however is on the skids. He has submitted his resignation as UMNO secretary-general and as information minister. And in time succeeded by the defacto law minister, Dato' Rais Yatim. Yet one more casualty in the unfolding battle royale between He Who Thinks He Is Emperor Of All He Surveys and He Who Must Be Destroyed At All Cost. The latter responds to every attempt to demonise and humiliate him with well-guided missiles into the latter's heartland to send shivers down its collective spine. Dato' Fauzi, amongst a small band of UMNO members, openly says he is a friend of Dato' Seri Anwar. UMNO can do nothing about it, not after what he did to it. Tan Sri Khalil, as UMNO secretary-general, was rooting out Anwar supporters in the divisions when he faces a larger crisis. Much to his chagrin, his wife's step-sister's husband reacted in unaccustomed fury that now forces him to quit office.

The UMNO secretary-general, Tan Sri Khalil Yaakob, is "confident" of the MCA's leaders' wisdom. No doubt he is. Two UMNO vice presidents, Tan Sri Muhiyuddin Yassin and Tan Sri Mohamed Taib, are equally confident the MCA would rise above this kerfuffle and emerge victorious. No Chinese leader of any note have welcomed the EGM decision to approve the MCA purchase of Nanyang Press. Indeed, a few groups have excoriated it.

And it evades the more serious charges a Pahang state assemblyman laid upon the former mentri besar who is now UMNO secretary-general and federal cabinet minister, of corruption. Dato' Fauzi Abdul Rahman said he would resign. He has yet to. All effort is made to see he does not. This potentially is worse than the case of the suspended six. The fright this gave the UMNO leaders is incalculable. They would not act, and drag their feet. If a byelection is held for Dato' Fauzi's state assembly seat, PAS, which lost by 800 votes in 1999, could well be returned. When Dato' Fauzi accused one in UMNO's inner circles of corruption, UMNO looked away. The two events are interlinked, the Khalil issue the more serious. Until it is resolved, UMNO would continue to shoot itself in the foot.

The five men Dato' Seri Anwar alleged were in a conspiracy to destroy him politically all lost or are under severe political pressure. Dato' Seri Mahathir and his finance minister, Tun Daim Zainuddin, are at hammer and tongs with each other; Tan Sri Abdul Rahim Tamby Chik, lost in his bid to be divisional leader; so did Dato' Abdul Aziz Shamsuddin, the deputy education minister, and former cabinet minister Dato' Seri Megat Junid Megat Ayob. UMNO must also resolve the accusations Dato' Fauzi Abdul Rahman, an Anwar supporter, hurled corruption charges at the UMNO secretary=general, former Pahang mentri besar and now federal information minister, Tan Sri Khalil Yaakob. The more UMNO attempts to contain the politics of money, the more it runs arounds in circles. For it would not accept that UMNO's success is that it is the gravy train that greased the wheels of powers in Malaysia.

Yet, the one major crisis on its hands, which an UMNO state assemblyman, Dato' Fauzi Abdul Rahman, lobbed against the UMNO secretary-general, Tan Sri Khalil Yaakob, is in no man's land. It was serious, detailed, and came in the form of a police report. The UMNO president, who is also prime minister, should have removed the man straight away. Instead, he does nothing. Neither has he acted upon Dato' Fauzi's threat to resign as state assemblyman. He said he had submitted his resignation to the mentri besar of Pahang, Dato' Adnan Yaakub, but it has yet to be forwarded to the Elections Commission. A byelection in Pahang now could well see PAS retaining it. Dato' Fauzi supports the jailed former deputy prime minister, Dato' Seri Anwar Ibrahim, and has thrown the UMNO machinery into confusion. So, it is money politics and the Anwar affair that weighs UMNO down.

Dato' Fauzi Abdul Rahman's defiance when he was run out from defending his post of UMNO Kuantan division chief has unnerved UMNO national leaders. He aimed his barbs at the UMNO secretary-general and former mentri besar of Pahang, Tan Sri Khalil Yaakob, making a police report about his corruption. Tan Sri Khalil and Dato' Fauzi married step-sisters, were once thick as thieves, but the latter's close friendship with Dato' Seri Anwar, even after the fall, marked him out for political destruction. But he still says Dato' Seri Anwar is his friend, and brings Anwar back into UMNO politics so decisively. This, with Dato' Seri Anwar's back pain, puts Dr Mahathir even more defensive when the UMNO general assembly meets in June.

> The UMNO Kelantan division chief, Dato' Fauzi Abdul Rahman, > nettles UMNO leaders so badly that the ACA visits a > cooperative he chairs, and takes away documents relating to > its latest annual reports. No hint of wrongdoing is hurled > at him, but it is to unnerve him. The documents taken away, > in any ACA visit, is returned rarely or not at all, and > throws any organisation into confusion. This is to divert > attention from the main problem: his allegation that the > UMNO secretary-general, information minister and former > mentri besar of Pahang, Tan Sri Khalil Yaakob, had misused > the state's wealth. It threw UMNO leaders into a tailspin > and the matter is not discussed in public any more. An > internal investigation is ordered, the police and the ACA > react with total unconcern. >
> This one has come to expect. Look at the tens of > police reports filed against the cabinet by the jailed > former deputy prime minister, Dato' Seri Anwar Ibrahim, and > his supporters. Not one is seriously looked into. It is > not, in the government's considered view, the cabinet > ministers who ought to be destroyed but Dato' Seri Anwar. > But the inaction is more from fear of political > consequences. Those in the cabinet privately agree that if > investigations are allowed to proceed to its logical > conclusion, there would be a queue outside Sungei Buloh > prison to rub shoulders for a few years with the VIP > prisoner there. The police reports of ministerial and > official corruption helps keep Dato' Seri Anwar on the high > moral ground culturally; and Dato' Fauzi's report questions > UMNO moral standing. That Dato' Fauzi is still close to > Dato' Seri Anwar makes it even more so. >
> The Prime Minister clearly was caught offside when the > crisis blew into his face. Tan Sri Khalil and Dato' Fauzi > married step-sisters. They were close. One supported the > other. Both mounted a solid front to maintain their hold on > Kelantan UMNO. But the Anwar affair unscrambled it. Dato' > Fauzi did not hide his ties with Dato' Seri Anwar, was one > of the first at the house in Bukit Damansara after the > latter was sacked from UMNO and the government in September > 1998. But, in the view of UMNO leaders', pro-Anwar backers > in the party, especially in government, must be > systematically rooted out. This is one such. It has blown > into their collective faces. It does not matter here what > happens to Dato' Fauzi, as it does not matter, in the larger > political and cultural context, what happens to his jailed > friend.
>
> UMNO tells the world it follows rules no one else does. > The law is not to investigate their misdoings, but its > leaders' enemies. The home mininster, Dato' Seri Abdullah > Ahmad Badawi, should have asked the police, not the UMNO > disciplinary committee, to investigate Dato' Fauzi's > charges. For what is at stake is UMNO's, and the > government's, credibility. It is taken in panic, in the > belief that if the mainstream media does not report what > happens, it is all right. But UMNO's right to lead the > Malays is challenged politically and culturally. Every > action its leaders take enhances this Malay belief that > UMNO's time is past. It has descended from the national > movement it once was to another political party. The > political mistakes of its leaders in the past come to haunt > it.
>
> Indeed, the greater threat to UMNO now is what happens > when the next prime minister, whoever he is, takes office. > Yes, in the UMNO musical chairs heirarchial chart, it should > be Dato' Seri Abdullah. But he cannot, in the current > political climate, repair the Malay ground view against > UMNO. He has become, as deputy prime minister, too > confrontational to unite the disparate groups. The > infighting amongst the UMNO leaders comes out into the open. > The relationship between the Prime Minister and his finance > minister is so bad that one should expect a public explosion > soon. What made it worse is the EPF and KWAP bailout of > TimeDotCom share fiasco and the the government purchase of > MAS shares to bailout Tan Sri Tajuddin Ramli. >
> I am told of one top secret meeting, in the presence of > others, at which Dr Mahathir questioned Tun Daim about both, > and wanted to know EPF exposure in "this private company" -- > TimeDotCom. Tun Daim did not have the figures, one of those > irrelevant figures that slipped off his mind, and Dr > Mahathir wanted the answers within a week. That deadline is > past, and the figures remain unknown. This could well be > how the two men discuss matters of state, and there is > nothing unusual about it. But then I hear of Tun Daim > telling his acolytes: that whereas once he saw his boss six > or seven times a day, it is now once in six or seven days. > The Prime Minister has come to his senses, realises a lot > done in his name now sinks him. He had had his waking hours > spent on how to destroy his nemesis, when others on his side > spent time and effort on how to destroy him. That is Dr > Mahathir Mohamed's Malay Dilemma. >
> M.G.G. Pillai
> pillai@mgg.pc.my
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>

When the Pahang state assemblyman, Dato' Fauzi Abdul Rahman, alleged, in a police report, the UMNO secretary-general, Tan Sri Khalil Yaakob, is corrupt, he made UMNO run around in circles. Its president, Dato' Seri Mahathir Mohamed, is shell-shocked, cannot understand it. He calls for an internal investigation, instructs the Displinary Commission under the former foreign minister, Tengku Ahmad Rithaudeen, to do it. Instead of letting it do its job, the deputy prime minister, Dato' Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, who after saying the committee had been appointed, now says it would have three or four members. This raises two interesting questions: Is the disciplinary commission allowed to do its work if it is second-guessed, as now? What is the disciplinary commission to do? I spoke to a few members, who tell me UMNO has given it no guidelines on what money politics is. Without it, how could it do its work?

What felled him, Dato' Fauzi says, is a plot to unseat him, who would not distance himself from Dato' Seri Anwar when others deserted him in droves, and accuses the former state mentri besar and now federal information minister and UMNO secretary-general, Tan Sri Khalil Yaakob, of abuse and power. He also resigns as state assembly man to force a byelection when the government is in mortal fear of one. The Prime Minister orders an inquiry, as he had to, but it afflicts him even more. The Anwaristas dealt a mortal blow. An UMNO apparatchik told me yesterday to expect more such surprises when divisional elections are completed by the end of April.

UMNO is in a spot. It does not want a by-election. But it faces one it can lose. The UMNO Kuantan division chief, Dato' Fauzi Abdul Rahman, cannot defend his post because 20 branches in the division would not nominate him; he only got nine. He lodges a police report against the UMNO secretary-general and former mentri besar, Tan Sri Khalil Yaacob of abuse of power, alleges a conspiracy to unseat him with bribery, resigns as state assemblyman for Baserah in Pahang. The Prime Minister, Dato' Seri Mahathir Mohamed, says it is "illogical" for him to do it since the people, not UMNO, elected him. Dato' Fauzi looks at it differently: he was elected on a National Front ticket, and if his party disowned him, he must, in conscience, resign. UMNO is upset a state assemblyman resigns on principle; he insists he can remain in UMNO politics and remain a friend of the jailed former deputy prime minister, Dato' Seri Anwar Ibrahim. UMNO insists that its president's enemy must be yours too.

Surprises there would be. Not all to be dropped are deadwood, only politically inconvenient. The minister in the prime minister's department, Dato' Abdul Hamid Othman, has resigned, ineffective in countering PAS, as he was expected to, and politically neutered after he lost the Sik parliamentary seat to PAS's Dato' Shahnon Ahmad. He is expected to be non-executive chairman of Tabung Haji. Four others are expected to be dropped: UMNO secretary-general and federal information minister Tan Sri Khalil Ya'acob, culture and tourism minister Dato' Seri Abdul Kadir Sheikh Fadhir. The second woman minister, Datin Siti Zaharah, is also expected to be dropped, replaced by promoting the deputy minister in the prime minister's department, Datin Shahrizat Jalil. A few deputy ministers could well be promoted.

The Prime Minister even suggests the fellows were opposition supporters. They were not. Ask Mr Mohamed Umar Peer Mohamed. Why did the UMNO secretary-general, Tan Sri Khalil Yaakob, rush to the station to sort out the mess? The MIC president, Dato' Seri S. Samy Vellu, is angry with the police. So was everyone in the National Front camp. They were letting out their frustrations at having lost. They could not openly attack the deputy prime minister, so they attacked the police, and by extension its minister, who is one Dato' Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi. The reality sunk in a few days later, and now Tan Sri Khalil believes the polie did a smashing job. His explanation for the turnaround does not convince. The police did a good job, he says, because the crowd was menacing. Was it the hungry 400 or the crowd that was menacing, Tan Sri? So, they escorted the buses out of Lunas. It is more than that. Many who oppose UMNO now were once in its fold. They know how the National Front react in elections, and took steps to stop the phantom voters. Tan Sri Khalil realises that to prolong the discussion is to raise more questions of ill-intent. Meanwhile, if the National Front does not want its electoral practices the subject of a court action, it should tell the holidaymakers to shut up and lick their wounds. Mr Mohamed Umar has lodged police reporters in Lunas and Petaling Jaya. He obviously believes the police would act quicker if more than one report is filed. If it comes to court, he would no doubt be asked to justify his statement that he and his 399 compatriots came there to campaign when they cannot.

No doubts existed when Dato' Hishamuddin agreed. The information minister, Tan Sri Khalil Yaakob, would not allow the debate televised. Why should he, he reasoned, since it is a minor political debate involving two political parties, of parochial interest and of consequence. The mainstream newspapers, controlled by National Front political parties, had no such inhibitions: it reports the UMNO version of the debate in detail, and now leads to suggest its impropriety in the larger Malay communal interest. The Prime Minister says if UMNO refused the debate, PAS would make political capital. Indeed, it would, as UMNO if the tables were turned. Knowing this, why did UMNO agree to it? UMNO, unused to the cut-and-thrust of political debate, cannot meet PAS and other opposition leaders head-on in any debate of consequence. It would shoot itself in the foot first. As it has.

The mentri besar of Pahang, Dato' Seri Adnan Yaakob, often has choice epithets, backed with physical signs, for his political opponents, especially in PAS. He is abrasive, brash, foul-mouthed as occasion demands, and, in UMNO's view, a good man to have on its side, when such occasions can grab headlines. But a boor apart, he is also a shrewd politician. Few thought he could carve a political constituency of his own, succeeding a man who in eleven years personified the state and UMNO in it. But he has. He distances himself from the man he succeeded, Tan Sri Khalil Yaacob, now the UMNO secretary-general and information minister. First, he demanded that he be made the state UMNO liaison chief, a post traditionally held by the mentri besar. When UMNO dragged his feet, he threatened to resign and force a by-election. Tan Sri Khalid resigned, he took over. He now blames Tan Sri Khalid for the state's indebtedness, and says, in public, that that means development in the state must take a backseat.

Pak Lah (1364)   United States (636)   Straits Times (412)   Samy Vellu (224)   Putra Jaya (200)   Chief Justice (200)   Saddam Hussein (188)   Vincent Tan (164)   Civil Service (154)   Parti KeADILan (148)   Islamic State (118)   Johore Bahru (100)   Sungei Buloh (94)   Bukit Tinggi (88)   Abdul Razak (80)   Pengkalen Pasir (68)   Ting Pek (64)   Armed Forces (59)   Soviet Union (58)

Malay Dominance (58)   Yong Teck (56)   Hong Kong (56)   Human Rights (56)   Syed Hamid (54)   Puteri UMNO (52)   Islam Hadhari (52)   Royal Commission (51)   Hussein Onn (51)   Rafidah Aziz (48)   Indian Congress (48)   Open House (44)   Vision Schools (44)   Shah Alam (44)   Malay Unity (42)   Chua Jui (42)   Abdul Taib (42)   Ampang Jaya (36)   Ras Adiba (36)

Osama Bin Laden (36)   Nik Aziz Nik (20)   Ling Liong Sik (18)   Lee Kuan Yew (18)

High Court Judge (14)   Wan Azizah Wan (9)   Lim Kit Siang (9)   Megat Junid Megat (8)

Mahathir (2960)

Anwar (2399)