TELECOMS has charged me for a service I did not ask for. It assumed I needed it, although according to its rules, I must ask for it. All subscribers to the TeLekoms service should have got it, earning it a tidy sum it would not have got otherwise. What the government or its linked companies cannot get from the consumer, they steal it by hook or by crook. When I complained, I got a stock reply that I have been unusubscribed from the service I did not ask for but I would have to pay until cancelled, and which I knew of only after I received the bill for the month. But this is not my only grouse. Getting to Telecoms is a chore, what with all the "labour saving devices" it has at its command. It assumes that anyone who telephones it has time to waste. I have had a human being speak to me after several tries lasting several hours.

Where it affects the public, it is worse. Rubbish collection is not regular. The officer is more concerned about procedures, than dirt being removed. The worker in the ground does not often know what he has to do. Or prefers not to know. The non-Malay dare not open his mouth to protest, and the Malay in charge prefer not to do what he is to do. The system has been destroyed. A minister once said the system is good as its results. It is no use saying that the civil service follows the latest international standards in administration. You can find it is not working by asking TeLekoms for a telephone number you had forgotten. You are left pressing numbers and listening the same old spiel: "Your call is important to us", and holding the telephone for minutes on end. This is so in many government departments, where you hear the added message, that the officer is not in. Now, this fever of technology has hit the private and government-linked companies. So much so that help is asked for only if you have time to spare and need practice in pressing numbers on the telephone. Try calling Astro, and you will know that this "high-tech" nonsense seeps into private companies.

THE PRIME MNISTER IS an Islamic scholar because he has a degree in Islamic studies, so goes the spin. But while he is a deeply religious man, as many are, even he would admit he is no scholar. He has been built into one when he became prime minister. Tun Mahathir is a doctor, a great one at that, although he stopped practicing more than 30 years ago. The health minister, Doctor Chua Soi Lek graduated as a doctor, but gave it up for politics about the same time. But both are described as medical doctors. News reports, then of Tun Mahathir and Dato' Chua now, speak of their expertise in medicine, but neither would admit to all that. Dato' Ling Liong Sik, a medical graduate from Singapore, gave up his medical practice about a quarter of a centry ago, but he was treated in office as if he knew more than the specialists at the University Hospital. Dato' Seri S. Samy Vellu, before he entered Parliament, was known for his brawn than brain; but today in office it is reversed.

It is a fact that tourists from Asia and Africa are harassed. That to officialdom does not matter since the citizen in this country is also harassed. The nude 'ear squats' by women is not new. Police use it regularly to harass non-Caucasian tourists, and those it perceives are the enemy of government. Whatever the authorities say, it does exist. Malaysians and tourists have stepped forward to say they have been victims in the past. The authorities admit the police does it. It has set up a commission of inquiry, but they have refused to have on it opposition MPs, those who have a contrary view, and it comes after a royal commission of inquiry which showed the police could not be trusted. It had denied until it said in its report that the former deputy prime minister, Dato' Anwar Ibrahim, had been beaten to a pulp by the then Inspector-General of Police, Tan Sri Rahim Noor. The present crisis is not discussed in Parliament. It wants to resolve it in such a way it is exculpated. The authorities' attitude is that it is alone against the world. They have in the past harassed the public and they had taken courage that the public had kept quiet. The public is only to elect in the National Front so that it could harrass or sideline them. That is evident in Pengkalen Pasir, where two receipts are distributed to show the BN BiLek Gerakan (operations centre). This has not been denied, but it is investigating who bought the drinks which is giving the National Front a bad name. A small version of that happens in Kuala Lumpur about Chinese tourists not visiting Malaysia!

THE HEALTH MINISTER, DATO' Chua Soi Lek, is the latest buffoon in the Malaysian cabinet. He says statements he does not believe in or mean, and blames others for the state of affairs for which the National Front government, of which he is a member, is responsible. He blames government scholars, especially in medicine, for staying put in their country of study after graduation. Does he really mean that? Those on government scholarship has to have a gurantor, usually the father or a blood relative. Instead of saying how many Malaysians are staying put overseas, why does he not tell us how he has made guarantors pay, or how much he has collected, or how many doctors have been excused from working in Malaysia? Why does Eire give leave of absence for up to two years, doctors returning home after studying at Malaysian government expense. Most of these scholarship or bursary holders are Malay, usually those in the lower category, and the government would only ask them to pay only if the guarantor is in the Opposition party, usually PAS. How can the National Front ask Malay guarantors to pay what they had promised to do if their chap who got the guarantee does not return? Especially when the Malay ground is, at the moment, split three ways. It is UMNO which runs the National Front, and what UMNO says goes.

The mess in Plus Highway, TeLekom, Tenaga Nasional Berhad, Pos Malaysia Berhad, Putrajaya, the supremely inefficient public transport system reflect it. The list is endless, so the woes and frustrations of those who use these services.

There is also a state-of-the-art but otherwise useless coastal surveillance system costing at least RM100 million. Why? When it was tested against the TeLekoms systems, it failed because no one bothered to man the latter's round-the-clock all-weather system. Rather than correct it, it was abandoned. The early warning systems failed because once installed, no one cared to make it work.

Each held their ground. Neither could now back down, for the one who does has lost the political ground. The health minister, Dato' Chua Soi Lek, said the government position is unchanged. And twice compounded the political nature of Dato' Seri Anwar's treatment. Once a political decision is made, the civil servants would not second guess it. In fact, in this confrontation, every effort was made to suggest that he does not deserve what he gets. He cannot, for instance, get his medical records for a second opinion; it somehow got mislaid. But it was available to the health minister to deny him permission to seek treatment overseas.

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).

It was formed in high hope. Analysts at the time, as now, shortchange Malaysians with over-optimistic view of new companies. Maika Holdings was one for which a bright future was uniformly predicted. It began business in January 1983. Dato' Seri Samy Vellu said the Indians would have RM2.2 billion in funds at its disposal by 1990. It had stakes in TV3, in United Asian Bank, since merged in a succession of banking mergers into what is now the Bumiputra Commerce Bank, choice land in choice locations. It went into doubtful businesses like commodities trading - there is nothing wrong with commodities trading, but how it was done in Malaysia was a pure and simple scam. But the good times cannot last. Losses soon dotted the accounts books. Its construction arm had been given the right to build the 48 km Seremban-Port Dickson-Teluk Kemang privatised tolled road. It did not. When it was offered 10 million shares in TeLekoms Malaysia, at its listing, Dato' Seri Samy Vellu ordered Maika Holdings to subscribe for one million, the other nine million given to three shell companies with a total paid up capital of less than RM10 but to which the MIC president was somehow linked. The Asian financial crisis was not why Maika Holdings collapsed. The mismanaement bled the company long before that.

Would this save Dato' Seri Samy? The Maika Holdings scandal is not about to go away. He promises to give a full accounting. But can he? Could he explain how Maika Holdings lost tens of millions of ringgit in the TeLekom shares scandal? Or how the piece of land owned by the MIC next to its headquarters in Kuala Lumpur is not its any more? And why the promised new headquarters building is not built? He says he can prove "to the public" that he did right in all his dealings. He should. If he has a cast iron case that he had no desire but the future and well being of the Indian community, he would be forgiven the odd lapse of memory or unaccountable investments. But he would not. He has utter contempt for the Indian community. He believes he can lead them by the nose, and they would listen to him and to no one else. He is right. The MIC members are but slaves to him. He has had the constitution rewritten so he has the power to expel anyone who challenges him. Dato' Pandithan, after all, was once an MIC president.

Meanwhile, PAS forces BN to shoot itself in the foot. As when the deputy information minister, Senator Zainuddin Maidin, lost his temper at a PAS question in Parliament if Dato' Abdul MaLek Mydin, has said his Islamic prayers during his successfully swam the English Channel. He should have just ignored it, but showed he could also blink against his will. PAS is better at tripping the BN and UMNO ministers than the other way around. The consequent uproar in the House helps PAS not BN. And it has an election issue - how the deputy information minister lost his cool when asked a question about Islam - and UMNO has not. What happened in Parliament is a microcosm of what happens in the Malay heartland day in, day out.

It is also important that BN leaders frequently say they want to step down. They do not mean it. It is a safety device to keep they deputy presidents on the straight and narrow and not organise mass protests to throw them out. Which is also why they chose deputy presidents whom they do not want as party presidents when they retire. Dr Mahathir had four, and he hankers for a fifth. Dr Ling did not want Dato' Seri Lim Ah Lek as Dr Lim his deputy president, Dato' Kerk Choo Ting. All had more than one. The man who turned a BN presidency into a fine art is Dato' Seri Samy. He chose Dato' S. Subramaniam as deputy in 1979, when he took office. In 2003, it is still Dato' S. Subramaniam. He does not want him as the new MIC leader. He searches high and low for a new deputy. He has not found one yet. So he must soldier on. You would notice that in every case, the party president gives the party its high profile, but the reverse does not hold. That is the BN way. Could one fault that?

As the dust settles, nothing is settled. Immediately after the central committee, which the outgoing president, Dato' Seri Ling Liong Sik, controlled, elected Dato' Seri Ong as president, a compromise between the two factions - the forces of right led by Dr Ling and the axis of evil led by his deputy president, Dato' Seri Lim Ah Lek - hammered out by that self-important crony, Tan Sri Lim Kok Wing, he who telephones ahead to ask if Dr Mahathir attends to a function he and decides accordingly. But nothing changed. Dato' Seri Ong, in his first presidential order, retained all Dr Ling's appointees, all his men.

DATO' SERI LING LIONG SIK RESIGNED, at last, as MCA President on Friday, 23 May 2003, conceded nothing, 15 years after the National Front (BN) president wanted him out. He got all he wanted, his rivals nothing. His rival and deputy president, Dato' Seri Lim Ah Lek resigned with him. But the Lim faction stalwarts are left with the crumbs off the table, and as isolated from MCA councils as in the past three years. What he did is nothing new. MCA presidents have to dragged out, kicking and screaming. But he negotiated his own departured and left with his protege in charge, and his enemies routed. It was a brilliant palace coup.

What about the rumours? Would he address that? Utar is an MCA project. One important faction, that under its deputy president, Dato' Seri Lim Ah Lek, is kept out of it. The rumours are that like the Malaysian Indian Congress's university, the Asian Institute of Medicine, Science and Technology, it is not owned by the MIC or its its investment arm, Maika Holdings, so Utar is not by the MCA or its investment arm, Huaren Holdings. It is owned by eight individuals, as AMIST is by three. Two amongst the eight are Dr Ling and Dato' Seri Ong, and not as one as trustees either. MCA headquarters does not want to talk about it. It is, I am told, a rumour spread by Dato' Seri Lim Ah Lek's faction. It does not matter how the rumour started. The confused political fog Dr Ling spreads in MCA gives rumours a life of its own. And there is truth to it. So he must come clean. Otherwise a cloud would hang over the MCA, Dr Ling and Utar. As it does over the MIC, Dato' Seri S. Samy Vellu, and AIMST.

The Malaysian government privatised sewage services to a now crippled international business man of unquestioned repute. He called it Indah Water Konsortium (IWK) and immediately decided all Malaysians must subscribe to it. It decided it did not need a contract to provide its sewage services, and promptle arrogated to itself muncipal powers. He got stuck, let go of it for a reported profit of RM1.2 billion, several groups took it over, made a mess of it, the government took it over, but IWK continues to insist it has muncipal powers. It has engaged a well known firm of advocates and solicitors to sue those who wilfully refuse to pay what it insists one must without a contract. It does not accept the argument that TeLekoms would not provide you a telephone service, nor Tenaga Nasional electricity, if you do not not sign a contract with it. But IWK says it does not care.

THE MCA PRESIDENT, DATO' SERI LING Liong Sik is riding high. His protector, the Prime Minister, Dato' Seri Mahathir Mohamed, insists he would not be driven out of office but be allowed to retire gracefully. He cannot for his horrendous political and mistakes which alientate the Chinese community he nominally represents. This caused a near-fatal split in the party, with the deputy president, Dato' Seri Lim Ah Lek, demanding he quit as he wanted. Dr Mahathir saved him from that. But Dr Ling does not leave well enough alone: he continues to sideline his opponents, and wants to ensure the Local Government and Housing Minister, Dato' Seri Ong Ka Ting, succeeds him. In this, he stands firmly on quicksand. There was a peace of sorts, until it was broken last week, when the MCA Youth leader, Dato' Ong Tee Keat, alleged that the MCA leaders unlashed triad gangsters to harass their party opponents.

But Dr Ling thinks UMNO politics after Dr Mahathir would scramble to keep him in office. He guesses wrong, but then he has made so many miscues in his political life as MCA president that another would not damage him more than it already has. He believes he takes the moral high ground in the MCA, and does what he can to ensure his deputy president, Dato' Seri Lim Ah Lek, would not be allowed to succeed him. The MCA is split right down the middle, and the only issue, amongst the thousands it has to contend with, is if Dr Ling can defeat Dato' Seri Lim and his men. The two factions are are daggers drawn that nothing else matters in the MCA. So, when the MCA youth chief, Dato' Ong Tee Kiat, linked to the latter, drew first blood by accusing the President's men of bringing in triad gangsters to intimidate its rivals. This is an accusation that cannot be left unchallenged, especially when several of Dr Ling's key officials are linked to gangsters.

The BN defines 'money politics' narrowly: money spent indiscriminately in party elections to be elected to party office. It ignores every other corruption of it. So Dr Ling refers not to the general corruption that MCA leaders, from his and his opponents' camps, freely indulge in every day, but when his opponent can match or better the funds he throws to defeat them. Dr Ling made or had access to billions - what his son got is but a fraction of what the MCA leaders had access to - but he loses ground in MCA. The two factions in MCA has agreed, if what I am told is right, on a popular MCA leader who would be acting president and oversee the party elections. Dr Ling understands what this means. He and his team are in deep trouble. So blame his deputy president, Dato' Seri Lim Ah Lek and his team, of indulging in money politics. But there is a small problem: he cried wolf so often that he is now disbelieved.

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