The Malaysian Chinese Association president, Dato' Seri Ling Liong Sik, insists he should continue, even after his solemn promise to step down. He changed his mind after Dr Mahathir, who is also Prime Minister and chairman of BN, ordered him to stay on. The Gerakan president, Dato' Seri Lim Kheng Yaik, clings to office on the same BN principle that once elected, he stays on, come hell or highwater, for life. The Parti Pesaka Bumiputra leader, Tan Sri Abdul Taib Mahmud, is in office for more than two decades. As has the Parti Bersatu Sabah leader, Dato' Joseph Pairin Kitingan. The opposition parties catch on to this convenient method of remaining in office. Every opposition party leader follows the time-tested BN method for its leader to stay in office unchallenged. The DAP leader, Mr Lim Kit Siang, was until recently its unchallenged leader for more than 30 years. He still exerts considerable influence from behind the scenes as chairman. In Malaysia, political parties exist, especially in BN, so its leaders can hold office for life.

Meanwhile, preparations for fresh elections in Gaya is under way. Keadilan is a candidate in this Chinese-majority constituency. The DAP is another which wants to contest, with some suggestion that its candidate ought to be Mr Lim Kit Siang. It shows how out of touch with reality the party is. The Keadilan is from Sabah. The DAP has won a few seats in Sarawak and Sabah because it fielded local candidates. If Mr Lim contests, the chances that he would lose is too high for the DAP even to consider it. In one sense, it is a test of strength for the BN. The PBS is now in BN. So it would not field a candidate. So, it should romp home easily. Would it?

But it could as well be Dato' Seri Mahathir Mohamed in UMNO, Dato' Seri Ling Liong Sik in MCA, Dato' Seri S. Samy Vellu in MIC, Tan Sri Dato' Pattingi Abdul Taib Mahmud in PBB, Dato' Seri Lim Kheng Yaik in Gerakan, Mr Lim Kit Siang in DAP, and others less well known who equate longevity in office as proof of their contribution to society.

The arrest of the DAP chairman, Mr Lim Kit Siang, in Ipoh for sedition, because he distributed a leaflet opposing the imposition of Islamic law, raises an interesting conundrum: it now appears discussing the imposition of Islamic law is a seditious offence. Until now it had to do with questioning Malay rights and privileges, the position of the sultans (unless it is UMNO and BN which questions it), Islam as the official religion, and Malay as the official language. Suddenly, it is now verboten for Malaysians to question if Malaysia is an Islamic state. The police in Ipoh would not have acted except under orders. Did the police consult the Attorney-General Chambers that what it did was correct? If it did, as one must assume it did, it is, willy nilly, now official policy. If it did not, the Attorney-General Chambers should have struck it down. Since that did not, it is fair to assume what the police did had the government's unalloyed blessings.

None of this is aired in debate. It is announced at a press conference, the newspapers accept it as yet another sign of growing up, that it would remove the riff-raffs from every dishonouring the chambers of parliament and state assemblies, and hensure the BN has the advantage over the opposition in that it has the funds to field every seat, while the opposition parties must pick and choose. Why were this changes made? It is to nip any political party which while getting more public support than the BN feared is forced off the race by the high deposits. This is not admitted, of course, but is how it would work out. Already, as the DAP's Mr Lim Kit Siang pointed, out, the deposit is the highest in the Commonwealth.

Informed sources say the move against Tun Daim began then. Several non-Malay cronies flee for cover as the authorities moved against them. But the MAS deal broke the proverbial camel's back. A little earlier, Tun Daim arranged for the government to buy the Sultan of Brunei's share in MAS for RM4.00. Then he says in Parliament MAS is worth RM15, and buying it at RM8 was an investment too good to be true. Brunei is now soured against dealings with Malaysia. The DAP chairman, Mr Lim Kit Siang, wants Parliament to discuss this deal in the light of the police report which relates to Tan Sri Tajuddin's stewardship of the airline. The government took a bath in its investment, and the airline is laden with debts of nearly RM10 billion; and the prospect of a turnaround slim.

On another front, officials move at blinding speed. Haste in Bolehland, it seems, is the only yardstick for efficiency. The LPQB chairman and Attorney-General, Datin Seri Ainum Mohamed Said, has written her report, which she hands in piece meal to the de facto law minister, Dato' Seri Rais Yatim. The report would be ready by the weekend, and Dato' Seri Rais would no doubt have his ready for next Wednesday's cabinet meeting! And, of course, he now agrees, the CLP examination must be modified to make it more "transparent, effective and responsible". Was it not why the berriboned board was set up? Datin Seri Ainum has a month before her resignation takes effect. She must be asked, as the DAP chairman, Mr Lim Kit Siang suggests, to remain until this mess is sorted out. What is frighting about this sordid episode is that no one in authorities seems the least bothered at what had happened. Nothing they have done suggests it.

The Singapore opposition screamed, ineffectually, at the gerrymandering, but in the state they are in could do little. An informal opposition grouping exists to fight in the group constituencies, but the terrain is stacked against it. The leaders, not political parties, are the prima donnas, as in Malaysia. So long as they are, they remain diffused and defused. Government action, in Singapore and Malaysia, is to keep it that way. So, PAS and DAP are at each other's throats because Dato' Fadhil Noor and Mr Lim Kit Siang could not negotiate without one giving way, and that would impinge, in the public mind, or so they think, on their parties. As in Singapore. But, in Malaysia, saner minds see through this, and mount a serious challenge on issues, not personalities.

So, the American Defence Council is hurt enough by allegations in Malaysia that it is not what it says it is. Its executive director, Mr Dan Perrin, has demanded the DAP chairman, Mr Lim Kit Siang, apologise for suggesting that the ADC is a "phantom creature". But its office in Washington is, by its own admission, is at 1747 Pennyslvania Avenue, Suite 1000, the offices of a law firm, Washington, Chamberlain and Bean, and a few blocks from the White House.

When she contests an allegation by an opposition leader, in this instance, the DAP chairman, Mr Lim Kit Siang, it makes nonsense of her claims that she wrote it out of intellectual curiousity and not prompted. Especially when Mr Lim's charge did not make it to the mainstream media. It only proves the Malaysian government's incompetence in handling her media campaign. Reporters from prominent newspapers and magazines are brought in to write "puff pieces" on Malaysia and Dr Mahathir, but on condition they do not contact anyone their media handlers did not want them to contact.

Every National Front party, and many opposition parties, are in this dilemma. It shows that neither the government or the opposition parties allow anything like a free flow of political action from amongst its members. We had the pressure on Mr Lim Kit Siang to resign from the DAP. Now it is Dr Ling's turn. The impact is to restrict political activity and lobotomise political party members. Which is why, apart from PAS and PRM, no political party is believed for what it stands for. Every leader protects its turf, the more autocratically the more they are in odium with its members. A political culture on these terms gives rise to the belief that only violent action, metaphorically and in fact, can bring about changes. The reformasi action is an example of that. The MCA Youth meeting yesterday another.

Neither Mr Lim Kit Siang, the DAP chairman, who questioned the citizenship of a reporter who asked him a loaded question, and the de facto Law Minister Dr Rais Yatim, who threatened to have him charged, should have lost their cool. But it is proof that it does not take much to turn a problem into a full-blown racial episode.

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