Visitors to Parliament are admitted on condition they do not speak to National Front (BN) MPs. MPs cannot ask questions in Parliament of ministerial salaries for that would put cabinet ministers in a spot, so highly paid they are that those who elected them should not know. Now, the Prime Minister orders MCA leaders to shut up so we would be ignorant of how divided MCA is. As usual, it was made as an aside, after he attended a charity golf function. "Can I make a statement," he asked reporters. "My statement is that no statement on MCA is to be made by anybody, including myself. That's all." If you want to know how serious the MCA crisis it, Dato' Seri Mahathir Mohamed confirmed it. He said the MCA president, Dato' Seri Ling Liong Sik, and his "beloved friend" and deputy president, Dato' Seri Lim Ah Lek, agreed to the gag order.

Malaysian police this week questioned an MCA presidential crony, Tan Sri Tan Kok Ping, what he knew of a letter he used to be appointed executive chairman of the listed gambling company, Magnum Corporation Berhad. Some on the company's board thought it forged and lodged police reports early this year. Tan Sri Tan was appointed five months ago. Who wrote the letter, and who forged it, is unmentioned, but if it could ensure a man's elavation to executive chairman, it could be by no more than a handful of men. Two, for all their power, would not dare; The one who would is a fighter who would rather bring his own organisation down than accept defeat. There is only one in the Chinese community who answers to that description. His name is Dato' Seri Ling Liong Sik. He could well have written that letter. Did he?

But Dato' Seri Najib became an useful ally in his perennial search for a successor, and he was brought back to defence. He closes his eyes to what the minister's wife does. In Malaysia, all is forgiven if on the side of He Who Thinks He Is Lord Of All He Surveys. Corruption it is if you and I or Dato' Seri Anwar did but not those basking in the Great Man's benevolent gaze. So, Dato' Seri Anwar goes to jail for what the MCA president and transport minister, Dato' Seri Ling Liong Sik, is lauded. Sergeant Senapang bin Peluru goes to Sungei Buloh or Kajang for which Datin Seri Rafidah Aziz goes to Putra Jaya.

He is defensive. The MCA is not about to work hard so a Gerakan state assemblyman could be returned. Besides, the MCA president, Dato' Seri Ling Liong Sik, has to take the lead in his nemesis, Dato' Lim Ah Lek's fief; one of his key lieutenants is MP for Bentong, of which Ketari is one state constituency. He is on his own. Pahang UMNO Youth has decided discretion is the better part of valour and would concentrate only on the Malay areas, which include Janda Baik and Genting Highlands, far removed from Ketari. The constituency is, to not put a fine point to it, gerrymandered. No one would admit to it. But look at the constituency boundary and you would know what I mean. So, Dr Lim believes attacking the DAP to retain the constituency for the Gerakan is good politics. It is not.

The Indian Express, on 09 March 2002, in a report from New Delhi of allegations of corrupt practices against the government-owned Indian Railways Costruction Company (IRCON) also mentioned the Malaysian transport minister, Dato' Seri Ling Liong Sik, misusing his authority by writing to his Indian counterpart, Mr Nitish Kumar, to ask that the IRCON general manager, Mr Arun Prasad, be allowed to stay on in his job after his retirement.

On the face of it, the BN should romp home easily. But it is in greater danger of losing it than in either of the past two byelections. The UMNO in Pahang would like the opposition to win this seat because it wants the arrogant mentri besar, Dato' Seri Adnan Yaakob, from the area, in his place. For the MCA, it is the area where the presidential challenger, Dato' Seri Lim Ah Lek, holds sway. But the MCA president, Dato' Seri Ling Liong Sik, must lead the campaign, as he had to in Lunas and Indera Kayangan. The MCA besides does not campaign as hard if the candidate is its arch government rival, Gerakan. The Gerakan itself has four candidates in mind, a lawyer, a doctor and two others with no academic qualifications but wide support. The candidate, especially if he is a professional, would find three key men in the party ranged against him. The Gerakan candidate can be returned if he can, against all odds, get half the Chinese and Malay vote. That is not certain, despite the advantage of incumbency.

The leaders insist that once elected, usually unopposed, they hold their positions for life, and any in their party who challenged them are ipso fact traitors to the community. The parties they lead are as irrelevant to their communities as UMNO is now to the Malay. The MCA is split so irrevocably that its coming elections is, like in Zimbabwe, an unacceptable basis for its president holding on to office. Whatever the result, the days of Dato' Seri Ling Liong Sik are numbered; more so now Dr Mahathir believes he, not his reformist challenger, should lead it. The MIC is likewise flawed, with its president of 24 years, Dato' Seri S. Samy Vellu more intent in his MIC-run university than in the education problems of the Indian community.

The MCA president, Dato' Seri Ling Liong Sik's arrogant self-confidence is tattered. The absolute support he thought he had of the Prime Minister, Dato' Seri Mahathir Mohamed is not absolute any more. The Chinese community, worried that its voice is muted under Dr Ling, make their own deals with Dr Mahathir. The unkindest cut of all is Dr Mahathir's regular meetings with the forces of the MCA deputy president, Dato' Seri Lim Ah Lek. So, fresh from his problems over the MCA purchase of the Nanyang group of newspapers, one which landed the MCA with debt it cannot repay, he is forced to make the changes he would not because they came from the Lim Ah Lek faction.

The mentri besar, Dato' Seri Shahidan Kassim, is so injured by the political attacks that he threatens to sue one Keadilan man for tens of millions of ringgit for defamation. All these reflect internal uncertainties. The BN had to win: too many reputations and political careers are at stake if it had lost, though the huge MCA win only raised more doubts about the political future of its president, Dato' Seri Ling Liong Sik: it now appears it awoke a sleeping giant; its deputy president, Dato' Seri Lim Ah Lek, could, it now appears, challenge him for the presidency. If he does, Dr Ling is even more on the defensive.

The National Front (BN) is returned with a larger majority in the Indera Kayangan byelection. The stakes were too high for UMNO and MCA for it not to be otherwise. The Prime Minister, Dato' Seri Mahathir Mohamed, nor the MCA president, Dato' Seri Ling Liong Sik, would be under greater pressure that they already are otherwise. So, it had to win. It did, with a larger majority. The MCA's Mrs Oui Ah Lan is returned with 900 more votes than in 1999. The BN is quick to claim the Parti Keadilan Negara (Keadilan) is discredited. How it does not explain, since if it had caused an upset, it would have been the BN that would have. All the byelection proved is that BN cannot lose in any byelection and ensure it would not. The Lunas byelection loss in Kedah sticks in its gullet.

The candidates are Chinese, but MCA is no where to be seen, if Malaysian press and media news on the hustings in Indera Kayangan is any guide. The deputy prime minister, Dato' Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi is certain the MCA candidate would be returned with a majority, not a higher majority he was sure of until now. With due respect, how could one win an election with a minority in a straight fight as hard fought as this? (I know of only one -- in Kuala Kubu Bahru state assembly seat in the 1969 general elections, when MCA dumped its the sitting member: his supporters spoilt their ballot papers, all 5,009 of them, which was more than the winner's; but surely Dato' Seri Abdullah did not have this in mind) The MCA president, Dato' Seri Ling Liong Sik, has little to say but pour scorn on Parti Keadilan Nasional (Keadilan) though not the candidate, Mr Khoo Yang Chong, a popular Chinese community leader.

With two days left, the National Front (BN) and its MCA candidate for the Indera Kayangan byelection runs into unexpected flak. Too much was taken for granted: the candidate, Mrs Oui Ah Lan, the choice of the MCA president, Dato' Seri Ling Liong Sik, is the Perlis mentri besar, Dato' Seri Shahidan Kassim's special assistant for Chinese affairs. UMNO Perlis and the MCA B team want to deny an MCA victory: one to spite Dato' Seri Shahidan, the other so an anti-Ling man would be appointed to the state executive council and spite the unpopular Dr Ling. If not, Mrs Oui would be appointed. In other words, the national divisions in MCA and UMNO is the backdrop to the elections.

The MCA split is beyond repair. The president, Dato' Seri Ling Liong Sik, and his deputy, Dato' Seri Lim Ah Lek, lead the two factions so at odds that each looks to cut the other's wings at best it can. So in Indera Kayangan -- even if both agreed MCA should aim to be returned in Indera Kayangan and should set aside their differences for the duration. Forlonly, it turns out. All that happened is that it went underground. The MCA candidate is Mrs Oui Ah Lan, linked to Dr Ling and works in Dato' Seri Shahidan's office as a Chinese adviser. Dr Ling chose her and without consulting Dato' Seri Lim. In the straight fight, the opposition is from the Parti Keadilan Negara (National Justice Party or Keadilan), but its candidate, Mr Khoo Yang Chong, is ex-MCA and from the Lim faction. So, Indera Kayangan is an MCA turf battle. Worse, UMNO Perlis does not support her for her links to Dato' Seri Shahidan.

But defections to the National Front (BN), of which UMNO is the most important component, do not come cheap; some as high as millions of ringgit. No suggestion is made that money changed hands in this defection, but unusual if it was not. When corruption is a way of life, it is stupid of anyone to forgo his political scruples for less than lots of filthy lucre. Be that as it may, the National Front (BN) leaders had no doubt Keadilan is about to self-destruct. The MCA president, Dato' Seri Ling Liong Sik, is certain of it. The information ministry parliamentary secretary, Sen. Dato' Zainuddin Maidin, is sure it would disappear with the byelection. And the party must be attacked for making the regrettable and unfortunate death of Dato' Seri Shahidan's son into a campaign issue. The UMNO youth leader, Dato' Hishamuddin Hussein, leads that charge. At last count, there are more election workers from out of state than there are voters in Indera Kayangan.

And for a very good reason. It is the fear within the National Front or BN, and especially UMNO, that the solid non-Malay support it now has might wither away, and it must find new incentives to keep it on its side. As usual, these things are not thought through. The reality struck in only after the fact that whatever they said would damn them. So, Dato' Seri Dr Ling Liong Sik of the MCA (Has he only one wife?) kept quiet; so Dato' Seri Dr Lim Kheng Yaik (ditto); Dato' Seri S. Samy Vellu (ditto), and others (ditto) decided on discretion as the better part of valour.

The Indera Kayangan by-election in Perlis on 19 January should be important only if the National Front loses. Nothing I have seen or heard suggest it would. But it is more. All the leaders, in government and opposition, can hope for is a superficial peace to tide them through the campaign. The MCA is split and the Prime Minister, Dato' Seri Mahathir Mohamed, had to know the two rival chieftains -- the president, Dato' Seri Ling Liong Sik, and the deputy president, Dato' Seri Lim Ah Lek -- into a barely sustainable and superficial peace for the campaign. It would split open the minute after polling closes.

The Star, without a stand of its own except to back the MCA president against his challengers, put out a "cut-and-paste" newspaper with no editorial or voice of its own. It brought in wealth beyond its wildest dreams. But the arrogance of its success caused it to buy the Nanyang Siang Pau, at the MCA president Ling Liong Sik's command, and finds its reserves bleeding away. Like the Sun, its wings are badly broken and almost beyond healing.

The MCA president, Ling Liong Sik, has might -- but not right -- on his side. In the view of Malaysian political leaders, when might and right clash, right must give way. If it does not, it is time for the night of the long knives.

This is not all. The Government turns Malaysia into an Islamic state because it wants a march over PAS. But in stealth, sans debate, and contrary voices silenced. The non-Malay political parties in the National Front, there on UMNO's sufferance, would not protest, or insist on stricter consitutional observances, and pass off as if nothing had happened. The MCA organised a forum to debate it, but its "rotting fish head", Dato' Seri Ling Liong Sik, had nothing to say and would rather an UMNO minister explain it. To this day, we do not know how MCA views UMNO's declaration of Malaysia as an Islamic state; we know that is angry with the DAP for consorting with PAS, but not supporting its Islamic worldview.

The market yawned as usual when the government comes up with yet another proposal to jump start the economy. Share prices drifted as usual. To the government's chagrin, the budget was was seen for what it is: to bribe civil servants back into the fold. It did not have much for the others, and all saw the ten-sen increase in petrol prices as a dark sign of rising prices. The transport minister, Dato' Seri Ling Liong Sik, had no doubt that this would not lead to a round-robin rise in the cost of living. How could it, he asked in the irrelevant arguments he spouts to defend the indefensible. The domestic trade and consumer affairs minister, Tan Sri Muhiyuddin Yassin, warned those who made it an excuse to raise prices. The prime minister thought this fear was unwarranted. But the fear would not go away and strays into politics.

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