Pak Lah is at pains to insist he is in control, the party is united, the traitors would be dealt with severely. Yet, his deputy prime minister, Dato' Seri Najib Tun Razak, has two intractible opponents in his Pekan constituency: the PAS-led Opposition and Pak Lah's backers. PAS has prepared five VCDs of 5,000 copies about what is wrong with Dato' Seri Najib, say his advisers, and made with finances from Pak Lah's backers. PAS keeps a stiff upper lip, saying nothing than promising a tough fight. Pak Lah's regards Dato' Seri Najib, despite publicly stating how close they are, as his predecessor, Tun Mahathir Mohamed, of his deputy, Tan Sri Musa Hitam. The leader is nervous about his deputy, and if he would ever upstage him. So he must be sidelined. What better way than to have him defeated at the polls. Every attempt to improve his electoral chances is blocked. He has a way out but he probably would not take it: move to the new Indera Mahkota constituency, carved out of a third of his Pekan constituency and bits taken from surrounding constituencies. He stands a better chance here. He scraped through with 241 votes in 1999, and though the redrawn constituency has two large military barracks, defence minister though he is, he cannot depend on them.

The former Prime Minister, Tun Mahathir Mohamed, wanted this election held before he retired. He understood well the Malay alienation, and decided that if the BN had the Chinese support, and swept Sabah, Sarawak and Johore, it could hold on to power with its two-thirds majority. But he could not call it earlier because Sabah BN and Sabah UMNO threatened to split asunder, as the local warlords maintained the pressure. So a general election planed for August last year was put forward until he could not longer hold it. His successor, Dato' Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, had to decide when. He is still UMNO's acting president, he needed to strengthen his national credentials to be elected as UMNO president in his own right. He needed his own team, and so he decided upon General Election first.

It would have continued this way but for how the then Prime Minister, Dato' Seri (now Tun) Mahathir Mohamed, destroyed and humiliated in 1998 his chosen successor, Dato' Seri Anwar Ibrahim, now reeling in pain in his cell in Sungei Buloh prison. It caused the first major shift in Malay thinking since independence. The Malay, with his acute sense of justice and fair play, and shocked beyond belief, moved away from UMNO's political and cultural protection. He remains on the sidelines waiting to see who the winner is before he commits himself to that side. UMNO and the coalition it leads, BN, has tried its best to wean them back, without success. It is this that enabled the Opposition political parties, especially PAS, to make headway. The Malay vote is split, and the BN cannot depend on it anymore. Hence in the general election, all focus is on the Chinese vote, now solidly with the BN even if the leaders of the Chinese political parties are in bad odour with the new Prime Minister, Dato' Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi. UMNO's strong-armed control of the BN political partners has no principle behind it, but a vague sense of political unity which is not sustained with reasoned thought. This, to be fair, is not with BN alone. Every political party, in BN and the Opposition, are guilty of it. In the opposition it is not as critical since they do not hold power, and it has the luxury of internal debate. Even then, a few, like the DAP, does not allow too much of it.

You say Pak Lah is the man in charge, and he means well. I do not doubt it. But remember he has been in the Mahathir government for years, and is party to much of what was wrong about the Mahathir epoch. He does not have a new persona because he is now in charge. He has to prove his right to office, and he would be measured on how he conducts himself in office. He has shown no sign of a significant shift away from the Mahathir direction, except what he says. But this is not to mean that the Opposition would dent the BN's two-thirds majority (I do not think it would) or that it would not upset the BN ground, not by seats or states captured, but by turning solid BN majorities into less solid and marginal ones. We saw it happen in 1999, and this would continue in 2004.

Pak Lah kept to the last the distribution of the constituencies, and it was almost too late. This is not new. It happens at every election, though his predecessor, Tun Mahathir Mohamed, could decide and make it stick. Pak Lah is still finding his ground. Some signs of warlordism amongst the state UMNO leaders are evident, and he has to weave through them cautiously. Pak Lah has to act decisively this time, but he cannot afford to drop too many old timers, with their considerable hold on the constituencies. The coalition members are themselves split, and let Pak Lah take the rap to drop those they do not want. This gives the UMNO president too much power over the candidates, and he uses it with firmness. Tun Mahathir did, and Pak Lah does. But his victory could be pyrrhic if he does not ensure that young MPs are elected. There is one report that 40 per cent of BN candidates would be new. That would be a step forward if Pak Lah could prevent those dropped from revolt. He is unsure of it, which is why he called on all those dropped to campaign as hard for victory. Such good intentions are laudable, but could it work in the BN?

Pak Lah, at the meeting, said the Anwar matter is not for him to decide. It is a matter between his predecessor, Tun Mahathir Mohamed, and Dato' Seri Anwar. He would not interfere. Does this mean he would not to right a wrong of his predecessor? Or that he is still beholden to his retired successor? Or that what is Tun Mahathir's preserve continues to be his, even if he cannot do a thing about it, as in this instance of Dato' Seri Anwar's medical treatment? Besides, he said Dato' Seri Anwar had once dismissed him, when in political limbo, as "ikan kering" (dried fish). But the prisoner in Sungei Buloh insists he said no such thing.

The main Chinese parties in BN - the MCA and the Gerakan Rakyat Malaysia - have announced plans to merge, to present a united face to the Malaysian electorate. No one believes it can work. The MCA wants it so it can recapture the Penang state chief ministership it lost to the Gerakan in 1969. The MCA realises that for all its influence in the centre and in the state, it does not have the gravitas of the Gerakan, which controls the Penang state government. With Pak Lah believing its president, Dato' Seri Lim Kheng Yaik, has overstayed - and Dato' Seri Lim, is not prepared to step down just yet for like in UMNO, MCA, MIC, the Gerakan president does not want his deputy to succeed him. Pak Lah would have none of that. They have overstayed, and it is time they left. This promise of joint MCA-Gerakan functions fractured from the start: a half-hearted attempt in Penang notwithstanding, the MCA and Gerakan held their Chinese New Year open houses at their respective headquarters and about the same time so that leaders from one could not possible be at the other. UMNO's fear of a strong Chinese party is real: the more so when the two leaders are not accepted in the Pak Lah camp. Is this why, I wonder, Dr Lim frequently points to Tun Mahathir's picture in his office, and refers him as "my boss"?

THE PRIME MINISTER, DATO' SERI Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, kicked off his slipping into office with a promise to go after the corrupt, however high and close to the levers of power, but after two high profile arrests, both Tan Sris, and a handful of civil servants, the campaign grinds to a spluttering stop. The de facto justice minister, Dato' Seri Rais Yatim, announced, out of the blue, that 18 "big fish" are under investigation, not all would be brought to trial if only because the cases against them cannot be sustained in a court of law. This shifted attention from the anti-corruption drive to who could be amongst the dozen and a half men and women. That was not a long time coming. Two cabinet ministers, Datin Rafidah Aziz and Dato' Seri Nazri Aziz, denied they were, with Datin Rafidah promising to sue Opposition leaders if they dared target her. Several of them invited her to sue them. How she could succeed in her defamation beats me, even if the Malaysian courts have a well-earned reputation for expedience against the weight of the law. The Anti-Corruption Agency had investigated her, as numerous cabinet ministers, including seven National Front (BN) party leaders, but no further action was taken because the Prime Minister of the day, in this instance, Tun Mahathir Mohamed, would not allow prosecution to proceed. That is then taken as proof that those investigated are as pure as driven snow.

In this instance, Kuala Lumpur panicked. Pak Lah had just taken office, he had declared his war on corruption, and as that stalled, he is faced with a crisis far more serious. This SCOPE factory was built in 2001 and, let us face it, when the then Prime Minister, Tun Mahathir Mohamed, saw it upon himself to help the Muslim world however he could. The eminence grise of this shadowy network is the Pakistan nuclear scientist, Dr A.Q. Khan, who would have met Dr Mahathir during his several visits to Malaysia. How did Pak Lah not know of the SCOPE factory and what it made until he was officially told of it on 10 November 2003? It is highly unlikely too that Dr Mahathir would have known of this at the time. Curiously, no one has bothered to ask him of it. Besides, the report suggests that SCOPE officials did not control the operations. All this should have run alarm bells. But we are told it did not. Strange.

There was one attempt to set this right. In 1997, the then Prime Minister, Tun Mahathir Mohamed, was on leave. His deputy, the now-jailed Dato' Seri Anwar Ibrahim, as acting prime minister, got the cabinet to amend the anti-corruption law to give it more powers including the right to investigate all records of whoever it investigates for up to six years previous. Retirement, or resignation, as now did not protect one. When he presented it to the cabinet, it was fiercely resisted until he asked in what now can only be described as political naivete if it does not support the amendments because the ministers have much to hide. It was passed. Two who did were one Abdullah Ahmad Badawi and one Najib Tun Razak. It was presented to Parliament, where it got its first reading quickly enough. But Dr Mahathir returned, reversed it, and it now lies in limbo. Since Pak Lah's view on corruption mirrors Dato' Seri Anwar, he should use that law as the basis, tighten its provision, and earn the undying gratitude of all and sundry that he would beard the goat.

But nuclear peace will come when more countries have nuclear weapons so that it would not be used unilaterally. Let us not forget the United States dropped the atomic bomb on Japan, not Germany, to tell the Soviet Union it has the atom bomb. Would it have used it if the Soviet Union had it too at the time? I doubt it. So now. The US can use depleted uranium cased shells in Iraq, because Iraq and its backers do not have the wherewithal to create problems for US troops in other hotspots. Why should Malaysia then be defensive about its interest in acquiring nuclear technology? The difficulty is that Malaysia went into it piece-meal, piggybacking on others in secret, denying it when found out, and surrounds itself in confusion. When there is only hegemon, all countries shiver when Washington targets it. No one stands up to question it. One who did was Tun Mahathir Mohamed. But he is retired. And he did not leave his thoughts behind as policy. So Pak Lah is left clueless and caught even more flatfooted because his son's company is involved. Malaysia is caught in this conundrum because it looks to the US to act the Islamic fundamentalists in the country so the National Front (BN) government can continue in power. It runs with the hounds and, sometimes, with the hares.

THE PRIME MINISTER, DATO' Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, is caught in a crisis of his own making. A Mahathir crony and a once prominent business man, Tan Sri Eric Chia, is arrested three days ago and charged with corruption committed when he was head of Perwaja Steel in the mid-1990s. This morning (12 February 2004), the land and cooperative development minister, Tan Sri Kasitah Gadam, is charged for what he is alleged to have done in the late 1990s. Arrested with him is the Sabah land development board general manager, Dato' Wasli Mohamed Said. The two Tan Sris are released on bail of RM2 million and RM1 million respectively. Another Tan Sri is widely believed to be arrested soon. The Anti-Corruption Agency investigated one for nine years and the other for four, and produced them with Pak Lah wanted to prove his stated commitment to root out corruption. It raises more questions than answers.

We deliberately destroy our past. We do not want to be reminded of it. We think history begins anew when a new Prime Minister takes office. This is national policy. The UMNO that Bapak Merdeka led and brought Malaysia nationhood is not the UMNO that Bapak Kamaludin hopes to lead. The two are as different as chalk and cheese. The UMNO that fought for this country's independence was a national mass movement that the High Court declared illegal, and its last President, one Tun Mahathir Mohamed, helped destroy, is not the UMNO Dr Mahathir led and Pak Lah now hopes to. The UMNO made illegal had legitimacy, support, and relevance; UMNO Baru, as its successor was known, did not. To overcome that difficulty, Dr Mahathir, with the connivance of the Registrar of Societies, decreed that UMNO Baru, after its hasty registration in 1988, would henceforth officially be known only as UMNO.

Underscoring this is the larger vision of the former Prime Minister, Tun Mahathir Mohamed, one I have no qualms over, of the Third World asserting its rights over attempts by the industrialised world, in the name of globalisation, to keep it in permanent subjugation as hewers of wood and carriers of water. It is the most pernicious since Western domination started with the arrival of Vasco da Gama in Calicut, India, in 1498. Tun Mahathir saw that clearly, and forcefully articulated it in the forums of the world. As he thought through his ideas, he focussed his attention at the Muslim world, and as he prepared to leave office in October last year, his concerns were more of the Muslim world, and its millennial confrontation with Christianity, which began in 1089, with Pope Urban II and the first Crusades. That confrontation is not over. When the subjugated Third World had intellectuals who thought through the fate of their nations throught an alternate confrontation, it challenged the status quo. Islam replaced communism as the new enemy. Any development in Islam was seen as a threat. But the oil that fueled Western growth was abundant in the Muslim countries. So it had be involved. But the new thinking permeated upwards to the governments of these nations. Pakistan exploded her nuclear devices, to keep in tune with India but as a Muslim nation, found its reach the more in the Muslim world. It quietly offered her nuclear weapons expertise to like-minded Muslim nations, linking with those who could help. Malaysia was one. The Pakistan nuclear hero, Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan, is not alone in this. If it had been, Tun Mahathir would not have given him the time of day.

WHEN THE ANTI-CORRUPTION Agency (ACA) arrested Perwaja Steel's former managing director, Tan Sri Eric Chia, this week (09 Feb), it raised more questions than answers. Perwaja Steel was to have been Malaysia's crowning jewel in its idiosyncratic bid to be an industrialised country by 2020. He is arrested and charged in court nine years after the ACA began investigations into this Mahathir crony's stewardship of the now shut-down Perwaja Steel. ACA had wrapped up its case years ago, but it was never allowed to prosecute. It now acts because the new Prime Minister, Dato' Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, has to show he is not tied to his predecessor's apron strings.

When the BN lost its head, after the Anwar Ibrahim affair in 1989, the disenchanted Malays in the Malay states distanced themselves from the state authorities. Nowhere was this clearer than in the mosques. Some mosques the Klang Valley - in Damansara Utara and in Section 14 in Petaling Jaya, for instance - were "anti-establishment" mosques. Try as it might, the government could not contain them. They represented the PAS view of a religion under challenge and attack. For years, it remained an odd presence in a sea of official conformity. It is not any more. The official view of Islam is challenged in even the old FMS states. It goes without saying that even in the 'official mosques' in Selangor and in the other states, Muslims gather in the evenings to castigate the government for its "wrong doings". The mosque in Ampang Jaya frequented by the late brother-in-law of Tun Mahathir Mohamed was one. He would, when when he was there, put up a strong defence of his brother-in-law's administration, but he was almost always shouted down by his fellow parishioners, several of whom, at least when I went there with a Muslim friends on occasion, had federal and state titles for which a Chinese business man would gladly have sacrificed an arm and a leg and lots of money. There it was the inescapable voice of the Establishment.

There is nothing in these newspaper reports that he is, after all, Pak Lah, the ordinary UMNO politician, an ulama's grandson, risen to greatness by a deliberate manipulation of his predecessor, the master 'dalang' himself, Tun Mahathir Mohamed, who we are not told should be called plain Mahathir, not as Tun "for there are many Tuns but only one Mahathir". It is more than interesting that not once did he mention the deputy prime minister forced upon him, Dato' Seri Najib Tun Razak. There is a reason for this, which of course you would not see in any mainstream news paper: the two men can barely stand the sight of each other, their wives even more so. It is not the best way to run a government. This poisonous undercurrents remain a heavy cloud in the runup to the general elections. When they are not aired, not necessarily by the UMNO leaders, and publicly discussed, the shock of this when it does come about, especially amidst the hustle and bustle of the campaigning, can be catastrophic.

WHATEVER GLOSS IS PUT ON the Prime Minister, Dato' Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi's first 100 days in office today (07 February 2004), one unmistakeable fact is forgotten: he has achieved nothing, he would not act if it pits him against his predecessor, Tun Mahathir Mohamed, what he did is suffused in sycophancy and feudal irrelevance in a collective drum beat that is as quickly forgotten. There is no critical assessment of policy or the man. He is Prime Minister. He can do no wrong. We had 22 years of that and all but brought Malaysia to its knees. Pak Lah, on taking office, could have started with a bold revision of past policies. He did not. Every statement is delivered in sepulchre tones as if he meant it. Every act of his is a new beginning. His routine visits to his ASEAN neighbours is given an importance it does not have. It is an attempt to make him out to be more than he is. Which is a pity. He is a good man. He should have followed his instincts and charted his leadership with an eye to correcting the wrongs of his predecessor, with a new, lean cabinet that is not the deadwood he decided to inherit. Whatever the truth of his relationship with his predecessor - when it came for him to finally lay down office, Dr Mahathir had qualms about Pak Lah, who rushed about to ensure he would not be bypassed, but a dying king cannot have the undivided support of his courtiers, and the UMNO supreme council would have none of the Old Man's second thoughts abou who should succeed him - it is one which weighs on him politically and personally.

Now to Malaysia. Malaysia, like Pakistan, had a singular belief that Muslims nations throughout the world must be pushed screaming and even against its will into the modern world. I have heard this view in Kuala Lumpur and Islamabad over the years, with the former Malaysian prime minister, Tun Mahathir Mohamed, only too happy to provide whatever help to other Muslims nations to achieve his larger aim. So when Dr Khan visited Malaysia twice in recent years, he did not come here for naan and mutton do piaza at Omar Khayyam's. The Malaysian government says he met no one in authority.

THE FORMER PRIME MINISTER, Tun Mahathir Mohamed, is in his unusual self of kicking off an election campaign when his successor, Dato' Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, has nightmares deciding on the date. But such trifles does not bother a man whose distaste for mingling with the hoi polloi is well known. They are useful only at election time, and they do their duty only when they vote for the BN. These days that is becoming the harder, especially amongst the Malays in what is the Malay heartland of Perlis, Kedah, Kelantan and Trengganu. With the UMNO-led BN in a bind over the unexpectedly successful PAS inroads in his home state of Kedah, he wants to do his bit to ensure it is still an UMNO mentri besar who would be chief executive of the state. But his unusual high profile election task stems from his worry that if Kedah is lost after he departs, it is he who would be blamed. Besides, the government intelligence agencies found in several secret readings last year that it did not matter if Dr Mahathir or Pak Lah is Prime Minister, the BN results would be the same. So he comes in to pitch for a BN victory. But it did not discuss what would happen if both are in charge. He is now Kedah BN's election adviser.

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