Thirty years after the New Economic Policy and that of Malay Dominance, by which non-Malays will hold no position in the government service that they cannot be promoted to any supervisory position in the lower services, and the promotions in the upper services are limited. After the nude squat scandal, the lack of non-Malays were highlighted. The official explanation is that they will not join the government services or the uniformed branch because they are paid better outside. It is the non-Malay view now. They took this view when they found they touched a glass ceiling early. There is an attempt to get non-Malays now, but the non-Malays do not trust the government now. A non-Malay promoted in the civil service means the Malay who recommended him would be penalised. No one wants that for himself, Malay or non-Malay. In the armed services, they retire as lieutenant-colonels or colonels, that latter rank given them in the last year of their service, while most of their Malay juniors had jumped over them. One examples will suffice: a non-Malay police officer retired as assistant superintendent of police, but his batchmate died as deputy inspector-general of police. They had retired in the 1970s, which means they jointed the force in the 1950s, after Merdeka. This would not happen now because the non-Malay would not be selected.

The National Front is in disarray. Individual presidents chart their own course of action, known only at the beginning of their leadership. The moment Dato' Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi took over as Prime Minister, his predecessor, Tun Mahathir's view, was discarded, and Pak Lah's views now took precedence. Islam Hadhari was the order of the day. Everyone talked of it, as if a new religion had been formed. But it was not in Pengkalen Pasir. The National Front policy has its confrontational policies adopted by stealth. Islam Hadhari cannot be a matter of debate. It was all right in the early days of independence, or even when the New Economic Policy was implemented in 1970, but not all right in 2005. The National Front cannot order the youths to follow its president's dictates, let alone other policies, because the youths, often children of Malaysians born after Merdeka in 1957, have difference concerns than the founders of UMNO or the Alliance or even the National Front had in mind. The youngsters of today cannot get jobs, have concerns different when the National Front leaders were youths at the time of independence, will have the National Front racial components ignore them at the best of times. The youth will rally to it by promises of good times to come, but it has not come, and those from all races, join hands in unision against the National Front.

Education is one way of keeping the rulers separate from the ruled. Conferences like APEC is another. I have a theory that officials go for meetings by whatever name in exotic locations around the world for two or three days so that they can have a holiday at public expense. In Malaysia, civil servants from Johore Bahru fly to Pulau Langkawi to discuss traffic along Sungei Johore, or some such. The hotels get filled, the country or area gets the public approval, some get their bank balances raised. But the result is a holiday, whatever the reason for being in the exotic locale. But as the rulers act, the ruled retaliate. So, as the years go by, the governments in power pass laws to keep the ruled in check. But those who demonstrated in favour of Dato' Seri Anwar Ibrahim in Dataran Merdeka, facing the Selangor Court, got cold feet when the police retaliated in force. If they had held their ground, and stayed put, the government could have done nothing. But the demonstration broke up. Now the ordinary man will not take part in any demonstration against the government, which reacts with violent force at any such move. But the spark has been lit. It may be years before it is lit again. But the question is when, not if. There is no major dissidence for such a crowd to gather. The government is fearful of that happening, and so arms itself with powers to stop that. But with each policy against the people, they organise themselves. The National Front is supposed to get the races together, but its raison d'etre is to separate them. Divide and rule is their practice, though unity in strength is the motto. But the youngsters, from all races, cannot see the relevance of the National Front, and unite, often in unemployment. More than 60,000 graduates from local universities cannot get jobs. That is a grave danger for the National Front. Just 2,000 unemployed graduates in Trengganu in 1990 helped PAS win the state. They have lost the state since. But more than 2,000 unemployed graduated are with PAS in the state. The National Front is formulating its policies so that the opposition will benefit in the years ahead.

That is why the National Front asks ministers other than UMNO to becomes buffoons like Dato' Chua Soi Lek. This is how it thinks it can stay in power. But it would not be so. More than half the population were born after Merdeka in 1957, but most of the younger Malaysians do not accept the National Front though their parents do. Policies take a generation to fruit. A generation is usually 30-35 years. Policies the government took after the racial riots of 1969 begin fruiting now. And the policies taken now will fruit 35 years or so from now. But unless UMNO takes the lead in attacking the people rather than asking the other party leaders in the National Front to do so, it would be in the opposition by a few years before 2020. The 2020 vision was taken to remain in power, and its policies disappeared with the retirement two years ago of the former prime minister, Tun Mahathir Mohamed. Today's policies are thought through by Malays. The non-Malay is ignored or kept away when possible. That is why buffons from the non-UMNO parties are asked defend the undefensible.

Over the years, and UMNO has remained in power 50 years, two years before Merdeka, corruption is a way of life in UMNO. What do you then expect of the cabinet, where corruption is second nature? We talk of it in coffee shops but no where else. Now they are being taken to task. Money is spent galore to get elected. Even the village chief demands a Mercedes Benz. So, it is corruption all the way. And the Chinese business man bribes him, either with a Mercedes Benz or dollops of cash and shares in his firm, for which he does not way. What then divisional leaders or supreme councillors? They have to meet the hotel bills of delegates, and they demand five-star hotels. So what was wrong, in UMNO circles, with Datin Seri Rafidah Aziz giving APs to her son-in-law that gave him a monthly income of about $150,000? From the Prime Minister down, corruption is involved. He also has payments to make. He gives parties to delegates at UMNO general assembly, flies around the country on government planes and helicopters with a bevy of government officials, and more on UMNO business. And UMNO headquarters does not pay to the government cost of their President using government facilities. The Prime Minister of India, Mrs Indira Gandi then, was jailed after the Election Commision had interdicted the Congress for not paying to the government the cost of government facilities used by Mrs Gandhi for her election campaigning.

The Japanese won us our Merdeka in 1957. They had defeated Russia in 1905, the United States, France, Great Britain, Netherlands between 1939 and 1942. That they were subsequently defeated in 1945 is neither here nor there. For that victory by 1942 showed that the 'white man' did not have any special magic with their race and could be defeated, and slowly the 'white man' gave up his belongings in Asia: From India to Macao just off Hongkong. Malaysia got its independence in 1957 after Britain was forced by the Communist Party of Malaya, which had forced the British hands into giving power to an Oxbridge elite, who could be manipulated from behind the scenes, who declared its independence in 1957. That elite continues to run the country, though the leadership is not Oxbridge educated. But the unpalatable fact is that it was the Japanese who by defeating the five European powers set in motion the string of countries that became independent in the 50 years since the Second World War.

It threatens to become a political issue. As more public documents are available of those tumultuous post-war years, historians now view the role of the Left, Chinese and Malay, as pivotal in the attainment of Merdeka; that the Malay right, with their solid connexions with Britain, were pushed to form a political movement that could make the Left marginalised. As new research and records are revealed, the Left, especially the Malay left, had an important role in the march to independence.

IN THE RUN-UP TO the 1959 general elections, the Prime Minister, Tengku Abdul Rahman, resigned to oversee the Alliance campaign. It was the first since Merdeka (independence) two years earlier. The Alliance coalition of UMNO, MCA and MIC -- the fore-runner of today's National Front (BN) -- had a crisis on its hands. The MCA president, Dr Lim Chong Eu, had created an upset the previous year by defeating its founding president, Tun Sir Cheng-lock Tan. He now demanded from the Alliance more constituencies than the MCA had been allotted. UMNO leaders, especially those with close links with MCA, were horrified. UMNO faced yet another crisis, eight years after its religious wing walked out when its then president, Dato' Sir Onn Jaffair, did, and formed PAS.

THE MALAYSIAN ARMED FORCES should have been proud of the moment, and savour it: a Sandhurst-trained Yang Dipertuan Agung, the first ever, inspecting the guard of honour at his official birthday on Saturday, 05 June 2004, at the Dataran Merdeka in Kuala Lumpur. It is rare for the King to be conscious of military traditions - only one other had that insight. Instead, the MAF let its supreme commander-in-chief down. To the public at large, and all who care not what the armed forces stand for, all went well and they had a jolly good time. The old Land Rovers are gone. In its place comes the gleaming Lexus open-hooded sports utility vehicles. And with them, a distinct lack of professionalism that was once its metier. The spartan conditions of old was deliberate: one does not go to war in luxury vehicles.

ON 08 February 2004, Bapak Kamaludin aka Dato' Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, marked his first 100 days in office as Prime Minister; that day also marked the 101st birth anniversary of Bapak Merdeka aka Tengku Abdul Rahman Putra al-Haj. On that day, Malaysian newspapers and media stepped on each other to celebrate one and just as studiously ignore the other. There was not a single article to honour the man who made it possible for Bapak Kamaludin to be where he is. But, in the modern Malaysian view, he is history, dead and gone, and has no place in this Malaysia of the great and glorious Bapak Kamaludin. The Star's 48-page treacle of fawning praise caused many a reader to vomit, the story goes that Pak Lah's office tried to prevent it, but could the MCA president, Dato' Seri Ong Ka Ting, who controls the newspaper, have allowed it? Long dismissive of the man, how could he now be seen not to praise him so effusively should his loyalty be suspect? Bapak Merdeka, whose stint as chairman of The Star, and as a star columnist in the paper, saved the paper from sure ruin by a government which felt it was too big for its boots, is ignored.

There are leaders in UMNO - I know of one who could well - who could challenge Pak Lah for the UMNO presidency for no reason than to bring UMNO back to its traditional support base. Pak Lah has a further bias to overcome: he is the first post-Merdeka UMNO member to be Prime Minister. He would not have an easy ride as his predecessors, and would have to fight his way. He was not present at the creation of UMNO, and that does make him subject to challenges his predecessors would not. That it comes with a split in the Malay cultural ground forces him to lose sleepless nights. He should have known this when he appointed the pro-tem UMNO division chiefs and its members. He is still defensive about it. This could not affect UMNO's standing in the general election, although if he were to lose a dozen seats and a state to PAS, UMNO would cast him aside without mercy. The Malays respect a leader who is a winner. He has yet to show he is one.

Why does BN oppose electoral rallies? It forgot how to attract crowds to its functions. As the Oppositin is adept at it. Tens of thousands would gather at the PAS headquarters in Gombak for a routine political meeting by low-level PAS speakers. But the BN president cannot attract a crowd without busing them in or paying people to attend. The recent BN rally to mark its 50th anniversary is one. Less than 10,000 turned up; as many turned up less than a kilometre away at Dataran Merdeka where singers held the crowd spellbound. If it had been at the larger Bukit Jalil Stadium, it would have been pathetic.

Dr Mahathir has run out of options. He is sidelined. But he would not let go. So he praised Pak Lah, at the 50th "anniversary" of BN at Stadium Merdeka in Kuala Lumpur yesterday, 20 September 2003, as his successor. There is no power struggle, he thundered to a tepid crowd of a few thousands, most paid to be there. [The official media suggested 50,000, the Star 30,000; remove the zeros and add the two figures and you would be about right.] He would step down on 31 October, and there is a successor. And make no mistake: BN policies would be continued. The UMNO president rarely mentioned UMNO, and praised instead its poodle, the BN, in such absurd language, that one realised it was an election speech to non-Malays to rally around the BN flag. UMNO, with the Malay ground moving away from it, wants the Chinese vote badly. So, the BN anniversary was suddenly sprung on Malaysians. All we saw of his anniversary was the cryptic signs about it. Many wondered what it was. Given that UMNO and BN leaders have ignored the BN anniversaries, this is pardonable. The BN did not celebrate the anniversaries of its first, second, third and fourth decades. But for Dato' Seri Anwar Ibrahim, it would not have its fifth either.

THE Merdeka DAY 2003 PARADE IN PUTRA Jaya was not, as it turned out, to mark Malaya's 46th or Malaysia's 40th anniversay, but a 'proper and fitting" sendoff for Malaysia's long-serving Prime Minister. He retires, against his will, in October. There are misguided souls out there who believe that Dato' Seri Mahathir Mohamed at 78 is far better leader for Malaysia than Dato' Seri Abdullah Badawi at 64. And a move is afoot, if cocktail party talk is believed, for a Malaysia-wide appeal to the Conference of Rulers to ask him to stay on - and this is where one begins to disbelieve - for "a few more months, or at least until the general elections". There are still people, especially who benefited most under his 23-year-old rule and face bankruptcy and worse when he goes. And well-meaning people who cannot countenance life without him at the top. He has been such a great leader, a man who made Malaysians stand tall, that without him we would all be orphans, is their refrain.

The Merdeka Day parade at Putra Jaya on 31 August 2003 was his official sendoff, a grateful nation thanking him for his three decades of leadership, two as Prime Minister. But there was a forced grandeur about it. In the background were the ghosts of his failures - he has to his credit, when all is said and done, more failures and disasters than successes - to dampen what was to have been a happy sendoff. He must have sensed that soon enough. He waits for the Organisation of the Islamic Conference summit in Putra Jaya in October, but a pall hangs over it. The Middle East is in a boiling cauldron, after the US invasion of Iraq, and the Summit is where harsh and anti-US statements would have to be made. Many OIC members are unhappy at this prospect. So far less than a dozen have said they would attend. The prospect of a postponement should not be dismissed out of hand.

Merdeka DAY, NATIONAL DAY, MALAYSIA Day, whatever you call 31 August, is in Malaysia loosely interchangeable. What it stands for is lost in this regular, persistent devaluation of what this nation is about. It is important in our lives only in the month of August. That is when an officially-orchestrated campaign to celebrate the anniversary of independence suffuses itself and us in an orgy of irrelevance. The scale and scope of it depends on which cabinet minister is in charge. This year, it is the tourism and culture minister, Dato' Seri Abdul Kadir Sheikh Fadhir, and his focus is not on what this day should be but how he can attract tourists to say how wonderful this feast is. Others in the administration saw it as a brilliant backdrop for unfair advantage in the runup to the general election. The affliction this year, as in the past few years, decides on one's nationalism and patriotism soley by flying the Malaysian flag on vehicles and houses. All it helped are the flag makers.

Poodles are often meant to be kicked and ignored. As he often is. The Sabah chief minister, Dato' Musa Aman, wants elections in Sabah now. When he told it to the Prime Minister, Dato' Seri Mahathir Mohamed, on a fleeting visit to Sabah, the Old Man thought it a good idea. And promised to bring it to the attention of his successor, Dato' Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi. Little is heard after that. But it now appears Dr Mahathir would like the Sabah legislative assembly dissolved a few days before the Merdeka celebrations, with the state elections due in mid-September. If Sabah decides to go it alone, why not Kelantan and Trengganu?

With Malaysia's Merdeka Day due in eleven days, I thought I would talk of our four Prime Ministers since 31 August 1957. The official records, and the prevailing wisdom, say we have had four Prime Ministers. That is not correct: there were five, one held the office twice. The first Prime Minister, Tengku Abdul Rahman, resigned for three months when the 1959 general elections was due, and Tun Abdul Razak was Prime Minister during that period. He felt that since he would be the Alliance leader more than Prime Minister during the elections he felt honour bound to resign. But we have an unsual penchant to blur historical accuracies. Malaysia Day, for instance is not on 31 August but on 16 September, to mark the day in 1963 when it was officially proclaimed. It was changed to 31 August as casually as we alter our national anthem and destroy our national symbols.

IT IS THE MONTH OF INDEPENDENCE (Merdeka). It is also the time of the month for cabinet ministers and National Front (BN) leaders to talk irrelevantly of what nationalism is. Those who speak of it in hallowed terms usually does not know what it means. Does that matter? What is important, in their view, is that this is an occasion not for celebration of independence but that that can be churned into a money making machine. In this it is better late than never. Let us take one example. Today is the 14th of August, seventeen days before Merdeka Day. The cabinet and government is so busy in bringing Malaysia to the world's attention by fair means or foul that they have no time to prepare and plan. It is important that they say what they must. They do not have ill intent in their hearts, and all they say and due are suffused with a surfeit of patriotism and nationalism.

This churlishness is proof yet BN and UMNO politicians in charge, shocked by the crowds on the first day, pulled the plug to defy even the courts. It did not go down well amongst the guests. UMNO sources tell me the leaders did not want him to meet the foreign gues and ambassadors. But it revealed only the BN's, particularly UMNO's, terror of the man's continued popularity and support even in UMNO. The wedding, in many ways, rejuvenated the family and his supporters. And a more political success than UMNO's 57th anniversary gathering at the Stadium Merdeka, raised more questions about UMNO's direction than Dato' Seri Anwar's. As one UMNO stalwart told me: "Those of us at the wedding told Dato' Ser Anwar, if not in words then by our presence, what his enemies did to him would sink them all."

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