To contain the new non-White competitors, the Bush administration began a war on an adjective. It believed the terror was orchestrated by the Muslims and Islam, but in political correctness would not blame either. But that was not how the Muslims perceived it. They found themselves attacked, especially by the governments around the world which had bought, or we forced to accept, the American view. It gave these governments the opportunity to put the Islamicists down, for staying in power, often on the most spurious ground. It has raised the confrontation between the people and their governments in distant lands. In Indonesia, we are told how the government is pro-American and harasses the pro-Islamic lobby. This, we are told, is a good thing. But the spin that follows it, usually inept, makes sure it is not.

THE GATHERING OF THE converted met yesterday (12 March 2006) to discuss the inexhorable move in Malaysia to be an Islamic state. No governmnent or official representative was there to give its view. That is not to say no UMNO representative was there. He was, but to chart his own support base outside UMNO, after his suspension as an UMNO member. Would he have said what he did had he been in the good books of the party? He got claps and cheers but did he mean what he said? Would his speech have been different had he been an official UMNO representative? No official explanation is given at the best of times for moves taken about Islam and its role in Malaysia. Every one shies of discussing it, is presumed not to discuss it, especially by non-Muslims. So, Malaysia becomes Islamic by default. The non-Malay political parties in the National Front will not discuss, even with UMNO, and will agree with any moves on Islam that UMNO takes. As they did, as they would do if pesky questions about it are asked by opposition members of parliament.

But is the government clean? Let us take two government linked companies which flout regularly the Prophet's injuction against alcohol: MAS and Pernas, which owns hotels like the Istana and the Mutiara (which is now the Crowne Plaza) which serve liquor. As does MAS,. Its former chairman's penchant for Dom Perignion is well known. But nothing has happened to it or him. If the government wants to rid the country of anti-Islamic influences, then it should go the whole hog. It should penalise the companies linked to it for disoberying the Islamic injunctions. It cannot argue that in the modern world, breaking it is required. Schoolchildren must wear 'approved tudung' or be penalised. It fines people for breaking the fast during the month of Ramadan, but half-heartedly. It only penalises what it can see, not what is in the letter of the Quran. It turns non-Muslims into Muslims secretly so that even his family does not know.

THE GREATER REASON FOR the crisis in journalism in Malaysia today is with the government. That does not mean the media or its pratictioners evade blame. Journalism is after all the megaphone to authority. The media in Malaysia is not independent but owned by commercial or political groups close to the ruking National Front, and all that matters is the balance sheet, not its reporting. The current furore over a cartoon drawings and of the Prophet Mohamed shows how angry people can be. The herd mentality takes over. The cartoons were drawn in the West to annoy the Muslims. It was deliberate, though this is dismissed there as freedom of expression. But every freedom has its rights and obligations. Publishing the cartoon, when the West is at war with Islam, was meant to evoke the response it has. But the NST cartoon was making fun of cartoonists, not of the Prophet. Good sense and reason go overboard when politicians, not necessarily from the government, think otherwise to gain public support.

CRYING 'FIRE' IN A CROWDED theatre is not acceptabe, It may be freedom of speech or expression, but the responsibilty that goes with it, equally important, prevents it. That is accepted the world over. Similarly, the publication of a cartoon depiciting the Prophet Mohammed in a bad light, when Christianity representing the west is involved in a crusade against the Muslims. The editors can justify this as freedom of speech. But there are in the law books of most Christian nations severe punishmnent for caricaturing Jesus, for instance. That they are not enforced these laws is that the societies have moved ahead and do not impose these laws. The publication of the cartoons in Denmark, and republication in other countries, to anger the Muslims is deliberate. In this extension of the war on terror, the United States have stayed out. What we hear is European reaction. It could also be an attempt to take the advantage of the United States in this war on terror. Europe has played second fiddle to the war on terror, and see no reason why it should allow the United States to represent Christianity.

Most of these did not happen under his watch. But he was a member of the cabinet which allowed this. In Malaysia, it is only the Prime Minister that matters, or so the people are led to believe. But Pak Lah has the problem of division within UMNO, where the opposition is fiercer than the outside. He did not at first take that seriously. By the time, he realised it, other issues came into the fore – the divide between the Muslims and non-Muslims; the racial divide; a more organised opposition that asks questions for which answers are not forthcoming; the religious affairs departments taking the law into their own hands; the religious group it had created complaining it is not consulted in making women second class citizens; among others – which makes the National Front fight harder for their seats. The National Front works on a need to know basis, but when their representatives open their mouths, their first take leave of their senses, and usually tell lies. It is probably too late, but Pak Lah must first keep the people informed on issues of the day. The grandchildren and children of independence have different perception of their future than their fathers and grandfathers had. But UMNO has not learned that. It does not believe in the past, only the present. And that is reflected in today's politics.

THE NATIONAL FRONT IS caught between two stools. The Islamic establishment, unelected but wants its say in how the country is run, on one side, and the empowered people on the other, who see they are not members of the Malaysia the National Front has created. Malaysia is now a nation of exclusion. As the widow of Corporal Moorthy's widow, found out she had no claim on his body, and no court would hear her complaint. Under the Federal Constitution she can get the courts to hear her complaint. The National Front has amended it unconstitutionally so that she cannot. It has created three courts: the civil courts, which hears all matters except those in the preserve of the Syrariah courts, which only hears matters raised by Muslims. They rank pari passu with each other. There is a third court, which only tries Sultans, to which of course Malaysians have no access to. There is now talk of a fourth court, a Constitutional Court, which would hear cases the other three would not.

It is the fear that the non-Malays, the non-Muslims, and the women – who form more voters that worry the National Front. It had refused to listen to the people who elected them to power, knowing it had the votes on its side. The National Front won Pengkalen Pasir but PAS had more votes than it collected last year. Despite the National Front's great effort and money to win it, all it showed was a pointer to the future. If PAS continues to gain more votes in future elections, it will be a matter of time before the National Front becomes an opposition party. This is assuming the non-Malay, the non-Muslim and the women are on its side. If these voters desert it as they threaten, it would be sooner. The National Front is Islamic, and is in power today because of the non-Muslims. Now the Muslim women are in revolt. If they join hands and vote against the National Front throughout the country in an election, the National Front would be in trouble.

In the Federal Territory, the Islamic affairs department has set up a volunteer force to spy in lover's lanes, and call the police if they find 'wrongdoing'. But this gives a wrong message to the non-Muslims in this country. If they had intended to become Muslims, they will think twice if prurient interest is what the Islamic authorities are interested in. The Rukun Tettanga scheme of policing the neighbourhood, which I was forced to join in the 1970s, is dead; all it has to show it is alive is a brand new building, which is empty most of the time. But the scheme is dead because the officials lost interest in it. So would the Islamic scheme aimed at the prurient interest of Muslims and the lack of space for Muslims to court.

After making sure, in deed and kind, that non-Malays, which means in Malaysia non-Muslims, are in inferior to the Malay. The government allows this in practice, but tell the world it is not so. But it is the government, through its officials, which degrade the Malay. The government is afraid to confront the people it employs who do this, and keep quiet when this is done. This is why the Chinese tourists, who look like Malaysian China. are harassed by the police, and government departments. The Chinese tourists, on returning, tell their home town newspapers of their targetting in Malaysia, and tell their compatriots not to the country. But this means fewer Chinese tourists are coming to Malaysia, and affect government revenues, and hotels built to cater for the tourists. But people in Malaysia, especially in Sarawak and Sabah, can rise in revolt. Peace is kept there by bribing the opposition into the government. Just like in East Bengal in the 1950s; which by 1971 had become independent Bangladesh. It was not religion there – both East and West Pakistan are Muslims – but East Malaysia it is religion and race.

THE NATIONAL FRONT IS NOT absolutely in power as it thinks it is. It is true it has two thirds or more in parliament and 12 of the 13 state assemblies. but it keeps looking over its shoulders before it does any legislation. First it was the reformasi crowd, which was formed in the wake of Dato' Seri Anwar Ibrahim's dismissal as deputy prime minister and UMNO's deputy president and expulsion from UMNO. The National Front, in reality UMNO, the Malay party which controls the non-Malay parties in the front, at first did what it wanted. The other leaders of the National Front would do whatever it asked, whether right or wrong and did not care if the move affected the parties and communities they allegedly led, so long as it remained in the Cabinet. The National Front bypassed Parliament, and the state assemblies in the states they controlled, did not believe in getting them involved unless it, usually UMNO, wanted their support. It did not believe in consultation or approval. They had absolute majority in most cases. They introduced the New Economic Policy, to give the Malays a leg up in business while they held the political power to which the non-Malay party leaders, in the cabinet, agreed. The laws were passed in parliament and the state assembies, with the non- Malays and non-Muslims voting even if the law affected their members.

Islam in Malaysia will not join the other religious faiths to discuss common issues. They make their views known independently, but the non- Islamic faiths announce a common position separately. The Islamic faith reserves the right to bury non-Muslims on the grounds they have become Muslims. What happened to the non-Muslims after they died - when the religious affairs department had a unseemly battle with the familes over where the bodies should be buried according to Islamic rights or according to the religion, in a Muslim cemetery or a Non- Muslim place of burial. Even in an Islamic country, non-Muslims practice their faith and are buried according to the rites they followed. It would not be, as in Malaysia, a matter of who would bury the bodies. Islam is a tolerant religion, but in Malaysia it is seen as an intolerant one. People became Muslims in the past, usually to marry. But the National Front Islamic bodies in this country is not prepared to allow the tribe to rise naturally. Chinese and indian officers who have reached their glass ceiling are told they could breach it if they became Muslim. Those who accepted the offer had gone ahead; those who did not remained at their level for the rest of their career. Any Indian or Chinese who enter the government services cannot get to the top unless he became a Muslim later on in life. The courts have ruled that civil law cannot discuss what is in the jurisdiction of sharia law. Once a man becomes a Muslim, and marries another, his non-Muslim wife is automatically divorced, and he has no responsibility for their children unless they converted to Islam.

The South Asian earthquake hit Pakistan badly. But the news reports failed to mention that most of those who suffered were near the Himalayas and supported the Muslim rebels. The area is left to its own devises at the best of times. The earthquake could have weaned them over. But the government did not. It blamed the weather, the difficulty in getting aid across, blamed those who gave the aid. It ignored the people affected by lthe earthquake after some time. The rebels waited for the government effort to fail, and stepped in. Will the people thank the government for given them bread and blankets up to a point, or the rebels who came to their aid when they needed it most? The Pakistan government failed. That will be used as a yard stick to support the rebels, who after all are the people of the region. Pakistan is divided as never before. General Pervez Musharraf needs the United States to help rule his divided country. The killing of an al-Qaeda operative will not change the situation. How he died is not important. The people the Government could not help where the earthquake struck will join the war on terror on the side of the Muslims. The Government chap I saw frequently that I saw in the area frequently was the chap who accompanied me. That was in 1973. But I met Gulbudeen Hikmatiyar, the Afghan rebel leader but then a university student. The Pathans, both Hindus and Muslims, live by a simple code, and will be an intractable enemy if that is broken. It does not matter if the code breaker is a government or individual. The US does not understand this. Its supporters in Pakistan and Afghanistan believe they do not have to if they have the United States on their side.

The newspapers, all owned by National Front members, has become party newspapers. How they cover the Pengkalen Pasir byelection shows it. Dato' Seri Anwar was listened to rapturously by a crowd of 10,000. But there is hardly any report of that in the mainstream media. It is the internet that carries such news. It is the internet that splashed the story of the nude China woman. The print media did not report it until their reporters could get some one in authority who could rebut it. But that is what party organs do. That is what the mainstream newspapers do. This present crisis will not go away, not so long as the Chinese tourists do not return. But Malaysia should worry about this. There is no rapport between Thai Prime Minister and his Malaysian counterpart, because each took positions on the Thai Muslims and made statements each wished each had not. So, a modus vivendi was reached by getting Tun Mahathir Mohamed, the former prime minister, to meet Mr Thakson Shinawatra. Today, there is calm in the Thai South, but that to do with a Thai editor locking horns with him. But both Malaysia and Thailand is afraid that the Thai Muslims in the south would want independent of either. But Malaysia is used to this: it lost the other oil producing Malay state, Brunei, from joining Malaysia by its own mistakes.

THE RIOTS IN FRANCE, of which there is much in television these days, has paralysed not just France and the Western world. I have yet to hear the argument that Muslim youths rioted as digits of the global war on terror against Islam. It may not be, and it could be just the reasons the French have so far given. But one cannot escape from the reason that is not stated. France did send troops to Iraq after the American invasion, as did many other countries, including Germany, to help the coalition forces. The Muslims score a victory in France. It tells the world that any country which helps the coalition forces and have a Muslim population can expect a retaliation. The Muslim youths throughout France had committed havoc in two weeks of rioting. The French government, like the British, have taken harsh measures against them. But will it stop the rioting? When the Muslim youths find it convenient to add the anti-Islam attitude to their list of grievances? The rest of Europe had better watch out. The European Union's rejection of Turkey is a hot potato but wrong for two reasons. One it should not have considered Turkey for membership. The European Union is a Christian grouping. It should have remained so. Turkey has applied for membership of the EU for domestic reasons. It should not have.

AL QAEDA has said it is responsible for the bomb attacks on three American-owned hotels in Jordon. The Americans call this group Al Qaeda in Iraq. If you listen or read what they have to say or write, they do not tell you the most important fact: that as the war on terror on Muslims is worldwide, the response is too. They ignore this, and suggest the Jordanian Arabs were the ones most affected. But 100,000 Iraqis have died in American bombing. There is no word of that now except that they deserved it. The US Senate has passed a resolution that the American legal system should not be available to those sent to Guantanamo prison from countries in the Third World. The Americans have latched on to Al Qaeda's statement that they are responsible. They are playing an information game as the Americans are. They have found a new organisation called "Al Qaeda in Iraq" and its leaders responsible and therefore gulty. The war on terror against Muslims requires less standards of proof of guilt than murder, for instance. But this is a fight unto death, with both sides having access to the same methods. If the Americans can attack a defenceless country headed by a CIA agent, after months of telling the world a pack of lies, the reaction is equally swift. When it justifies the invasion of Iraq also as a war on terror, and alientate the Sunnis, in power since the British put them in power more than 80 years ago, the reaction was swift. Iraq is in a civil war. It would never be a country again, with handouts from the United States to keep it going, and unsafe for any who supports it. The Sunnis have waged a civil war since they were removed in a fit of anger. They don't want to return. Their aim is to destroy. Four or five Iraqi Sunni organisations supporting the elections next month is neither here nor there. But the Americans and their cohorts in Iraq and elsewhere look upon every Sunni move in their favour as evidence of grasping any floating in the sea. The bombing of the three hotels in Jordan is a direct response to the invasion of Iraq. The hotels would not be bombed if Iraq was not invaded.

He is, I am told by Malayalee Muslims, not a likeable figure. I dismissed it as the normal rankling of those who felt they were better than him. You find similar attitudes by Tamil Muslims of a Tamil Muslim who had gone far by being a Malay. But some of his actions after his father visited him a few years ago made me realise that he regarded himself as a Malay and not the Malayalee Muslim that he is. The Malay community will absorb him if he is smart, as he is, but will get jealous of him as he moves up the civil service ladder. He is wrong in assuming that all is well after he changes his race. In Malaysia, the Malay is a constitutional definition. If one follows that he is a Malay. It is not race that determines it. As many non- Malays have found out. Too many non-Malays were becoming Muslim that it was decided that the convert has to be integrate his name, or better still retain, his given name. This is help the civil servant weed out the non-Malay in his calculations. The convert will have to wait for his grandchildren to get the benefits of his conversion. But this is natural when there is a divide between the Malays in power and not. The Malays in power can ignore the constitional definite as they fancy, but the must also ensure they get along with their colleagues as well. A Malay I know retired from government service because he could not stand the politics inherent in his job.

It is important for the United States and Britain, especially after its quagmire in Iraq after it believed it would be welcomed with flowers, to win its ubiquitous war on terror. The United States, Britain, Australia would not apportion blame so soon in a police case, but they had already decided guilt of Al-Qaeda or others opposed. In Vietnam in the 1960s, the Vietcong had been blamed for atrocities perpetrated by the United States and its allies. The world believed it at the time, but retired officials have written their memoirs in which they said how these atrocities were done. The war on terror is against Islam, and the United States and its allies decided to make their first strike in Iraq. What happened in Jordan could be part and parcel of the Islamic reaction. We are not sure. Others could be involved. If the United States can act in other countries, so can the Islamic movements. In this case, it need not be Iraqis; it could also be Islamicists around the world who are opposed to the West's condemnation of Islam. Or even citizens of the West who are Muslims.

Christmas is not what it was. But is Deepavali and Hari Raya Puas what they are meant to be? I called on a Middle Eastern ambassador. He was fasting, as Muslims do in the month of Ramadan. He said his prayers and started his fast in the morning by eating daates and drinking a glass of milk. He broke his fast the same way, said his prayers, and his only meal of the day at about 9.30. This is how it should be. But the month of Ramadan in Malaysia is an orgy. True the rich Malaysian Muslim fasted. But he made up for it by eating a heavy meal before and after his fast. The Prophet's injunction was forgotten, as each Malaysian Muslim showed how rich he was or how he could afford spending hundreds of ringgit daily in a restaurant. The Ramadan month is to show the other how rich one is. It is an orgy of self-flagellation. Contrast that with the poor Muslim buying what he and his family can afford, and breaking their fast. He is a truer Muslim than those who break their fast in five-star hotels. If the fast is broken in the house, instead of doing it privately, the rich or influential Malaysian Muslim invites their ilk but has forgotten the injunctions of the prophet. It was not a time for special business. The tenets of Islam are followed rigorously, but as the Malaysian Muslim elite would like.

A BAD PEACE IS EVEN WORSE THAN WAR, said Tacitus, about the Roman conquest of Britain. He also quoted the British chieftain Calgacus tell his troops about Rome's insatiable desire for conquest and plunder and to 'savage, to slaughter, to usurp under false titles, they call empire; they make a devastation, and call it peace." He wrote this 2,000 years ago but it refers to the United States as well, now. Mr Donald Rumsfeld, the US defence secretary and one of those who hurtled into the war in Iraq without an exit plan, said the United States was more powerful than Rome. The United States behaved now as the Romans then. And like the Romans, the United States are left wondering where they went wrong. It is perhaps trite to suggest now that you do not go to war with an adjective, but that is what the war on terror is all about. The United States did not want to sound racist, so the war against Muslims quickly became the war on terror. It invaded Iraq because of oil. It is a Muslim nation, so the adjective made sense in Washington. Its reasons at invading Iraq has proven false. There were no weapons of mass destruction, and Iraq had no nuclear plan. That it had both was why it officially invaded the country. It displaced the Sunnis and Baath party members from power, and put Saddam Hussein on trial. It had no plans other than ensure that the Sunnis and the Baathist Party did not rule. But in deciding that, it made sure that Iraq was not a oil producing state anymore, but a fourth world state which was like Vietnam in the 1960s. It war on terror made sure that all Sunnis world wide were targetted. In the Middle East, the Sunni sect of Islam dominated, and the Arab street was with the Iraqi, who did not like his country to be ruled by an invader, which the United States is. The coalition it has cobbled is a smokescreen, to make other countries join it in this war on terror. It went on an information war to regard those supported the Iraqis as foreign insurgents, as if they are not foreigners. The referendum on the American-drafted constitution may yet pass, but the insurgency would not end.

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