Every senior Malay civil servant leaves his post, having made sure the non-Malay is sidelined and is more Islamic and Malay than when he came in. The Inspector General of Police, Tan Sri Bakri Omar, who is to retire shortly, has designed a new uniform for policewomen in which the tudung is compulsory. This was modified on protest to be used only at official functions. But the tudung is worn by Malay, not non-Malay. women. To leave his office more Islamic than when he came in, he ordered the new uniform. It is not provided for under the police or civil service rules. But the PaK Lah administration or the Chief Secretary say not a word. The fear of Islamic religious administration, for these Muslims, is more important than civil service rules or the smooth functioning of the administration and the government.

There is a glass ceiling for the non-Malays. The Malay would not take orders from a non-Malay. So, even at the lower ranks, the non-Malay is shut out for promotion. No non-Malay becomes chief clerks or matrons. Those seen had held the jobs before it was decided the non-Malay could not be. But there are due to retire. And none of the non-Malays can expect promotion on the same basis as the Malay. The inspector-general of police, Tun Haniff Omar, repeats the canard of the government: that the non-Malay is more interested in the private sector because he would be paid more. It is not true. He has no choice.

People Mr Khairy depended on has died or got into activities they should not. Tan Sri Noordin Sopiee who introduced Pak Lah's daughter, Nori, to Mr Khairy, and looked upon himself as a father figure to the young man, died of thyroid cancer last week. Making use of Putera UMNO has caused a setback after its president, Dato' Azeez Abdul Rahman, was caught in a vice raid at Holiday Villa. The deputy interior minister, Dato' Noh Omar, has said he was in Klang at that time, but no one believes him. It is he who told the Chinese tourists not to come to Malaysia if they are not prepared to obey the laws. But his minister is Dato' Seri Abdullah Badawi, who is also father-in-law of Mr Khairy. Could he say anything else?

Officials in the government repeat the canard like Tun Haniff Omar. But they are not believed no longer. The non-Malays know they face a glass ceiling if they join the government or the uniformed branch, so early in life their parents tell them to find a career in public service. My sons decided, still in school, not to join the uniformed or government services; and they have not. Not all can reach the top, but like to think they can. But when impediments are put in the way, they would find other avenues. The government and uniformed services are now shortchanged because of the policies three decades ago. What they are seeing now is the after-effects of the policies laid down then. It takes thirty years for a policy to fruition, and the government is caught flat footed.

But Pak Lah, as chairman of the ASEAN Summit could not do otherwise. He is a prisoner of the United States, not for what he has done but for what his son had done. The Pakistani nuclear chief, Dr. A.Q. Khan, had asked his son's company, SCOMI, to manufacture the centrifugal rods, which was sent out to Iran on ten shipments of 1,500 rods each. The United States followed each shipment, but stopped the last one. SCOMI then tried to wash itself of the affair by explaining to the Malaysian media journalists that it is innocent. But it tried too hard. Senior US officials landed in Malaysia, in secret because the local media did not report it by linking them to the shipment. The head of the FBI paid a courtesy call on Pak Lah. But he also met the Inspector General of Police, Dato' Bakri Omar. What was discussed is not known, but Dato' Bakri has had extensions beyond the normal, after he had retired from the service. Pak Lah was not his own man after that. He is less so now, and that he did not object to ASEAN giving Daw Aung San Suu Kyi more importance than the 4 million Thai Muslims is indicative of that. The United States do not like the Thai Malays, and so he discarded them. More than 200 Thai Malays do not want to go back to lthe village they came from in southern Thailand, but want to take up arms instead and join the guerrillas. This has caught the Malaysian Government unawares. But the younger elements within the Thai Malay do not trust the Malaysian government any more, especially after the treatment the PULO leader got.

The Malay government servant can illtreat the tourist. The deputy internal security minister, Dato' Noh Omar, told tourists not to visit if it did not agree with what the authorities do to them. He was castigated, but not sacked, by his minister, who happened to be the prime minister, Dato' Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi. But government reaction to the fallout of the MMS videoclip has been at cross purposes. It cannot abandon Ketuanan Melayu policy. So it will fumble. It cannot order the decisions which will treat the tourists from Asia fairly. That would mean it would have to, God forbid, treat the Malaysian fairly! It is under pressure from its backers to get Chinese tourists back. So far, there is no indication that they would make the policy changes that would treat the Malaysian differently. Now the problem over the Chinese tourist is seen in the government at the facilities going to waste if he did not come. If it reaches a solution, it would at best be temporary. Nothing would change permanently unless the Malaysian is treated on par with the tourist. Because China is prepared to fight for its citizens - this is not how Malaysia treats its citizens - the Ketuannan Melayu policy is dented. It would not be erased yet. There will be other occasions when it would be dented further. Chinese tourists being treated fairly, as China demands, is a start. But it will be a long while before a Malaysian is at part with the tourist.

THE PRIME MINISTER, DATO' Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi (Pak Lah) is furious with his deputy internal security minister, Dato' Noh Omar for having said that foreigners could go home if they thought Malaysia was cruel. But he does not drop the deputy minister from his government. He dare not, for Dato' Noh and his supporters may join his opponents in UMNO, which has the power in the National Front government. The home affairs minister, Dato' Azmi Khalid, who had to postpone his visit to China from yesterday to 20 December 2005, blames 'negative press reports". He makes a slur on the Chinese government, which the previous day had protested against Malaysia ill- treating its citizens. The Malaysian public is blamed, and anyone else, if only to tell the world that it is not the government's fault. The Malaysian Government illtreats its citizens and they keep quiet. Those from India, Pakistan, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Vietnam are, but their governments keep quiet; so it assumed wrongly China would too. Malaysia supports, or vaccilates in public about its departments and agencies illtreating the Chinese tourists, and cannot admit that it has done wrong. In this first crisis of its making, it is in dissaray. It thinks it can explain its side of the story, but no one, especially the Malaysian public, believes it. The foreigners, especially China, disbelieves it. The mainstream newspapers in Malaysia, which by and large is the National Front's public relations machine, has carried articles of police and immigration manhandled foreign tourists. The National Front government has no case, but acts as if it has. It could ask its experts to solve the issue, but they are chosen for their political reliability not for their experise.

THE HOME AFFAIRS MINISTER, Dato' Azmi Khaled, who is going to China on 20 December 2005 and not today as he announced to the press, said it is press reports that paint Malaysia as profiling tourists, not that it does, that is hurting tourism. He said that newspapers in China 'have been carrying negative stories on the treatment of their citizens, and it does not help when local newspapers reprint the stories'. But has there been a believable statement so far that it does not profile tourists? The deputy internal security minister, Dato' Noh Omar, says it does profile tourists. So far he has justified the police case against the tourists. What he says is important, because the minister of his ministry is the Prime Minister, Pak Lah. Journalists go after a story, and the naked tourist doing a ear squat is one. The government is at needles and pins, saying one thing one time, and another the next, giving the impression that it is not in control of itself, that the police and immigration care two hoots of official policy. The police and immigration officers have done what they liked, irrrespective of what government policy is, because they have a hidden policy: ketuanan Melayu or MalayDominance. That is why there are few Malays, Chinese and other non-Malays in civil service. Those appointed are usually to make the Malay look good. So, most non-Malays do not apply and prefer to take their chances in the private sector. Most migrate to other countries. How can Dato' Azmi explain this fact of life to China when he goes there later this month?

That is how many people arrested by the police want to leave their stay in the police cell behind them. They want to get on with their lives. The deputy minister for internal security, Dato' Noh Omar, is dismissive of people coming out with their experiences in police custody five years ago. But he is wrong. A reformasi woman detained by the police was asked to strip and do the ear squat five years ago. The trauma of getting one's dignity stripped can take years to overcome. She has come public now. But what about the Chinese tourists, now back in China, telling their experiences now, and which news papers in China are printing. They should have made their statements before they left? But they have. They have persuaded others not to come to Malaysia. That it has taken the proportion it has suggests that many Chinese tourists have been badly treated over the years, if not by immigration then by the police. It is a problem that would not go away. And the government and the police make sure it does not. Going about as if they do not care is not how to resolve the problem.

THE DIRECTOR OF MILITARY INTELLIGENCE, Lieut.-Gen. Dato' Wan Abu Bakar Omar, proved by his own words why he should be removed forthwith. In an irrelevant television and print interview with Bernama yesterday (19 April 2005), broadcast on all TV channels and reported in the newspapers today, he proved why military intelligence, at least in Malaysia, is an oxymoron. He ignored totally Singapore's breach of our national security, to which the armed forces, the police forces, the intelligence agencies, the prime minister and deputy prime minister, were complicit. Instead, he attempts to divert attention to an irrelevant operational episode in the unchartered waters in the Sulewesi Sea when a Malaysian and Indonesian warship grazed each other.

Why? A "noble" career in the police force "uphold(s) the law and ensure the peace of the country and security of the people", he said at the function. The police should not rest on its laurels: it should aspire to be a world class force. Money is not a problem: last year, the cabinet – not parliament – allotted RM740 million last year and another RM330 million in 2005, with more under the Ninth Malaysia Plan. But structures do not a good police force make. The Inspector-General of Police, Tan Sri Mohamed Bakri Omar, wants policemen and women to imbibe "life-long" learning so the police can face the future with confidence. He is also grateful to the National Front (BN) government for its special interest in the police force.

THE DEPUTY INTERNAL SECURITY minister, Dato, Noh Omar, goes about with state secrets in his pocket (The Star, 14 October 2004, Nation, p27). He has the full run of secrets in his ministry, but he is a bit lost because Malaysians do not understand his role in keeping this nation safe from the likes of Al-Qaeda, the Taliban, Jemaah Islamiyah, Party SeIslam Malaysia (PAS), Democratic Action Party (DAP), Parti Keadilan Rakyat (KeADILan), Dato' Seri Anwar Ibrahim, corrupt police men. He is the point man in this eternal battle; his minister doubles up as prime minister and finance minister, and is otherwise involved in other issues. There is therefore no one left to mind the internal security store. Yet UMNO and Malaysia are ungrateful, and do not recognise his talents.

THE DEPUTY INTERNAL SECURITY minister, Dato' Noh Omar, is a worried man. There is crime in Malaysia but it is not a crime-infested nation. The media should not give the wrong impression and portray it as what is not. This must stop, he thundered when he presided at the start of the new TV3 crime drama series, 'Detektif' (Detective).

The United States has tried several times to get Malaysia involved in its overseas military adventures. During the Vietnam War, Malaysia refused to be directly involved, although it did send a few outdated police weapons, and training South Vietnamese police officers. Malaysia was caught flatfooted at the way her then foreign minister, Dato' Seri Abu Hassan Omar, was pressured to vote with Washington, with threats of severe sanctions if she refused. Yemen, you would recall, was ostracised by Washington for its nay vote.

The Malaysian government has detained many whose links with the threat are at best tenuous. Innocent links can be fatal. If heroin is found in a room shared by five they cannot plead ignorance. The law presumes they knew about it and, as often, hanged. The same presumptions exist in the ISA. If the ISA is to be on the books and is used in the way it is, the question of innocently manufacturing and supplying parts for a banned nuclear programme does not arise. In this case, it does appear the police acted on information from foreign intelligence agencies - CIA and MI6 - which is assumed to be correct. It is barely three months ago the Inspector-General of Police, Dato' Seri Mohamed Bakri Omar, cleared the Shah Alam factory of the SCOMI subsidiary and its major shareholder, Mr Kamaludin, of all wrong doing. One must infer, given how the police works, that since Mr Tahir was not arrested then, he was also in the clear.

The Prime Minister, Dato' Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, and the Foreign Minister, Dato' Seri Syed Hamid Albar, insist there is no torture of ISA detainees. The deputy Internal Security Minister, Dato' Noh Omar, says he has visited the detainees, and they all told him that they have repented, and want nothing more than be reunited with their families. He says the recent allegation by suspected Islamic terrorists of torture is a desperate attempt to link their plight with those in Iraq and Afghanistan subject to brutal torture.

How did he land in this mess? There is around several cabinet ministers a bevy of Oxbridge graduates who believe they, as intelligent and brilliant beings, must reorder Malaysia because the politicials and civil servants have lost their marbles. This is best done as special assistants to important cabinet ministers. The leader of this select group is Mr Omar Mustafa, the special assistant to the deputy prime minister, Dato' Seri Najib Tun Razak. On his appointment, he demanded an office next to his minister. It was refused. He saw Dato' Seri Najib. It was given him. This group believes that corners must be cut for them so that they can lord it over all and sundry. The people ought to know that they come from the hallowed colleges of Oxford and Cambridge, and that counts for far more than other colleges and instituitions. But they forgot one important fact of political life: that they have to get the people they want to mould to believe in them. This group, if they were Chinese or Indian, could have achieved their aims. But they have to work with the system in a society where an unemployed Malay taxi driver is a far shrewder politician than the combined talents of Malaysia's non-Malay political leaders and deculturalised Malay Oxbridge graduates. As it is, the one man who stands to lose the most if this debacle continues is Pak Lah himself. We saw Malay cultural anger in 1998, and if this group continues as now, we could see it again at the UMNO elections in September. If Pak Lah must be given a chance, as he must, the actions of this group would deny it. But is anyone listening?

So, it did not surprise when he called on the Royal Commission on the Police Force to start putting its "ideas" into action immediately. Good suggestions should be accepted, and implemented, if they can be without amending laws. The Leader of the Opposition, Mr Lim Kit Siang, accepts it with alacrity. How did this come about? The Royal Commission chairman, Tun Dzaiddin Abdullah, suggested it when he met the IGP, Dato' Seri Mohamed Bakri Omar, and other senior police officers, and relayed what they had received. This seems to be out of line. The Royal Commission is not at liberty to talk about its hearings before it presents its report to the Yang Dipertuan Agung. Pak Lah, by suggesting it, is out of line. Whatever comes out should be in the report when it is submitted and published. The conditions of the Commission would have been clearly spelt out; there is no provision for its findings to be enforced in stages. Besides, must the Royal Commission share its preliminary findings with the police in the course of its investigations? What the Commission unearths is nothing new. The police know of it. Why cannot it do so on its own bat, and no demean the Royal Commission needlessly.

THE HONG KONG CUSTOMS officials on Tuesday, 04 May 2004, seized a shipment of 2,800 "second-hand" machine guns, 25,000 unloaded magazines and other accessories enough to equip a military division, its largest ever seizure. Hong Kong allows transit of weapons but they must be declared and licenced, suggesting that this shipment from Port Klang to Oakland, California, were not. The Malaysian home and defence ministries, with the police and armed forces chiefs, went into a tailspin, and in their explanations raised the doubt that these "antique" weapons were not for a museum in California but for those it should not be sold to. The Malaysian armed forces chief, Gen. Tan Sri Zahadi Zainuddin, told the New Straits Times yesterday (05 May 2004) said the weapons did not belong to its security forces, not the police nor the armed forces. He was so confident of this that he awaited a report from Hong Kong's Interpol representative. In other words, he is sure that this was a sinistral attempt to besmirch Malaysia's good and fair name. He did not know the name of the ship, where it was registered or even if it was in transit. The Inspector-General of Police, Dato' Seri Mohamed Bakri Omar concurred.

THE ELECTION COMMISSION CHAIRMAN, Tan Sri Abdul Rashid Abdul Rahman, is up the creek for what happened in last month's general election. He was the EC secretary for nearly two decades, his longevity in that office only added proof that he did his part to ensure that the EC exists to return the National Front (BN) into power, election after election. He did that with stellar diligence. In 1994, when the Party Bersatu Sabah of Dato' Joseph Pairin Kitingan won that election, he delayed the results long enough so the pro-Kuala Lumpur parties could be sworn in and obtain a majority with the six nominated assemblymen. The PBS team had squatted outside the residence of the Yang Dipertua Negara (Governor) for nearly two days, with portable toilets in tow. That is one of his prouder achievements. He did his job well. So he was made EC chairman. The EC secretary, Dato' Wan Ahmad Wan Omar, is a man steeped in political skullduggery: as a senior member in Malaysia's intelligence services, he was now given a chance to show his skill in public where in the past it was in private and often secret. He went overboard. The detritus of his handiwork became so obvious that the results the EC posted on its website was quickly withdrawn, what it posted damaged it.

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