It is yet another weapon in the UMNO armoury to best PAS. It was concocted by the Government's Islamic adviser, Dr Hamid Othman, and the former Grand Imam ('Imam Besar') of the National Mosque ('Masjid Negara'), Pirdaus Ismail, who now sits on the UMNO youth executive and has decided his future is not in Islam but in UMNO politics. The former prime minister, Dr Mahathir Mohamed, would have none of it. But Pak Lah slurped it up. The spin followed. And the rest, as they say, is history.

But a challenge there would be. Not only for the presidency, but the deputy presidency as well. And he wanted in the youth and puteri wings, the dominating presence, if all goes well, of his son-in-law, Mr Khairy Jamaluddin, and his daughter, Mrs Nori Abdullah; and the former Puteri chief and a family friend, Datin Azalina Othman, in wanita. This is not all: he wants the Kelantan liaison chief and his cabinet minister, Dato' Mustapa Mohamed, to be the first vice-president, in the UMNO elections in September, and force his likely challenger, Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah, to quit.

UMNO Youth however has said nothing. That this Hishamuddin-Khairy line-up is orchestrated is clear enough. Before the supreme council decision, four UMNO youth leaders - Dato' Azimi Daim, Mr Norza Zakaria, Mr Ikmal Hashim Abdul Aziz, Dato' A. Hamid Nazahar - are forced to back out, with a little help from loaded questions asked of them by the New Straits Times reporters. More than Dato' Hishamuddin, it is Mr Khairy Jamaludin who is the more important in this contest. The reasoning is simple: Dato' Hishamuddin would be otherwise occupied with his ministerial duties. So the young man would be in effective charge. There are persistent rumours that his wife, Pak Lah's daughter, vies for a position in Puteri UMNO. The present UMNO Puteri chief, Datin Azalina Othman, and a Pak Lah family friend, is expected to vie for a senior position in UMNO Wanita en route, if all goes to plan, to be de facto Wanita leader.

The UMNO heirarchy did not like him. He was dropped as candidate for parliament in 1999, offered a state constituency, and with it the post of mentri besar. He accepted. But he was dropped at the last minute. It was to humiliate him. But he is a bigger man than that. He bit his teeth and continued to rework his way back to national political life. In the March general election, he was given a parliamentary constituency and his protege was to be the Johore mentri besar. But crossed signals prevented it. The protege was given a parliamentary seat instead. Dato' Ghani Othman continued as mentri besar.

After the general election, the law minister is demoted. There is no talk of corruption. It is back to life as usual, when the government went its way, long on intent but little to show for it. Is it any wonder, that every cabinet minister, especially if he is a first timer, follows faithfully this practice of blowing one's own trumpet. It is not Dr Chua alone. Every one has a similar plan. The newspapers, especially in the mainstream, report it in such loving detail that it is automatically ignored. As a sample, here is how the NST reported Dr Chua: "Ninety minutes. That's all it may take Malaysians to be treated at government hospital outpatient clinics if health minister Dato' Dr Chua Soi Lek has his way. He is confident that three-hour waits, the norm at many such clinics, will be a thing of the past from June. Dr Chua plans to introduce staggered waiting hours to replace fixing of all appoints for the day at 9 am." You would notice it is taken as fact that it will be done. How does the new youth and sports minister, Datin Azalina Othman, deal with an outstanding scandal in her ministry - the still unresolved 1998 Commonwealth Games accounts, and missing tens of millions? The same way Pak Lah did when asked about the continued detention of his predecessor. Not my problem. Let those who want it resolved, find other means. Is that not how it should be?

The man who should worry is Dato' Seri Najib. He is to Pak Lah what Tan Sri Musa Hitak was to Tun Mahathir. Both prime ministers have to keep looking over their shoulders at what their deputy prime ministers are doing. There is no love lost between them, and between their wives. Besides, Johore is out of the loop in this cabinet even if two new UMNO ministers are in this cabinet - Datin Azalina Othman (youth and sports) and Dato' Khaled Nordin (entrepreneur and co-operative development) - but in relatively unimportant ministries. The UMNO vice president, Tan Sri Muhiyuddin Yassin, is in agricultural and agro-based industries, but otherwise out of the power equation. If current thinking becomes real, he would challenge Dato' Seri Najib for the deputy presidency. The other vice-president, Tan Sri Mohamed Taib, is out of Parliament altogether, but he could be expected to stand for the UMNO vice-presidency in June. On the face of it, he has little or no chance. It would have been so if Tun Mahathir was UMNO president. But Pak Lah has yet to find his ground, he has to take matters slowly, making haste slowly, and move in little steps. His cabinet is one manifestation of that. It is for one reason and one only: to secure his position to make himself unbeatable in June. It is also important for Pak Lah that few warlords succeed in the UMNO elections.

The EC has come up with a new rule in Putrajaya. It is a straight fight between the BN's Dato' Adnan Mansor aka Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor and the National Justice Party's Abdul Rahman Othman. The NJP (KeADILan) and PAS is in an Opposition front called Barisan Alternatif (BA) but the authorities cannot yet find a valid reason why it should be registered. The two parties contest on their own logos. Two days ago, the EC refined its rules midstream: only the party logos of the candidate is allowed. All others must be removed within 24 hours. The KeADILan candidate is told of it verbally with the promise of an official letter delivered by hand. Mr Abdul Rahman got the idea this would be nation wide. But does it know what this means? The National Front is the party which contests the elections. Its 14 component parties are not, as far as the EC is concerned, parties in this election. Yet they are prominent all over the country. If the candidate is from UMNO, the UMNO logo is as prominent as the BN, if from MCA, the MCA logo, if the MIC, the MIC logo; and so on. But in the EC's books, the 14 component parties do not exist. Why does it not order the BN in Putrajaya, for a start, order that all UMNO flags and logos are removed, as PAS is ordered to?

He could well be returned in this constituency of 5,000 mostly civil servant voters and their families. So he would, the BN tough guys threaten the residents with what the Election Commission insists is not true: the vote is not secret, and "we would know how you voted". In this, I disbelieve the EC. The vote is not secret. It can find out how one voted quiet easily with the help of super computers. Why it is not widely used to find out is the inefficiency of the bureaucracy and of the EC. In Singapore, for instance, with the efficient bureaucracy and its creative use of computers, it could in a flash find out who voted for whom. In Malaysia, the bureaucracy is efficient only because we are told it is. If it is efficient, how is it that the embarrassing details of whom one business partner calls 'Tengku Palsu' - fake prince - are so quickly in the public domain. It is a fair bet that no one can find out how these documents leaked. His opponent is from the National Justice Party, KeADILan, an accountant named Abdul Rahman Othman, and the party reports that he is followed by BN toughs as he goes about his campaign. The BN now accepts that this presumed safe seat is no longer. Could the BN candidate, if he is returned, return to the Cabinet without denting Pak Lah's image? More important, can Tengku Adnan remain in the cabinet after this?

So with this background, is it any wonder that civil servants now get into the act. The Selayang Municipal Council president, Mr Bakhruddin Othman, is one. He chaired a meeting which appointed his daughter as a permanent, penshionable administrative office with the council. He would not recuse, even when it was raised. Months earlier, the committee with him in the chair, appointed his son-in-law, her husband, as an accounts assistant in its finance division. No councillor present would oppose it. They know the dangers if they dared to confront the president. Their future depends on keeping mum. But obviously all this struck home. Just before the meeting ended, he apologised to all present, which included the press for what he did. "I apologise about just now because I had a personal interest," he said. He did not elaborate, nor the Council committee rethink it. The good president obviously did not see anything wrong about it. What use is he if he cannot get his daughter and son-in-law jobs in the council he presides? But lips are sealed. The mistake is not after all a mistake but an administrative inconvenience that can be righted by accepting the mistake for what it is.

Does it not understand that Puteri UMNO asked. How did it ask? When a delegation met him in his office early this year - as he would not allow those from other political parties - and the question was raised. The Puteri UMNO chief, Dato' Azalina Othman, followed that up with a letter, which Tan Sri Rashid passed down the line with his comments. The assistant secretary who passed down to the state election offices the chief's instruction ordered that this employment be kept secret. If it is above board, why? And why has it since been aborted? After all, he says all is noble and above board.

The message is clear: if BN must continue to be returned to office, the alienation amongst first-time Malay voters must be swung around in double-quick time. But can they? However you look at UMNO, one sees not a dynamic vibrant political party out to conquer the world, but of a tired, listless, political machine where the most vibrance comes in staged performances like the UMNO General Assembly, which ends today (21 June 2003) at the Putra World Trade Centre. The Johore mentri besar, Dato' Abdul Ghani Othman, capped the delegates' fears of the coming general elections. But the bigger question of what caused the alienation and how it would remove it is ignored. No one had thought through, and one gets the impression that this shortcoming is discussed to score points, to show the world that UMNO is on top of any given situation, and none need worry about that.

What happened to the deputy prime minister, Dato' Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, the minister in charge of religion, Brig.-Gen (rtd) Abdul Hamid Zainal Abidin, the Prime Minister's religious adviser, Dato' Abdul Hamid Othman, the government's religious establishment including the chief imam of the National Mosque, the Pahang mentri besar and the state executive council, and others with a vested interest in ensuring BN's victory in Pahang? Were they consulted, or was it hijacked to ensure the licence be given, come what may? But the deed is done. The BN government believes it would not be a political issue in the coming general election. But that it does not want to say anything about it is proof enough that it is not. The first news of it came through an item in the Dow Jones newswire of 24 February 2003 about this casino, issued by the casino manager himself. How this matter is handled by the BN is symptomatic of hubris at its highest level.

This Bukit Tinggi resort is one such. The casino is another. Dato' Seri Jamaluddin Jarjis signed the casino licence, but the BN cabinet, and the BN state government of Dato' Seri Adnan Yaakob, must take personal and collective responsibility for it. And this includes Dr Mahathir, the deputy prime minister, Dato' Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, the minister in charge of religion, Brig.-Gen (rtd) Abdul Hamid bin Zainal Abidin, the prime minister's adviser of Islamic affairs, Dato' Seri Abdul Hamid Othman. How is it no one in an administration it believes is run on Islamic principles raised a voice against?

NO ONE IN THE NATIONAL FRONT (BN) wants the credit for Pahang's second casino, which Malaysia's super-crony opens this month at his Bukit Tinggi Colmer Tropicale resort. The Prime Minister, Dato' Seri Mahathir Mohamed, keeps quiet. So the deputy prime minister, Dato' Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi; the Pahang mentri besar, Dato' Seri Adnan Yaakub; the second finance minister, Dato' Seri Jamaluddin Jarjis; the cabinet ministers from Pahang; the government's adviser on Islamic affairs, Dato' Seri Abdul Hamid Othman; the minister in charge of Islamic affairs, Dato' Seri Abdul Hamid Zainal Abidin. Yet, two months ago, Tan Sri Vincent Tan was cock-a-hoop about it, and issues confident statements about it, but whose statements are carried only in the foreign media. His office says the casino will be open from this month.

The Malay peninsula is dotted with these religious schools, whose graduates rose high in public and civic life in Malaysia. Many a religious teacher started one, and in many areas they were, until the government built rural schools, the only avenue where the children could get an education. When the deputy prime minister, Dato' Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, flies most weekends to visit his mother, it is to an SAR his father ran and built a house for him to stay. Dr Mahathir's adviser on Islamic affairs, Dato' Seri Hamid Othman, like Pak Lah, went to SARs. The Malaysian government's unguided missile, the deputy minister, Dato' Zainuddin Mydin or Zam, is another graduate. There are enough specialists and debaters on SAR in UMNO. Why did they not call on them?

UMNO's Byzantine web of deceit and intrigue now threatens to sink it. It does not matter if the former deputy prime minister, Dato' Seri Anwar Ibrahim, is a sodomist or the hand-picked Miss Azalina Othman a lesbian. The UMNO president, and prime minister, Dato' Seri Mahathir Mohamed, wanted one destroyed and the other saved. So, Dato' Seri Anwar goes to jail, and Miss Azalina is unopposed as Puteri UMNO leader. But so complex and complicated are the side-plots within UMNO and its 'dalang', or puppet master, the good doctor himself, to throw both and the National Front he leads into confusion. In the four years between Dato' Seri Anwar's predicament in 1997 and Miss Azalina's, UMNO focusses its future on the sexual orientation of its leaders. Homosexuality is one side of the equation. There is the rampant sexuality and corruption of prominent UMNO leaders against whom Dr Mahathir would not act.

These abberrations happen because those in power believe it must be outside the law. Some fall out, as, for instance, the jailed former deputy prime minister, Dato' Seri Anwar Ibrahim, when who is in power decides who should not. For whatever reason. The UMNO vice president, Tan Sri Muhammad Taib, was caught redhanded with a shopping bag full of money, RM2.4 million worth, in Brisbane. He remains a much respected, if a bit shopsoiled, figure in UMNO, a king maker more than king. Dato' Seri Anwar is dismissed on unproven charges of sodomy and corruption, the cases so heavily laden with politics that a fair trial is impossible. When the new Puteri UMNO leader, Ms Azalina Othman Said, is accused of lesbianism, Dr Mahathir demands proof, as he did not when Dato' Seri Anwar was so accused. He was drummed out of UMNO and sacked as deputy prime minister and deputy president even before the investigations were complete. What keeps this confrontation sane and, in a sense, invigorating, is that sometimes, as with J.B. Jeyaratnam in Singapore and Dato' Seri Anwar Ibrahim in Malaysia, refuses to accept this official condemnation, and struggles on to enhance the cultures in the societies they live in, to the regime's discomfiture.

And so, as UMNO Leaders demanded, Ms Azalina Othman is the first elected unelected leader of Puteri UMNO. They pressured the 165 divisions to nominate her, not whomsoever amongst the five candidates they preferred. UMNO leaders deny it. But how could an unpopular leader as Ms Azalina -- and since her first appointment, the dissensions about her rise throughout the movement -- be returned unopposed? The usual subtleties were brought to bear: the UMNO leaders do not hesitate to use whatever means at their disposal to ensure they get what they want. And no divisional leader in her sane mind wants to upset the tranquility of her family with exposures like this. This is how it is done in UMNO divisional elections. It is out of character to suggest Puteri UMNO would be spared the UMNO Leaders' desire for a marionette as a leader.

The UMNO President, Dato' Seri Mahathir Mohamed, wants no one to lead UMNO Puteri but the lady she appointed as its interim head, Azalina Othman, a lawyer and, if the allegations and accusations against her is true, a lesbian. And corrupt. The man who accused Dato' Seri Anwar of homosexuality in print has also accused Azalina of it. And of using party funds to buy a lady, allegedly her lover, a Mercedes Benz and cars for members of her family. This is ignored. The lady who alleged this in a police report finds herself before the UMNO disciplinary board instead. Accusations like these carry weight only if the UMNO President wants him or her destroyed. Dr Mahathir wanted Dato' Seri Anwar destroyed but not Azalina. He wants her to be the elected head of UMNO Puteri. In UMNO, often, what is sauce for the goose is not sauce for the gander.

THE MALAYSIAN GOVERNMENT'S Islamic face, more political than ever, is about upstaging PAS at its theocratic agenda. But that is stymied at the parlous state of its Islamic institutions, none more than Tabung Haji, the once-well run organisation to help Malaysian Muslims make the Haj. It grew phenomenally, which with efficient management, that its success attracted predators. There is this unfortunate but ingrained belief that cash rich government bodies are there for any politically well connected businessmen to take over, and for those with lesser ambition, to bleed it dry. The Prime Minister, Dato' Seri Mahathir Mohamed, found this to be only too true, after the rot set in, and appointed a man he trusted, and trusts, Dato' Seri Abdul Hamid Othman, who restored morale and confidence to turn Tabung Haji eventually to what it once was.

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