THE PRIME MINISTER, DATO Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, is a man possessed not by one ghost but two. Both are alive and restrict Pak Lah's movements. When he became prime minister in November last year, he had one living ghost to frustrate him. When he did not get the legitimacy he desired in the March general elections, he hoped he would if he stole the UMNO presidency fair and square. He did not. Instead, he is besotted with two ghosts instead of one. If he does not watch his step, a third would soon reside permanently over his head.

But few in UMNO think he has the gumption to do it. He is hemmed in from all sides. His capacity to move is restricted by the day. He makes up for that with high-minded statements that mean nothing. The UMNO members see this with a mixture of fear and loathing. They believe the party can still be saved if the Pak Lah broom sweeps it clean. But they doubt if he dares. So the leaders speak in forked tongues, highlight irrelevant and untenable issues, and nothing else changes. A graffiti I saw this morning in the Kuala Lumpur suburb of Brickfields, within sight of KL Sentral, on the wooden wall surrounding a field that once was to house the new Malayan Railway headquarters, with its "1,000 car parks" says it all: "Kalau jumpa UMNO dengan ular, bunoh UMNO dulu" (If you meet UMNO and a snake, kill UMNO first)

The EC has another scandal in its closet: Pak Lah's election expenses were not filed with the EC within the time allowed, but it was quietly accepted after the PAS candidate in his Kepala Batas parliamentary constituency in the 2004 March general elections questioned it.

THE KEPONG FLYOVER DISASTER, the Kelantan avian influenza, the UMNO elections, the cabinet at cross purposes, corruption and political and administration decay out in the open and all but uncontrollable, point to one inevitable fact: the dysfunctional National Front (BN) administration of the prime minister, Dato' Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, which wallows in its irrelevance, despite its dramatic electoral successes – the General Elections and Pak Lah's election as UMNO president.

After all, corruption is not only about money; it is also of misuse of power and authority – as the courts decided in the Anwar Ibrahim trials – and Pak Lah, in his bid to be unchallenged UMNO president used his powers to ensure it, is as guilty as the fellow who dispenses cash. He does not see it that way, but that is how almost every one else does.

It is not a battle UMNO can win. In the 1970s, the Shah of Iran confronted the underground Islamic opposition led by the Grand Ayatollah Khomeini but repeatedly lost ground as his regime became more autocratic and dictatorial until he was forced out in the Islamic revolution. It has declared war on Islamic fundamentalist groups, not because it believes it but at the request of the United States, who in the 1970s, backed the Shah in Iran, in a society which is ripe for change because it has been ignored by the government for long. Unlike the Shah, Pak Lah does not have the thinkers who would put an intellectual gloss to his rants. That makes his position more precarious than it already is.

Pak Lah is therefore forced to back his cabinet, which repays this support by proving to UMNO and Malaysians how stupid and dangerous it can be. The chaotic cabinet presides over a chaotic administration trundling along clueless and without direction.

Heather Li: But first to Malaysia where Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi has spent his first nine months in office cutting an image very different from that of his predecessor. Where former prime minister Mahathir Mohammad was often outspoken and an advocate of grand projects, Abdullah Badawi or Pak Lah as he's affectionately called, is more measured, more moderate.

But UMNO, the National Front (BN), the civil service and others on the gravy train are unhappy with it. Pak Lah did not look into all this when he ordered an end to negotiated contracts and a return to tendering for projects. So, try as he might, he cannot get it accepted. For good reason. These contracts are often given to the same nominees, and with most public works projects, given the exclusive right to collect tolls for thirty or forty years, and which rise gradually over the concession period. When the toll payments become a public outcry, the government steps in to reduce it for the consumer, and then compensate the concessionaire for being denied the right to collect them.

But an SMS making the rounds says it all: 'Beri, salah; tak beri, kalah; pesanan Pak Lah' (Literally: To give, wrong; not give, and lose; by order of Dato' Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi). At the Taiping divisonal elections, the delegates were paid RM1,100, in three tranches of RM300, RM300 and RM500, for a vote. It was repeated in every UMNO division in the peninsular and Sabah. UMNO once expelled a business man who spent RM6 million to be a branch head.

But the central bank, Bank Negara Malaysia, amongst other financial institutions, objected. He was to be a parliamentary candidate in the March general elections, but he fell foul of the traditional native leaders in Negri Sembilan and they blackballed him. He is now gone into business, appointed as adviser to the merchant bank, ECM Libra, which is widely touted in financial circles as the only one Pak Lah favours.

Pak Lah's name was not put forward there. With good reason. If he had, he would have been defeated. So in the end, he got 190 nominations uncontested, and Tengku Razaleigh one uncontested. It was surreal and bizarre. But if Pak Lah had to be UMNO president, he could not do less. For if the Tengku had got 20 or more nominations from the divisions, Pak Lah would be shakier than he already is. So he decided he wanted all but one nominations. But that has not helped either. He must still look over his shoulder to see what the prince is doing. And with it the fear that what he does outside the UMNO councils could impinge of Pak Lah's leadership.

Malaysia could well regret Pak Lah's promise to join in the reconstruction of an Iraq which the west destroyed and now wants the Muslim world to reconstruct. The imperial rhetoric has not changed. It continues to justify what it did, although others who did – Nazi Germany, Yugoslavia, for instance – faced a war crimes tribunal which, lest we forget, Washington insisted upon. But might rules. Its view is only what matters in this global reporting of this civilisational confrontation.

It is no use accusing Dato' Seri Anwar of politicising his medical condition, as BN and UMNO leaders insist he has. When the government is unwilling to look at his medical condition medically, he had no other choice. He hoped the government would respond in kind. He knew the odds, what would happen to him, that he could be martyred, accepted the risks. It is this stoic offensive that unnerves the government. His public demeanour may not be his private, or his family's, feelings. It does not matter. If he would not to flinch in calamity or catastrophe, what can Pak Lah do but hope it would not happen.

Amidst this, a Filipino newspaper, The Daily Tribune, says Malaysian intermediaries paid "over US$5m", and Manila a US$1m, ransom to get him released. This incenses Pak Lah no end. He calls Malaysian reporters covering his visit to insist it was preposterous and nonsensical lies, meant to hurt Malaysia by parties unknown. "I am very angry. This is false. It does not make sense ... It is all nonsense. It is calculated to blame us and create opposition against us in the international arena," he bellowed. At one point, he asked the reporters to provide synonyms to reflect his hurt and anger.

But if a foreign government out of the pale, say in the Middle East or Afghanistan or an enemy in the ubiquitous US-UK war on terror, or before the Soviet Union collapsed in 1989, were to announce election results as Pak Lah's, it would have been subject to global sanctions, with smug and self-serving editorials, even in the New Straits Times and the Star, of how this electoral atrocity is proof the systems it represents is hell.

Pak Lah as prime minister had to control UMNO however he could. He turned it on its head. Once, UMNO chose its leader who then became prime minister. Now, he demands as prime minister the unchallenged right to be party president. It is important, he argues, for the stability of his regime.

Each gained from it, but not as the rumours and gossip put out. It was believed then that it was a roundabout charade to ensure Pak Lah would not be out on a limb at the election petition in his Kepala Batas constituency, where his PAS opponent had challenged his candidature because he did file his election expenses after the 1999 general election. This turns out to be wrong: he did file it, and there is the government gazette to prove it.

To stop the Tengku, the election code of ethics is cheerfully thrown into the dustbin. Votes were bought and sold with impunity. In Kubang Pasu, the new division leader, married to a Pak Lah cousin, paid RM300 and more to buy up delegates. The former chief minister of Malacca, Tan Sri Rahim Thamby Chik, complains of large sums of money changing hands to defeat challengers. Money speaks, he says, and if that is not enough, government contracts, licences, and other official perks are offered. It is hard to resist, when refusal means political destruction.

So, a new system was put into effect: the candidate for president must obtain 30 per cent of nominations from the divisions. That is now tested. Pak Lah presumed he would not be challenged, but when he was, he panicked. He pulled no stops to show how frightened he was to demand the supreme council decision that there be no contest for the two posts be in effect. When Tengku Razaleigh showed up, Pak Lah threatened to pull out if his challenger got 60 nominations, two more than he needs to stay in the race. There is a relentless barrage of attacks on the Tengku for his temerity to stand for the vacant post of UMNO president. That you understand is reserved. He must be destroyed for wanting it.

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