PAK LAH SAYS Proton needs a foreign partner after his government prevented one to join hands with the carmaker. The adviser to Proton, and the man who inisisted it be set up, Tun Mahathir Mohamed, was so angry when the foreign partner, Volkswagen, withdrew from the link-up that he returned the VW car that was given him. What is now known is that deals behind to ensure that an private parties benefit rather than the nation were hatched at that time, and Proton naturally was the loser. Volkswagen withdrew from the deal, but why it did so is not made public. The car company withdrew because a company just formed by that efficient but corrupt minister, Datin Rafidah Aziz's niece and nephew was given enough APs to allow Volkswagen to come into Malaysia without Proton. Since the AP is Pak Lah's son-in-law's cousin, Pak Lah cannot raise objections to the deal. Instead, he can only say inanities about Proton needing a foreign partner.

Over the years, money has taken over national policy. The NEP and Malay Dominance could have survived if it had followed the plan Tun Razak had worked out. Now the Chinese made sure the Malay in government was compromised. The policies were downgraded. UMNO had no thinkers of the Malay agenda. It showed. Tun Mahathir set up Proton so that the Malay will lose his fear of technology. It is now irrelevant, because its social purpose had given way to money. And it cannot be justified on that grounds. The death throes of Proton must be seen in that light. The Indian car firm Ambassador used the Morris Oxford for its model, and Premier cars the Fiat 1100, for more than 40 years, spawning a cottage industry of repairers throughout the country. but they hold ltheir own when foreign cars are brought into the country. That would not be with Proton, whose reason for existence went overboard when Tun Mahathir retired as prime minister. The is unfortunately true of all its industry. Proton could have been a force, an oditty in the world of automobile makers. Malaysia will lose out intially allowing cars in with reduced duties. But in the end, it would have held its ground. Not any more. Today when money rules, the relevance of Proton to national policy disappears, and with it out car policy. As Proton goes, so shall NEP and Malay Dominance.

Tun Mahathir has lost power and esteem in today's Malaysia, Even the senior officials do not respect him. They did not think it important that he be consulted, as adviser to Proton, that the Proton CEO, Tengku Mahaleel, had been sacked. He returned to Proton, in a huff, the cars that Proton had given him. But he had lost ground. He suffers the same fate as Mrs Indira Gandhi, who turned Congress Party the nationalist movement her father was its leader into the political party that now rules India. By so doing, she landed in jail, and was instrumental in the Congress Party the political party being in the opposition. The Congress Party in power today is as head of a coalition. The Prime Minister is in the Upper House from Assam although he is a Sikh. Mr Junichiro Koizumi, the same position with his LDP warlords, took a chance and went to the polls, and won handsomely. He could do it because he was more popular than the party, and he threatened the warlords, with their untold electioneering campaign funds, that he would oust them from his cabinet if they did not support him. That he succeeded has reduced the power of the warlords. The Western media has made privatisation of the Post Office as the cause of the election. But he quits as leader of the LDP in 2006, that is next year. He wanted to reform the LDP, not to privatise the post office. The Japanese bureaucracy is slow moving, and the privatisation of the post office cannot be completed in a year's time. UMNO Baru is not the LDP, but Pak Lah has shot down his Barisan Nasional partners, promising those who failed in party positions the jobs they held when they were in the government in the pre-election of the party.

Tun Mahathir spoke what was happening in the world, but it was not what Western diplomatics, including the EU representatives and the British ambassador, wanted to hear. They walked out. Earlier, the NGOs, which prescribe their narrow points of view on rest of the world but not in their eventual countries of origin, protested Tun Mahathir's human rights record before the event, and most boycotted the event. As they would. They thought that their protests would stop Tun Mahathir, so the Western diplomats would not have to walk out. I fault Tun Mahathir on a lot of things, but speaking what is right, especially of matters Islamic and the Middle East, is not one of them. He is part of what is wrong with UMNO's rule of Malaysia, but his role in the larger picture was ignored until he resigned as Prime Minister after 22 years. Today, he is ignored at home, the changes at Proton, where he is adviser, took place without his knowledge, as he himself, had admitted, but his comments on wold topics are eagerly awaited. He is, like Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, a Prime Minister was not educated in England. He is the best example of an UMNO leader who could throw fear into Western eyes in what he says, as the human rights talk last Friday revealed.

The UMNO general assembly last September provided much evidence of it. For all the spin, Pak Lah came out of it weaker than before his election. A ground revolt, disgusted at the attempt to shorten his odds to control UMNO, made sure of it. He does not control UMNO. The state chiefs, though nominated by him, is in revolt. The defiance of at least four mentris besar has spilled over into foreign affairs. Johore UMNO is dissatisfied with Kuala Lumpur's negotiations with Singapore over outstanding issues. He cannot reshuffle his cabinet for fear of those dropped turning against him. To be in charge, he had to destroy Dato' Seri Najib, the unlikely flag-bearer of the Mahathir insurrection. The Proton chief executive resigned because of Dr Mahathir's "interference" in the car company is more than that: he bites the hand that appointed him. His importance is only that he is a Pak Lah pawn to bring the good doctor down.

We can still see traces of this in political ideas, social structure, rituals, language, arts and cultural practices. To this day, when a Malay considers anything important, he looks for a Sanskrit word to describe it: It is the Sanskrit pradana mantri (the Malay perdana mentri) here while in another Malay land, it is Penghulu ng Pilipina for its president. The Proton car model names are from Sanskrit whilst the Perodua resorts to Malay names and is a poor and inferior to be bought only because the Proton is beyond one's means.

Why does Dr Khir behave as a cat on a hot tin roof? The rumours in Selangor is that he had a state executive councillor, Dato' Mokhtar Dahland, has their offices and homes, and of their relatives raided for two days this week. Who ordered it? "Titah Sultan" (The Sultan's orders). I cannot confirm this but so many I talked to know of it, with the same sequence of events that there must be more than some truth to it. His Highness cleared it with the Prime Minister, Dr Mahathir Mohamed. Why? When he visited the Proton motor car factory in Shah Alam, he ordered its new Proton product, the Lotus Elisse sports car, and his secretary to arrange for immediate payment. Someone, one does not know who, quipped in a loud whisper: "That would the first from amongst the high in Selangor". He got so upset, would not take delivery until the check was cleared, and acted.

Petronas has every reason to be less honest. It has squandered its tremendous reserves for a number of projects it had no business to be involved in. It owns Putra Jaya, the administrative capital that is a drain on the public purse. It owns Proton, the F-1 motor racing circuit in Sepang, and a slew of companies and products that is far removed from its main product: petroleum. The US$1billion sponsorship costs for the F-1 championship in Sepang and the Sauber Petronas F-1 racing team appears to matter more than the future of its 70 IT specialists. It owns the Petronas twin towers, forced on it by the government so the Kuala Lumput City Centre (KLCC) would show the world how developed a country Malaysia is. Its considerable funds are used to cover government shortfalls and other financial needs. I suspect the Petronas management sees red ink dominating its balance sheets after its unrestrained financial profligacy. And it does short term staunching by such measures as hiving off its IT department.

NAM and OIC are not even talking shops anymore. It is a four-day jamboree, at which set-piece statements of fatuous nonsense is repeated ad nauseum, hundreds of millions of dollars spent by the host country, and no decisions made. And the delegates retire until the next country to host it host the next to reveal the movement's importance. In Malaysia's preparations to host the NAM summit, no attempt is made, in the propaganda barrage, to identify the issues that would dominate the conference, and all effort is spent on how expensive the conference would cost, but since all this is done in stealth, the prices released piece-meal, and in off-the-cuff remarks. First, it was RM60 million for 60 top-of-the-range BMWs. Then, it was RM150 million, when Mercedes Benzes and other cars were brought in. Now it appears they would be augmented by 200 Proton cars. Now we are told NAM conference would have at its disposal 1,046 security and luxury vehicles.

Mind you, the Naza Group, the blanket company under which the minister's son-in-law operates, also offers, besides the luxury cars, 40 Kia Carnival vans as official vehicles. It will provide 24-hour technical support. Besides, the foreign minister, Dato' Seri Syed Hamid Albar, says the government would rent 200 Proton cars in addition. After all, the national car manufacturer cannot be left in the lurch, could it. But what a fall for it from the sole supplier of Protons for those who came here for 1998 APEC Summit to a "gofer's" car at NAM? What a fall! Does this faze the good minister? Certainly not! "We need the contribution of other car companies to show that all companies operating in Malaysia look at Malaysia as a good place for doing business."

He is Dato' Nadzmi Salleh, the former managing director of Proton, who persuaded the Perak government to alienate 1,000 acres in Bidor to manufacture Mercedes Benz MPVs, only that Mercedes Benz went instead to Thailand, for RM1 million. The Perak government did not think it fit to take the land back; how could it when the man concerned is said to be close to Dr Mahathir. As in many cases, he is not; he is closer to Datin Seri Siti Hasmah Ali, through his links with the Badminton Association of Malaysia. But, in these cases, it is the public perception that matters. His credentials, on the surface, are impeccable: he is chairman of a mosque committee in Subang Jaya, in Selangor.

WHEN THE APEC SUMMIT summit was held in Kuala Lumpur in 1998, the Malaysian Government insisted that only Proton Executive cars would be used as official cars. Eighty were bought, and armour-plated in Japan at RM400,000 each for RM32 million. Malaysia was promoting the Proton Executive as the car for cabinet ministers and high government officials whose car until then was the Mercedes Benz. It was as good as the BMW, the Prime Minister, Dato' Seri Mahathir Mohamed, said proudly. But however good it was, the decision was not popular. The Prime Minister continued to use his armour-plated Daimler, and most ministers kept their Mercedes Benzes. Ministers and others found creative reasons to justify retaining their assigned Mercedes Benzes.

For when the aim is to entrench one group or race even when they are not ready, mediocrity must rule. It was also to punish. The political overview after the 13 May riots and Malay dominance was to punish the non-Malay for daring to confront the Malay to defend the rights promised him after independence. As usual, when the Malays reacted, the non-Malay collapsed. And did not challenge this deliberate worldview in which they were officially relegated to irrelevance. This Malay dominance led to the policies that Admiral Ramly now worries about. Let us look at industry. The Proton car, for instance. The Chinese is deliberately excluded from it, except peripherally as an adjunct to the Malay stake holder. The workers are, like the civil service, predominantly Malay. The non-Malay who has a brilliant idea can only make it to the market place if he has a Malay partner, whose share he often has to pay, acceptable to the government. It has become so bad that many just move to, usually, Thailand, and make his fortune there. A key figure in the motor industry in Thailand is a Malaysian Chinese, who went there after he was rebuffed in Malaysia.

No one denies she is in pain, is confined to a wheel chair, is incontent, should have a better life. But the long and short of it is she took Malaysians for an expensive ride. She sold her ten-year0old Proton car and threw the proceeds into the fund, but kept quiet about her apartment in Pantai Hills or the new apartment she bought in Suasana Centra for RM1.1 million for which she paid a RM30,000 deposit just weeks before she was attacked outside her mother's home which brought her into the Pantai Medical Centre. But with the Prime Minister and senior ministers and UMNO officials backing her, the money was raised quickly -- and she left in such a hurry that an Australian diplomat rushed to the airport with her visa. It now appears it was clear from the start she did not need the operations for which the funds were collected. All she needed was to check on her titanium implant and undergo physiotherapy. She took Malaysians for an expensive ride.

Indeed, all she needed was to check on a titanium implant imbedded in her which lifted out of its moorings after she was attacked outside her house. And she wanted it checked by the surgeon who imbedded it in her. She claimed she had little money, only RM26,000, salvaged from selling her Proton Saga and some savings she had. But she did not reveal she had a home in the upper-middle class Pantai Hill, nor a Harley Davidsom motorcycle, a Porsche and a Mercedes, had paid a downpayment of a third of what was collected in her name for a RM1,000,000 apartment in Suasana Central. In other words, she was not one who qualified for public donations to alleviate what turns out to be a minor medical problem.

This is not the first, nor the last, of such scams. It was perpetrated deliberately and in the full knowledge that if it is found out it could be covered up. It came unstuck because the Malay is fed up with the UMNO-led government deciding, without cultural authority, on their behalf. Even the UMNO-owned and -controlled Utusan group of Malay newspapers are up in arms over this caper. The other daily newspapers have taken the Ras Adiba affair out of its coverage, after running daily reports of her condition in Australia. There are too many strands that boggles the mind: She sells her Proton for RM10,000 but keeps her RM70,000 Harley Davidson motorcycle -- a gift, she tells us, from a member of Johore royalty -- which she hopes to drive after her Australian caper. She would turn up, in happier times, for "teh tarik" at the Bangsar stalls in, I kid you not, a Porsche.

This now reaches the schools. The six-year-old non-Malay pupil is shown by example that he is a lesser animal, that he must accept that he be treated with the contempt he deserves, that his place in an institution where Islam and Malayness are the only acceptable worldview is honour enough, and he should not mistake, like hired help, his irrelevant place in the society he lives in. The Malaysian Formula One racing driver Alex Yoong got Malaysian sponsorship only after his father became a Muslim; now it is on him to turn Muslim to continue. One of Malaysia's best motor rally drivers, a Sikh driving for Proton, was forced to sell cars for a living until BMW and a few other motor companies wanted him to drive for them.

It is numbers which determine a non-Malay party's strength in BN, not its ability to be returned to parliament and state assemblies and to rejoice in the sinecures and titles in the BN's gift. So, when the opposition parties claim a decent membership (even here, fudging is the norm, though not as blatant as in BN), it is attacked by the BN parties. UMNO proves its case by getting members by the thousands whenever there is a byelection. Some of the fellows who crossed struck lotteries as well: several move around in Proton Wajas they got after they saw the light, and moved into the BN camp. If you add up the members claimed by all political parties in Malaysia, the total would suggest a political acuity amongst toddlers and schoolchildren in Malaysia, barred as they are from politics by law, and join political parties in droves before they are legally allowed to.

Chua, and the government, mounts a campaign to suggest Anwar's loyalty to Malaysia is in doubt because he does not have faith in local institutions and procedures. It is a stupid irrelevant argument. If we take this to its logical conclusion, what about Proton which insists on shodding its cars with Thai-made tyres and Indonesian exhaust pipes, ignoring the local product with the same arguments Anwar puts forth.

And what failed? The Prime Minister now admits to the MSC. Let me add to this list: Perwaja (to sustain it billions continue to be poured into a bottomless pit), about RM30 billion lost in unauthorised foreign exchange dealings, all privatisation projects, MAS, the Bakun hydroelectric dam project, the Light Rapid Transit trains, the monorail, the Linear City, Hicom, the Telekom Tower, Celcom, Proton. The list is incomplete. All of this has set the country back by more than RM150 billion. Not on this list are the billions in foreign exchange lost by Malaysian business men who took them because it made them look as important business men on the world scene, and which they cannot now repay. Again we do not know what the actual bill is. Nor, I dare suggest, the government.

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