It is fashionable to criticise Malaysia in public. It is difficult to see officials. Junior officials threaten local journalists with detention without trial if they ask the minister if he keeps a mistress in a love nest in a housing estate. Foreign journalists rarely go to Putra Jaya, where the most important officials are, unless they have to, and those they meet in Kuala Lumpur, including the Singapore high commission, tell them otherwise. Transport to Putra Jaya is not easy, and set you back about RM150. Contrary to official belief, people, even foreigners, are not wealthy. The Malaysian government is becoming aware, the first word in the ear, frequently repeated, that this is bound to get the public ear, and that it is often not Malaysia's. The public perception now is the crooked bridge is wasteful and irrelevant, and rightly for those reasons attacked.

Especially when that oppostion comes from within UMNO. A few branch (cawangan) members have said they plan to demonstrate at Sri Perdana in Putra Jaya, the official residence of Pak Lah, They do not believe his office is a family preserve. They cannot understand why he relies heavily on his children, son-in-law, brothers and their Chinese partners. His transferring from the mentri besar's into that of Mr Patrick Lim, his son's Chinese business partner and in UMNO circles referred to as "Patrick Badawi", in Kuala Trengganu, has acquired the status of legend. He himself told one business man whose land had been taken by the government for its own use, for which land in Cyber Jaya and Nibong Tibal in Penang state would be given as compensation, had to wait for years before he got it. But in such a way that neither of his family's Chinese partners would grab it. This should have been a civil service decision. Why is the prime minister involved in such a mundane decision. Is it because there is money in government land, often and usually given for a song, that he decides on it?

THE NATIONAL FRONT GOVERNMENT can only pass laws on the conduct of Islam for Kuala Lumpur. In other states, although they are in power, they can only do with the consent of the ruler for it is ordained in the Federal Constition, which the National Front and its previous Alliance is responsible. It got its first chance at enacting Islamic law when Parliament, which it controls, got the legal right to pass laws for the Federal Territory. The Federal Territory now consists of Kuala Lumpur, Putra Jaya, and Labuan. The Islamic Family Law (Amendment) (FT) Act is the result. It can only persuade the states, even though it rules all but one, because the consent of the rules is necessary. It would not touch on Islam in its legislation because of this. But it now needs to prove to Malaysians that it is more Islamically inclined, to prove to PAS that it is superior in the introduction of Islam into Malaysia. But it is unfair to call it the work of the National Front. It is UMNO's view, which like in all matters the other parties, Islamic or otherwise, in the National Front defer. It became an issue it had to use threats because the group most affected, the women, protested. But it protested too late. It should have protested before the bill was discussed in the Lower House of Parliament in September.

Malaysia saw the ASEAN Summit as a forum to show off its facilities: the international metings have been held in the Putra World Trade Centre, the Palace of the Golden Horses, Putra Jaya convention centre, and many others over the years. It is held in the KLCC convention centre, because it had just been ready for an international conference. Malaysia has so many convention centres, empty for the most times, to show the world Malaysia is a convention city. It does not matter what it cost, the long suffering Malaysians are there to pick up the tab. The conventions and conferences are held to ensure that the rulers rule it over the ruled. It is no wonder that the Malaysian prime minister has more in common with President George W. Bush or British Prime Minister Tony Blair than with Malaysians. The more the countries think that – and this is not a Malaysian official fixation – the more these would be held irrelevantly.

In the past, a non-Malay minister would have been sent. But he has no powers and cannot commit the Malays. So these visits evolve no purpose. Today, the Chinese government would expect a Malay minister to come to it on an issue that is as important to Malaysia as Chinese tourists visiting the country. But did China agree to receive Malaysia today in Beining? Obviously not. The Chinese ambassador, Mr Wang Chung, visited Putra Jaya yesterday to tell Dato' Azmi not to come. It is common diplomatic practice for a minister to get a his host's permission to visit. It is no use visiting a country to find the host somwhere else. It has been hone by thousands of years of diplomatic practice. The cabinet announced it and then told China. In a matter of this importance, the plans for the visit had to be kept as quiet as possible. But the Malaysian government addes to the negative reports by announcing it. But Malaysia is caught. It needs to tell the Malays, particularly those voting in Pengkalen Pasir state constituency on 6 December 2005, that it is doing something. Mr Wang, who is high up in the Chinese Government, should have been consulted to get out of this mess. Was he? We don't know. But since the issue is responsibe for the negative reports, consulting Mr Wang would have been all over the newspapers here.

All projects are done for the Caucasian. If the Malaysian benefits, it is accidental. This is drummed into our heads ad naseum. I saw a practical example of this when I went on Monday to apply for a MyKad. Those who had questions about it were told to take the Mykad in Putra Jaya, where there were officers who could answer the questions. It was as if the public upset the clerks and officers working there from their chats during office hours. There are messages all over the office on what happens to the public if they do not get their MyKads on time, and the fines imposed if the Mykads are lost. The officer in charge was looking over the public, as if he was in control when he was not. The computer was on the blink, and a European was busy telling the world he has repairing the computer terminals and the node. I saw no other race in the office. I wasted two hours waiting for the computer to be back on line, when the officer in charge told anyone who would listen to come the next day, and the numbers they had would be adjusted then. But the computer system went on the blink because of heavy usage. The new Mykad has the religion of Muslims visible to all and sundry; that of all others were on the computer chip. They will know the details are correct only if they put the card through the reader. No one has thought about the problems, only that the computerisation has been given to an UMNO functionary, who did not know anything about computers and could well have sold fish for a living. He bought the computer and having taken his cut passed it to others. The fellow who installed the computer had to make do if he wanted a profit. And what happened at the MyKad centre in the Maju building is typical. Not just for Mykads but all computerisation programmes. Look at Cyberjaya. What happened there is what has happened to the computerisation of the whole country. It is importantant that Malaysia is seen to be at the cutting edge, but more often it is the chopping block, because it depends on foreigners, who are engaged so that the Chinese and Indians are not engaged. The recent controversy over the new CEO of MAS, after it posted a large loss, is not typical. In the end, it got an oil man. Not a Malay this time but a Sarawakian native.

She visited me with her husband when I was recuperating at home after open heart surgery seventeen years ago. She was hurt later when I critised her husband not as a person but as Prime Minister. She could not separate the person from the office. I got along well with Pak Lah when I met him, but this is rarer these days since he lives in Putra Jaya and I in Kuala Lumpur, and I do not drive (yet) after my recent strokes. I liked her, but that did not prevent me from criticising Malaysian officials from turning her funeral around as if she was royalty. It was the first time that the Prime Minister's wife had died in office, though a Prime Minister (Tun Razak) had died in office. The officials were stumped at what to do, and they stumbled. The Prime Minister is an elected official, and his wife's death, though earth shattering to him, did not warrant the switching to Quran readings on radio and television programmes from 10 a.m. to after the funeral. Muslims die every day, and the radio and television do not shut off nationwide before their funeral. Why should the Prime Minister's wife's funeral cause it?

He is typified in the Malaysian press as the best in Malaysia since sliced bread. It used to say that of Tun Malaysia, Tun Hussein, Tun Razak and, to an extent, Tengku. His officers do not tell him the bad news. He is advised by thirty-year officers, on whom he trusts. But these officers do not know the ground, and operates without any thought of the ground. He is restrained by his wife's illness, but that does not cause him his ineptitude. He did not reshuffle his cabinet, either on taking office in November 2003 or after the general elections the following year, and newspaper reports talk of a cabinet reshuffle only now. But a cabinet reshuffle now with no thought of stopping corruption in his ranks, and in the civil service, is useless. One wonders if the corruption scandals now unearthed, mostly linked to Tun M and others opposed to him, are to save his skin and his coterie. With the governement offices in Putra Jaya, the ministers are also out of touch with the people who voted them in. Putra Jaya, as with most public work projects, was not built with the people in mind, but to assuage the vanity of one man. It cannot help the people.

We see this lack of moral scruples everywhere. Putra Jaya is built to ensure the vanity of one man, Tun Mahathir Mohamed, The major government departments are now situated in Putra Jaya, and to get there costs money which the people going there often do not have. The civil servants and politicians in UMNO have got used to Putra Jaya, but not the people in whose name they govern. People who used to go the government departments in Kuala Lumpur often now have to go to Putra Jaya, costing money just to get there. A taxi driver told me he charged RM30 for the trip to Putra Jaya. The government departments are far apart and it is almost impossible to walk. In the past, it would be a loss of a day's wages; today it is that plus about RM100 to deal with a government department. The emphasis on money, the corruption in the civil service, police, almost every government servant is what has characterised it. Today laws are passed so that corruption can flourish. The petrol price would be raised any day. Explanations are given how the government is losing revenue by raising prices. But the impact of it is the people will pay higher petrol prices. No one in government is serious about resolving the problem of the people, for that would cut into what they collect for themselves. It is puasa month now, and you saw the traffic police unusually active. You see them everywhere, and they collect from you where in the past they collected later. The official reason that would be given to this is that all this is not true. But the government is run for those in government, and they have to protect themselves, do they not?

He is not alone. Others are as free in spending government funds for personal pleasure. There are no checks and balances. How could there be when the prime minister will not move into his official residence in Putra Jaya without an expensive refit (RM20 million is the figure bandied about). Nor the deputy prime minister, Dato' Seri Najib to where Pak Lah now lives without an equally expensive and extensive renovations. This is in sharp contrast to Malaysia's first three prime ministers, who spent far less on their official residences, adjusted for inflation, than individual cabinet ministers and mentris besar and chief ministers on their first appointment these days.

Long term policies are decided ad hoc, and changed or ignored when they become inconvenient or irrelevant though only after the damage is done. Cabinet ministers, caught by this clear and open resentment of the middle class, threaten the people when confronted with the mistakes of their policies. Profligacy and irrelevance dictate public policy. Petronas spent RM40 billion to build the first phase of Putra Jaya, and cannot maintain it, let alone continue to build the rest of it. The prime minister's residence, a 400-room monstrosity, cost RM200 million to build, but when it became a political issue in Parliament, it was told unequivocally that his living quarters cost only RM17 million. it was a lie. But it was accepted in good faith. Dato' Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, who succeeded Tun Mahathir Mohamed, orders a RM30 million facelift to his official quarters before he moves in. No parliamentary approval was asked for. Besides, why does a building less than five years old need a face lift nearly twice what it cost? Reason flies out the window, starting at the top.

THIS BELIEF IN THE UMNO-led National Front (BN) federal government the thirteen states and the federal territories of Kuala Lumpur, Putra Jaya and Labuan are for its raping is now vigorously challenged. It controls parliament and all but one, two or three states at different times in opposition hands, the sultans must therefore throw constitutional niceties to the winds and submit to superior power and authority. The conference of rulers and individual sultans were deliberately side-stepped to cause constitutional crises from the expulsion of Singapore in 1965 to the Selangor Bukit Cahaya Seri Alam agricultural park fiasco in 2005. In a nutshell, the BN government ignores the federal constitution when its policies and plans conflict with the supreme law.

The Federal constitution forbids this. Only the ruler-in-council could, followed by an act of parliament. The federal authorities pressured Selangor to cede in perpetuity the land that is now Putra Jaya, and it raised political shackles between UMNO and the palace. Dato' Seri Khir cannot cede it without the Sultan agreeing to it. Another issue rises: is the removal of Dato' Seri Khir a devious political ploy for the centre to own the agricultural park?

THE PRIME MINISTER, DATO' SERI Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, warns the civil service not to be corrupt; the deputy prime minister, Dato' Seri Najib Tun Razak, requires Malaysian politicians only to sing the government's praises when overseas; the deputy finance minister, Tengku Putera Tengku Awang, admits UMNO-controlled National Front (BN) states have mismanaged their states so badly that they cannot survive without federal help. A Petronas transfer of RM25 billion to the federal coffers, we are told, is proof all is well, but that its reserves have been depleted by the government's use of it as a private bank for the hundreds of billions which Putra Jaya and other official extravagances cost. But the government continues to insist its treasury is so flush with cash that tens of billions are set aside for arms purchases and other pump priming projects for no reason than to assure us all that this country is run well.

Malaysia's sycophantic press are past masters of this culture of official intentions, carrots and sticks. It reports with the same breathlessness as scientific papers revealling a discovery or invention, but to brown nose the UMNO president of the day. The editorials often is an extension of it. Criticism is only when Putra Jaya allows it. The works minister, Dato' Seri S. Samy Vellu, can be as his public works chickens come home to roost. His bad odour with Pak Lah is well known, so he is fair game. As cabinet ministers not close to him or are his political rivals.

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