The first is the deputy prime minister and UMNO deputy president, Dato' Seri Najib. He is shaken in terror to his toe nails about a free Anwar. He believes, rightly or wrongly, that Dato' Seri Anwar is free because a deal had been struck between Pak Lah and him. Why else, his aides and supporters ask, would Mr Khairy Jamaludin, Pak Lah's son-in-law, turn up at Dato' Seri Anwar's house on the night of his release to commiserate and chat? It does not matter to them that both Pak Lah and Dato' Seri Anwar have denied a pact. When paranoia strikes, reason and reality flies out the window. He could not be prime minister if Dato' Seri Anwar is re-admitted to UMNO. It is not only he who does not want that. His cabinet colleagues, Datin Paduka Rafidah Aziz and Dato' Seri Rais Yatim, equally do not want him either. Even if Pak Lah did stay above this political fray – he did not since he is as determined as the others that Dato' Seri Anwar must be consigned to the darkest corner of Hell – he could not mediate or mollify the political concerns of these frightened UMNO leaders.

At last Wednesday's (08 September 2004) cabinet meeting, three ministers – Datin Seri Rafidah Aziz, Dato' Nazri Aziz, Dato' Seri Rais Yatim – demanded to know why Dato' Seri Anwar was given the saturation coverage in the media and why Pak Lah's son-in-law, Mr Khairy Jamaludin, was at the Anwar residence at midnight on the day of his release. He sidestepped the question about his son-in-law, although he had told the press that Mr Khairy had gone to the Anwar residence because the former deputy prime minister wanted his help to obtain his passport to travel to Munich for his surgery. He said there was no deal with Dato' Seri Anwar. He insisted Dato' Seri Anwar would be neither in UMNO nor the government; the political party he is affiliated to would never be in the government; and ordered the media coverage stopped forthwith. All this showed his weakness. The trio had their own reason for raising the Anwar issue: the first hates him with a passion, the second is still close to him and does all he can to put the government in a spot, the third would be forcibly retired should Dato' Seri Anwar be a force in UMNO.

If this is true, why is the government so confused about its anti-corruption plans? By any yardstick, what Dato' Seri Nazri said is welcome. Why did not Pak Lah say this instead of releasing a gobbledygook statement of his own. Now we are told that the international trade and industry minister, Datin Rafidah Aziz, is not corrupt at all, despite authorising to give her son-in-law 150 automobile permits a month, to give him a conservative RM1.5 million, for being who he is. If she had been a Singapore cabinet minister, she would have been sentenced and jailed years ago. Then maybe not. She would not have had the right to issue automobile permits and licences without a thorough review, and she would have known by then which side of the bread is buttered.

But Pak Lah must pay the price of his predecessor, Tun Mahathir Mohamed's profligacy. The BN government insisted it would do as it likes, brooked no opposition, especially from Parliament, the voters there only to vote it in and shut up. It has all the answers. It does not make mistakes. The Prime Minister will decide. The cabinet will approve what he wants. The one required qualification to be in it is incontrovertible proof he or she cannot and will not think, will parrot the prime minister's view creatively, has no independent power base, would rather sell his country than even think of disobeying his prime minister. To make sure of it, Tun Mahathir Mohamed would hold four day courses - first at Kem Bina Semangat, Pasir Panjang, Teluk Kemang in Negri Sembilan, then in Langkawi - for the cabinet, secretaries-general, UMNO leaders in and out of government. He breaks them down psychologically, subliminally subverts their minds, make them hold an egg in their hands at all times, and they must never let it break. The egg represents national unity and integration, he tells them, so fragile that it can only be saved with constant care and attention. Why he took no action against the two cabinet ministers - Dato' Seri S. Samy Vellu and Datin Rafidah Aziz - who would not attend is unclear. But when ministers are dropped, or jailed, for nay saying, the message is clear. Incidentally, the only other instructor of this couse was Dato' Seri Anwar Ibrahim. Tun Mahathir's anger towards him has much to do with this gamekeeper turning poacher.

THE PRIME MINISTER, DATO' SERI Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, kicked off his slipping into office with a promise to go after the corrupt, however high and close to the levers of power, but after two high profile arrests, both Tan Sris, and a handful of civil servants, the campaign grinds to a spluttering stop. The de facto justice minister, Dato' Seri Rais Yatim, announced, out of the blue, that 18 "big fish" are under investigation, not all would be brought to trial if only because the cases against them cannot be sustained in a court of law. This shifted attention from the anti-corruption drive to who could be amongst the dozen and a half men and women. That was not a long time coming. Two cabinet ministers, Datin Rafidah Aziz and Dato' Seri Nazri Aziz, denied they were, with Datin Rafidah promising to sue Opposition leaders if they dared target her. Several of them invited her to sue them. How she could succeed in her defamation beats me, even if the Malaysian courts have a well-earned reputation for expedience against the weight of the law. The Anti-Corruption Agency had investigated her, as numerous cabinet ministers, including seven National Front (BN) party leaders, but no further action was taken because the Prime Minister of the day, in this instance, Tun Mahathir Mohamed, would not allow prosecution to proceed. That is then taken as proof that those investigated are as pure as driven snow.

The first arrest went wrong. Tan Sri Eric, in bravado, fear or his belief that he is forced to take the rap for what others are equally culpable, said he would vigorously defend the charges against him. Whatever his motives. his arrest did not satisfy the growing clamour for proof that Pak Lah means to crack down on corruption. A PAS politician says in the latest issue of Harakah that he lodged a police report on corrupt activities involving the interational trade and industry minister, Datin Paduka Rafidah Aziz, two years ago, and no action has been taken. Hundreds of police reports had been made over the years about corruption in the cabinet and amongst the high and mighty. None had been investigated.

Let us begin at the top. The former Prime Minister, Tun Mahathir Mohamed, believed in it firmly. His wife, Tun Siti Hasmah Ali, was his medical adviser in his 22 years in office, with an independent office and perks far out of proportion an outsider would get. His brothers-in-law and his children swarmed into business as if they were born to it, several fell by the wayside and had to be rescued often with public funds. He had relatives on its personal staff. He did not encourage his children or siblings into politics. But he did in every other sphere of government and business. His successor, Dato' Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, has his son-in-law run his private office, with son and daughter amongst his closest advisers. Here again competence is not the issue. It is taken as read that when one is in a position to dispense favours, one should not fail. Once this was a jailable offence. Today, it is only if you are on the wrong side of whoever is in government. More than two decades ago, a senior member of the Malaysian civil service resigned to enter politics in Kedah, and rose to be in the state executive council. He sat in on one committee which awarded a lucrative contract to a company owned by his wife. He had, like the former deputy prime minister, Dato' Seri Anwar Ibrahim, crossed Tun Mahathir's path. He was convicted and jailed. But when the federal international trade and industry minister, Datin Rafidah Aziz, presided over a committee which dispensed favours and contracts to a company owned by her son-in-law, it was conveniently swept under the carpet.

THE FRENCH STATESMAN, CARDINAL RICHELIEU, of the 17th century, said: "If you give me six lines written by the most honest man, I will find something in him to hang him." Tan Sri Abdullah Ahmad did not believe it and talked his way out as editor-in-chief of the New Straits Times. Now a cabinet minister talks intently for no purpose than to be sacked. In a remarkable tour de farce, the entrepreneur development minister, Dato' Seri Nazri Aziz, confronts a senior official of the Anti-Corruption Agency in a war of words. He is investigated by the ACA for allowing one individual 6,000 taxi permits. That he did that is clear: he says the ACA official, Dato' Nordin Ismail, did not understand why. Since these taxi permits can be farmed out at RM100 a month, this is a RM60,000 a month sinecure. It is not as profitable as the 150 AP permits a month the international trade and industry minister, Datin Rafidah Aziz, gave her son-in-law who then sold it to those who imported cars at RM10,000 a piece, or RM1.5 million a month. There are other cabinet ministers and politicians who offer similar sinecures for their loved ones.

But what rues Dr Mahathir is his loneliness. When he destroyed Dato' Seri Anwar, his support disintegrated. Only those remained who could benefit. He had a formidable team with him. Besides Dato' Seri Anwar, he had Tun Daim, the former agriculture minister and former mentri besar of Kedah Tan Sri Sanusi Junid, the defence minister and UMNO vice president Dato' Seri Najib Tun Razak, the former Malacca chief minister Tan Sri Abdul Rahim Tamby Chik, the international trade and industry minister Datin Seri Rafidah Aziz, the UMNO vice president and former Selangor chief minister Tan Sri Mohamed Taib, the National Front Tan Sri Mohamed Rahmat. Only Dato' Seri Najib is firmly with him now. In other words he is isolated even within UMNO.

IT IS NOT OFTEN A CABINET MINISTER would be crass to demand, in public, that police stop escorting cabinet ministers and VIPs to official functions. But the international trade and industry minister, Datin Seri Rafidah Aziz, who enjoyed these perks as an imperial cabinet minister, now wants that to stop. Why? The people would be upset. This lady who cared not a hoot for the people when she used her office to enrich her family is now frightened of the people. Like her colleagues, she now comes to the shocking realisation that the people in whose name she is where she is has nothing but contempt for her and her ilk. Few dared to venture into their parliamentary or state constituencies for fear not of what they would ask of them but to explain their conduct on the issues of the day. She is so shocked at this that she is uncertain if she should stay on in politics. The people in her constituency of Kuala Kangsar, in Perak, whom she studiously ignored over the year, now wants to ignore her.

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