The Prime Minister, Dato' Seri Mahathir Mohamed, without consultation or debate, proclaims Malaysia to be an Islamic fundamentalist state. What he means to be fundamentalist is not President Bush's definition. What matters in the world outside, whether he likes it or not, is that the Bush definition is what is accepted. What this proclamation also reveals is the irrelevance and impotency of the National Front UMNO leads. For if Dato' Seri Abdul Hadi Awang or some PAS worthy had said what Dr Mahathir did, the likes of Dato' Seri Ling Liong Sik and Dato' Seri S. Samy Vellu would be let loose to attack him. This time there is total silence. Especially when the Prime Minister says his and UMNO's vision of a fundamentalist Islamic state is different from PAS' though both now adhere to the principle of it.

None spoke of the MIC's horrendous failure to address Indian problems; mouthed much socio-economic gobbledygook; and tried to get Indian Malaysians to rise up and demand the Tan Sris, Dato' Seris, Dato's and educated Indians, especially those well-entrenched in the establishment by reason of their position to look after their interest. But they also did not want to offend the MIC president, Dato' Seri S. Samy Vellu, so were careful not to address MIC's failure.

The Malaysian Prime Minister, Dato' Seri Mahathir Mohamed, officially calls on Pope John Paul II next month. Roman Catholics in Malaysia hope it would be more, that the Papal Father would visit Malaysia. The MCA president, Dato' Seri Ling Liong Sik, is behind moves to have the Dalai Lama visit. Even if the MIC leader, Dato' Seri S. Samy Vellu, could not persuade the foremost Hindu cleric, the Shankaracharya of Kanchi, to visit, the general elections widely expected next year, would be amidst a frenzy of ecumenical amity. For this interest in getting religious heads to visit is to tighten the BN's continuing hold on the Malaysian electorate. It already has its impact: every political leader in the Opposition thinks it a wonderful idea.

Not only the Chinese community is so afflicted. So the MIC and Gerakan. The MIC president, Dato' Seri S. Samy Vellu, is reduced to begging for more seats for Indians in Malaysian universities. To him it is more important the MIC set up a medical college than ensure the Indian is not marginalised as he is. UMNO is happy for its non-Malay partners in the National Front (BN) to behave irrelevantly for it then has a political a stranglehold on them. The Chinese and Indians are caught in a never-ending spiral of declining expectations. A slight bureaucratic adjustment to rules and settled policies of fairness and fair play are all that is needed to do this. Neither the Chinese nor the Indians know what they are, and are impotent to correct it. The Chinese or Indian deputy minister is, as a matter of public policy, is denied access to non-Malay inequities in their own ministries: the civil servant ignores their request with contempt. This is a standard rule. Which is why MCA and MIC presidents meet junior civil servants to address problems, only to be told they cannot. That it demeans them is unaddressed. But they must be seen to be doing something for the people -- even if that destroys their community's self-respect.

This now threatens to sink the MCA. And, in time, the other parties in the National Front, including UMNO. When leaders hold on to power for a decade or more, it destroys the parties they lead. UMNO suffers now from too many years of Dr Mahathir, as MCA of Dr Ling's, MIC of Dato' Seri S. Samy Vellu, the Gerakan of Dato' Seri Lim Kheng Yaik, as every coalition partner in the National Front. UMNO thinks it can act at its will to order its coalition partners around. Yes it can, but it cannot yet rebound into the Malay community's good books. That reduces by the day as Dr Mahathir continues as its president. He is there for 21 years, a tad too long, and he is in the same boat as the party presidents in BN. In a sense, he sees his own future writ in Dr Ling's predicament.

When Kshipra opened its doors, one corner was partitioned off -- supposedly a "high class" dining area with a waiter assigned to each table -- reserved for those willing to pay a RM50 surcharge. The most regular "high class" person I saw dine there was the works minister and MIC president, Dato' Seri S. Samy Vellu, surrounded by his cronies and hangers-on. A Not surprising fact since it is his wife, Datin Indrani Samy Vellu, who owned the establishment. Thanks to him and those favour-seeking MIC leaders, the "high class" area went on awhile, but unwittingly the very same act reduced its "class". Those who want to dine in style on Indian cuisine would rather go to the Bombay Palace or the Taj at the Federal Hotel or even the Gems restaurant in Brickfields and Petaling Jaya than to Kshipra. So, it was quickly shut down.

The leaders insist that once elected, usually unopposed, they hold their positions for life, and any in their party who challenged them are ipso fact traitors to the community. The parties they lead are as irrelevant to their communities as UMNO is now to the Malay. The MCA is split so irrevocably that its coming elections is, like in Zimbabwe, an unacceptable basis for its president holding on to office. Whatever the result, the days of Dato' Seri Ling Liong Sik are numbered; more so now Dr Mahathir believes he, not his reformist challenger, should lead it. The MIC is likewise flawed, with its president of 24 years, Dato' Seri S. Samy Vellu more intent in his MIC-run university than in the education problems of the Indian community.

The MIC president, Dato' Seri S. Samy Vellu is an angry man indeed. He flew into a rage yesterday (08 Feb 2002) when he was asked about an MIC branch chairman in Klang and two youths charged in court for forcing a nine-year-old boy to perform oral sex on them and paying him RM2 for his "services". "It is not MIC but an individual who is involved ... the MIC is not charged in court. It it is not MIC's doing. MIC did not ask the individual to do such acts. If an individual has done something wrong, he has to pay the penalty." In the meanwhile, he is willing to let the matter rest until the court decides if he is guilty or not. If he is guilty, then he is automatically expelled. As far as he is concerned, the matter is closed. For everyone else, it only begins.

Social clubs and organisations cannot but be apolitical. Asking its members to join PPP would make his political career shorter than it is. I did not join social organisations so I could sneak into PPP as a member. He thinks one joins a political party to praise the leader and shut up. All require a conformity to party dictates many self-respecting Malaysians would not agree. Malaysians are asked to join political parties to boost numbers. Dato' Kayveas does not begin to understand all this. His big problem now is to get a PPP member to stand for elections for a state assembly or parliament. It is, for him and PPP, tougher than climbing Mount Everest. Not when Dato' Seri S. Samy Vellu, Dato' Seri Lim Kheng Yaik and others watch his political antics like hawks.

And for a very good reason. It is the fear within the National Front or BN, and especially UMNO, that the solid non-Malay support it now has might wither away, and it must find new incentives to keep it on its side. As usual, these things are not thought through. The reality struck in only after the fact that whatever they said would damn them. So, Dato' Seri Dr Ling Liong Sik of the MCA (Has he only one wife?) kept quiet; so Dato' Seri Dr Lim Kheng Yaik (ditto); Dato' Seri S. Samy Vellu (ditto), and others (ditto) decided on discretion as the better part of valour.

As more comes to light, the deputy prime minister, Dato' Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, steps, orders an investigation. Others chime in, but not to resolve it. The works minister, and Malaysian Indian Congress chief, S. Samy Vellu, orders the Indians to shut up and let the government handle it: the most affected are Indian students. It is a sign that the matter would not be righted. He wants us to believe the government did not cause it in the first place.

With few passengers and fewer flights, those who suffer are the retailers at the airport. Rents are quite cheap by international standards: between RM360,000 and RM12 million a year or RM30,000 and RM1 million a month. Retailers in New York, Zurich, Heathrow, Tokyo, Hong Kong, Singapore would jump at the offer if KLIA were in those airports. Since the works minister, Dato' Seri S. Samy Vellu, insists that road tolls are affordable because they are cheaper than in Ougadougou, this same yardstick must be used to compare rents. These fellows refuse to accept a ringgit in Malaysia has about the same purchasing value as a pound sterling in London or a US dollar in New York. And cannot understand why Malaysians baulk at paying US$5 (in ringgit) for a plate of mee siam because it would be cheaper in New York.

The MIC president and federal works minister, Dato' Seri S. Samy Vellu, could not do enough to destroy his party nemesis, Dato' K. Pathmanaban when he was alive. But with Dato' Pathmanaban's death of kidney failure on June 9, he cannot now do more to preserve his memory. The crocodile tears he shed at the memorial was an act to watch. He now announces proudly that the cabinet is to name a road after him. Coming shortly after the late NUPW chief, Mr P.P. Narayanan, is similarly honoured, it points to the MIC leader's mindset. The only Indians he can be proud of are those dead. He has utter contempt for his cronies, making and breaking them at will.

The Chinese communities kept their own counsel. The MCA bought the Nanyang Press over their heads, insisting what makes economic sense is good for the community. It does not, but the MCA president, Dato' Seri Ling Liong Sik, is convinced that if he wins, the community wins. It is how the Prime Minister, Dato' Seri Mahathir Mohamed views his community, Dato' Seri S. Samy Vellu his. So, when the EGM allowed Ling to go ahead with his purchases with a wafer think majority, MCA was told, not by its community leaders, but by the Prime Minister that the factions must kiss and make-up.

The Prime Minister and UMNO president, Dato' Seri Mahathir Mohamed, goes to Sabah this week to preside over the demise of a National Front member, Akar, and accept its members into UMNO. He then makes a shattering announcement that all Chinese in Sabah would be welcome into UMNO without reservation. The non-Malays throughout the country see that as a step forward towards a single party of all the races. The ebullient MIC president, Dato' Seri S. Samy Vellu, melodramatically announces he would dissolve his party and its members asked to join UMNO. Hopes were raised amongst the non-Malay communities. But no Malay of any consequence rose in support.

The ebullient Malaysian works minister, Dato' Seri S. Samy Vellu, whose close rapport with the Tamil Nadu government is in tatters with the emergence of Mrs Jayalalitha Jayaram, cannot understand how the Indian constitution could give so much powers to the states and the consumer who feels he is cheated. So, when he met the Indian Prime Minister, Mr Atal Bihari Vajpayee, during his recent official visit here this week, he pressed upon the Indian leader for help sort out problems caused by a Bolehland-type road project and of a Malaysian-owned palm oil mill which cannot get the fruit from a nearby estate to process. He also cannot understand the growing opposition to projects being awarded to Malaysian companies without tender and one a government-to-government level. Parliament dares to question why Malaysian companies was awarded a RM712 million road project in Andhra Pradesh (the Star, 16 May, p6).

So, when the clashes occurred, the National Front and UMNO had no voice in the area. The Selangor mentri besar, Dato' Mohamed Khir Toyo, was heckled when he visited the area. The federal ministers who would rush in to show their concern did not. The Prime Minister was no where around though he did appear at irrevelant functions far removed from the clashes. What embarrassed the most was that party leaders were not welcome. None would dare venture in except under tight security. Dato' Seri Samy Vellu said as much to explain away why he arrived late to succour to the Indians. One gets the odd feeling that there is more to it to what happened than we are told. Now that the clashes are contained, it is time for celebration. Dato' Khir hosts a "muhibah" party not where it is needed most but in the safety of his well-guarded official residence in Shah Alam, six miles away. Muhibah would get a bad name if people demand answers amidst a dinner to celebrate multiracial amity, would it not?

The MIC president, S. Samy Vellu, went over the weekend because he cancelled an earlier visit because "secutity could not be guaranteed." But the PPP president and his beta noir, M. Kayveas, outstaged him and went earlier. The deputy prime minister, Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, also visited the area, but he should have gone earlier than he did.

The works minister and MIC president, Dato' Seri S. Samy Vellu, proudly announces the National Front government's enduring commitment to Tamil schools: it approved, he tells reporters proudly over the weekend, RM13.9 million for 13 Tamil schools, or slightly over a million ringgit to build one school. Or how much it would cost to buy two link houses in the Bangsar suburb of Kuala Lumpur or a third of a house in Bukit Tunku. Or, indeed, far less than what it cost Dato' S. Samy Vellu his house in Kuala Lumpur.

The works minister, Dato' Seri S. Samy Vellu, says the government must compensate the highway concessionaires RM19 billion over 20 years. This is too onerous, he says, and a new formula is worked out to that they would get soft loans instead. The people must not be ignored, you understand, so how this would be done is "win-win" for both concessionaire and people. The people will not pay as much as they should, and the concessionaire would run gleefully to the bank. What the government pays out to them for not hiking the tolls as they want is a small portion of this payment. The bulk of that is money handed to the concessionaires when their own inflated estimate of traffic is not met. This becomes a sore point, in the government and out. In 1986 the Plus Highway took over the existing North-South Highway, spent RM6 billion to upgrade it, in return for a 30-year concession. That would end in 2016, but Dato' Seri Samy now says it would not end until 2021.

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