I wrote this for my regular column in Harakah, which appears in the issue for 15-30 September 01

Selangor MCA has begun investigations, and Dr Ling insists the investigating team are composed of "mature and reasonable people". And then his explanation: In any case, 20 branched formed in a year is unusual because it had been done in other divisions. The logic, in National Front doublespeak, is unassailable: there is nothing wrong with so many branches formed in one division because other branches have done so too. This was his response to 22 new branches formed in Petaling Jaya Utara division, of which only 17 approved by the presidential council, but all allegedly unconstitutional. What makes Dr Ling's position insecure is this call for an extraordinary general meeting to discuss the issue in the division, with the clear threat that there could well be others. What is remarkable about these 20 branches is that it has no members and who the chairmen are. The EGM on 6 September 01 is to pass a vote of no-confidence against the division chaiman, Dr Wong Sai Hon. He has promised he would release the details his detractors wants "in due time".

It is a win UMNO cannot accept. It would be Keadilan's first victory in Sarawak and Sabah, and threatens UMNO's eventually in the peninsula. Which accounts for the onslaught against Keadilan from National Front politicians during the campaign. National UMNO wants Dato' Yong to win, even if his appeal against disqualification fails in September and whoever got the next highest vote elected.

Then came 2 September 1998. And students, even the rabidly pro-government, wants answers. Why was the deputy prime minister, one Anwar Ibrahim, sacked, detained under the Internal Security, beaten to an inch of his life by the Inspector-General of Police no less, jailed for 15 years on questionable charges of corruption and sodomy? No minister could face them anymore, even if only to talk of the weather. The students overseas, in a bloc, shifted away. The Anwaristas had got to them, systematically and regularly, that the government lost them yet again. It still cannot. When the Prime Minister speaks to students overseas, it is in controlled conditions, guests checked, and those with questions told bluntly if they veer to the critical.

But would this brilliant new scheme work as promised and scheduled? It would not. Remember the third brake lights fiasco. The road minister only had to say there would be no extensions beyond the date when every car had to have a third brake light, when it was. Express and tour buses must install speed monitors before September. Each cost RM1,000, and is allegedly for the safety of passengers. Not that some crony can have a bit of cash at the public's expense. Like the June deadline for the RTD blacklist, this would be expended. This is not properly thought out. The system is not tested. The RTD director-general wants the credit for this system that he announces it prematurely. Even if it is on online as he promises in June, it would be a flawed system.

Why is the Prime Minister and his deputy blaming him for the special treatment the home miniter has decreed for him? He is in hospital for a serious medical problem his doctors say could paralysis him if not treated quickly. He wants treatment overseas, which I understand the government would allow so long as he does not return. He would want no such thing. When he was detained under the Internal Security Act in 1973, his friends got him a scholarship to Oxford for a higher degree, but he said he would not so long as the Malaysian government decided he should be in. When the same group offered the same offer before his arrest in September 1998, he declined, insisting he would not run away as a thief in the night. If he goes overseas for medical treatment, he would return, as Benigno Aquino did, to perhaps the same fate.

27 September 00

This letter of demand -- from Tan Sri Vincent Tan's solicitors, Messrs Adam Bachek & Associates, of Tingkat Satu, Wisma Datuk Dagang, 53 Raja Alang, Kampung Baru, 50300 Kuala Lumpur -- sent me on 6 September 00, is is self-explanatory:

The government appointed the National Front MP and chairman of the National Front backbencher's club, Dr Jamaluddin Jarjis, as Tenaga Nasional Berhad;s new non-executive chairman three days ago (04 September 00). As one has come to expect from this disaster-prone administration, it mentioned not then the fate of its outgoing executive chairman, Tan Sri Tajuddin Ali. The Kuala Lumpur Stock Exchange gave its verdict by depressing Tenaga Nasional Berhad, the country's main electricity utility, share prices by eight per cent to RM11. The Tenage board met two days ago to recoup and to tell the world nothing had changed; Tan Sri Tajuddin would not, as widely believed, leave but remain but as president and chief executive officer. He continues, the Star informed its readers yesterday (06 September 00), as before, on the same terms, to run Tenanga, but with a politician to look over his shoulder. If this indeed was the intention, why were not the two appointments made at the same time, instead of the appearance of the re-appointment viewed as an afterthought? If indeed there was some some kinks to be ironed out, as the Star sources say, why could not that be ironed out before the appointments? Since Dr Jamaluddin, with a doctorate in electrical engineering from McGills University in Canada, heads a power consultancy, EPE, which with its subsidiaries, are consultants to Tenange, his appointment is akin to a poacher turning gamekeeper. Since both Tenaga and EPE power is involved in the Bakun hydroelectric power project in Sarawak, the appointment also has a incestuous ring to it.

Malaysia has not through the project. Singapore has. The headline in the Star today (04 September 00, p14) -- "Singapore's consent needed for project" -- suggests the island republic drags its feet. It is Kuala Lumpur which does. Malaysia should rethink this project; it it be built, it would have to be by a Singapore-Malaysia consortium with contractors selected by international tender. This constant feeding of cronies, siblings, courtiers must end. If this project does go on, it would be how to link it to the CIQ at Woodlands, with the Malaysian end where it leads to. Whether this could still enable the KTM to link to the republic is another issue altogether. So many of bilateral problems with Singapore are addressed by sudden impulses and local financial and political considerations that a solution is all but impossible. The internal political considerations, in the wake of He Who Must Be Destroyed At All Cost's rebellion, so debilitates the administration, that any serious talk about the Southern International Gateway must await until calmer times under a different leader. In any case, neither the consortium nor the government have the RM1.5 billion needed to build it.

The Prime Minister did not attend Friday prayers on 1 September 00, as his office he would. He could not. He left the night before for urgent negotiations with an American conglomerate in the United States. Television news last night (2 September) showed the Prime Minister in formal meetings with the Motorola Inc. topbrass in Chicago. He had hoped to camoflauge this meeting by addressing Islamic groups, but supporters of He Who Must Be Destroyed At All Cost prevented that. An invitation from one Islamic group to address it was withdrawn, and an award from another could well be amidst noisy protestors. Hence his having to leave the country in stealth. The official media no doubt would portray this visit, as every other, a success, but far more serious issues are at stake. It raises fundamental doubts about future foreign investment, with foreign companies already here negotiating for more tax breaks and investment incentives than allowed. This urgent meeting with Motorola follows hard behind-the-scenes bargaining after it decided to shift its Malaysian operation to Vietnam and Malaysian officials wanting to retain Motorola. Malaysia blinked, provided Motorola with fresh incentives, but its key officials would not come down to initial the agreement. So, the Prime Minister rushed to Chicago instead. And a company which already taken advantage of all Malaysian investment breaks is given them afresh to continue to invest.

The problems in the Opposition are grist for the government, not the people. It certainly is in Malaysia. It is precisely for their merciless caricature of government figures, especially the Prime Minister, that ensured works of well-known political cartoonists are rarely printed these days. The importance of political cartoons, especially since the events of September 1998, is accepted. No self-respective newspaper, magazine or journal would be without their political cartoons.

Already, it has all but destroyed the reputation, what remained of it, of the former Inspector-General of Police, Tan Sri Rahim Noor, who admitted to a commision of inquiry that he administered the near lethal blows on the just arrested ousted deputy prime minister on the night of 20 September last year. The attorney-general, Tan Sri Mohtar Abdullah, is also on the skids; one high court judge is tipped to succeed him. Besides, one worthy in the Federal Court is also tipped to retire earlier than scheduled. So whatever happens in the Anwar imbroglio, the drama is only about to begin. Meanwhile, the political ramifications piles the pressure upon the embattled prime minister, who continues to be in contempt of court for his ex cathedra statements on Dato' Seri Anwar's guilt, as he did in the Bloomburg TV interview on Monday.

But the statement of 24 September does suggest that he is in Kuala Lumpur, had met the board and management, and issued the statement with his signature on it. That is not true. His officers yesterday confirmed to me of his presence in Paris. How was it possible for him to be in Kuala Lumpur, consult his board and management, issue the statement and return to his Paris hospital bed in the course of a few hours? Has he learned the art of astro travel?

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