Something is brewing. After pages of nothing but UMNO nomination news, the mainstream newspapers do not mention it anymore. It does appear there is a boycott, whether it is official or not does not matter; no attempt is now made to report on the run-up to the UMNO general assembly next month. Suddenly, the readers are left in the dark about the UMNO general elections. Part of it is of course the "dumbing down" of news in the New Straits Times and the Star, both of which seems to have taken a leaf from the Sun, which relies on Bernama news for its news, and then makes sure it is kept at that level. (But it does not provide what the Sun does best: articles and commentaries that give that newspaper its unique voice.)

The New Straits Times once was a newspaper with a voice, but it lost that in the commercial and corporate convulsions of three decades after UMNO took control of it, and by the whims and fancies of whoever was the UMNO president. Why the Sun is successful and the NST is not, is not its respective sizes but that one has a voice and the other does not. It is as simple as that.

He justifies it with statistics, which the New Straits Times reports today (05 August 2004). But all he proves is Mark Twain's aphorism of three kinds of lies: Lies, Statistics, and Damned Statistics. What Dato' Noh said appears on page 8 today. But to reach that news item, you have to wade through eight pages of crimes that are the staple these days of Malaysian newspapers. When the media's main role is to divert attention away from politics, reports of crime in excruciating detail is one way to do it.

That would be disaster for Pak Lah. Especially if the civil service decides that this supercillous influence must be got rid off for good. The man who probably was one of the most popular in UMNO in recent years is now the demon. He must repair that damage first. He needs the civil servants more than ever, and he has to eat humble pie. So he requests the editor-in-chief of the New Straits Times, Dato' Khalimullah Hassan, once a member of this charmed inner circle, to resolve this impasse between his son-in-law's coterie and the civil service.

When a party revises its electoral rules so one man should not attempt to be president, it is a sign of its eventual weakness. In UMNO, the horror that struck the leaders when Tengku Razaleigh announced his candidacy was preceded by suggestions he ought to be vice-president, not president; even that he ought to stand for deputy president than president. The immediate reaction was one of shock and fear. The UMNO machinery was brought to attack him, breaching its own rules about campaigning. Every day the mainstream newspapers, especially the New Straits Times, give creative reasons why he should be rejected. Four days into the nomination, with another ten days to come, the newspapers report with glee that he has yet to gain a nomination.

He was interviewed over RTM 1 on an interview programme called "With the Prime Minister" – which the Business Times insert in the New Straits Times of 09 July 2004 said is one of a series – to let UMNO know he can deal with governmental problems, especially when it affects the Malays, and far better than his challenger, Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah, can.

When the Tengku announced his candidacy at the Gua Musang youth and wanita divisional meeting yesterday (09 July 2004), the Singapore Straits Times described it as a surprise – which it is, of course, when readers are in the dark because its reporters do not want to offend the Pak Lah camp for reasons that has nothing to do with their competence or ability – and the Pak Lah mouthpiece, the New Straits Times, went on a tirade disguised as reportage and comment.

Pak Lah and his camp followers are in near rigor mortis. He has told his inner circle that if Tengku Razaleigh gets 60 nominations, two more than he needs to be a candidate, he would resign. This could be a political ploy to go into the race as an underdog. His media pressure group, the New Straits Times, has reporters watching the Tengku Razaleigh residence in Jalan Langgak Golf to see who comes and goes. They are no doubt shocked at what they see. The motor cars parked outside it on a quiet day is enough to frighten the Pak Lah camp. If only it knew who have moved smartly to the prince, it would be shocked beyond belief. What frightens his media advisers is if Tengku Razaleigh would get 70 or more nominations. Would he get it? I do not know.

A widely held belief is that his campaign is too clever by half. Had he kept his cool, Tengku Razaleigh would not have challenged him. He came into the race reluctantly. Every time I asked him about it, he refused to even consider it. His time is past. He would not get the support. He is, as the New Straits Times pictured him, yesterday's man.

TUN MAHATHIR MOHAMED; DATO Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi; Mr Morarji Desai; President Francois Mitterand: they were all Yesterday's Men at one time of their political lives; but they became in time prime ministers and presidents of their countries. So when the New Straits Times yesterday (03 July 2004) dismissed Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah as one, it was carefully designed to stab him in the back - not because he is yesterday's man but because he poses a potent challenge to one of yesterday's men who is now prime minister. It was to put a knife in.

The New Straits Times, which exists, for the moment, to praise Pak Lah and his stalwarts and decry their detractors, kept quiet about it. The Star misled its readers to ask if he would contest at all, for which post, wondered why he would when all the cards are stacked against him, and rounds with a stirring call for Pak Lah to be unchallengeable because he has proved his worth in his eight months in office. Bernama, the official news agency, obviously did not think it important to report it: if it had, all the newspapers would have carried it. The television station, TV3, however, did break ranks and mentioned that Tengku Razaleigh made his intentions clear in Gua Musang yesterday. But the Malay mainstream newspapers, especially the Utusan Malaysia, have been fairer in its coverage, that even a casual reader of this paper got the drift that Pak Lah would be challenged - and by Tengku Razaleigh.

Meanwhile, Dato' Seri Najib is useful to present an united front, and to be blamed when matters get out of hand, as in the national service fiasco, when even young mothers are ordered to camp. The New Straits Times, which exists to deify Pak Lah and his inner circle, suggests Dato' Seri Najib, the man in charge, ought to be blamed for this fiasco.

The New Straits Times notes (21 June 2004, p1) two instances when the party was split by factionalism and camps: in 1987 and 1993. It did not, of course mention, that Pak Lah was with the challenger, Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah, in the first, and in the second, with the official candidate, Tun Ghafar Baba, in which the challenger, Dato' Seri Anwar Ibrahim, won. It came after years of disallowing debate as the then Prime Minister, Tun Mahathir Mohamed, rode rough shod over Malaysia to turn it on its head to force feed it into the industralised age. He failed, and UMNO with it. What is not mentioned is that Pak Lah was with the challenger in 1987, and Dato' Seri Najib was on the point of defecting to the challenger when he decided not to.

Dato' Hishamuddin wants to be returned unopposed with his running mate. But he works at it by pressuring UMNO youth leaders to give way in their favour. The New Straits Times of 08 June said four announced candidates for the deputy youth leaders, all members of its executive committee, have withdrawn in favour of Mr Khairy. One of them said he would contest only if Mr Khairy does not. "I am willing to withdraw," he said, " as Khairy is a capable leader who has great potential and can contribute greatly to UMNO youth." Another had offered himself as a candidate because he assumed Mr Khairy was not keen to become UMNO youth deputy chief. However as the mythical grassroots, and the Perak UMNO youth, want the Prime Minister's son-in-law, he would withdraw. Yet another opted out to prepare to oust PAS from Kelantan. Besides, UMNO must be united in the face of untold pressures.

The central question to this puzzle is not answered. Did the UMNO supreme council on Monday night discuss and decide on this election of the president and deputy president? Those who should know are adamant it did not. A few supreme council members are so angry about it that they threaten to circulate letters to the UMNO divisions and branches about it. The simple truth is that UMNO is never as deeply divided as now. The general election made it worse. The election commission creatively helped the BN to return to office to forever raise doubts on its independence. The BN's huge electoral victory is a myth. If it had 30 seats less it would not have been. Using that then to shortcircuit the UMNO polls is dangerous. If Pak Lah and Dato' Seri Najib must be returned unopposed in September, the supreme council must do more to convince members. They could hold a press conference, individually or in groups, and each state their choices freely and frankly. Since every one, we are told, agreed, the need for secrecy disappears. Or the supreme council itself could call in the press to witness each one stating what Tan Sri Khalil and Dato' Seri Najib said they did, and prove the skeptics - whom the New Straits Times calls the "green-eyed monsters" - wrong. They could then put to rest this view, now gaining ground in UMNO circles, that they did not discuss the issue on Monday night.

So, no one is surprised when the BN mentri besar of Trengganu, Dato' Idris Jusoh, decided that all 32 state assemblymen would be paid a book allowance of RM250 a month, and be signed up as members of the State Library "with immediate effect". Let him tell you why? "The objective is to develop a knowledge culture among the elected representatives and to encourage the people to read." I do not know what this means, so I suppose neither you. Let him explain: "When we talk about knowledge culture, it must be practiced and it is the responsibility of the elected representatives to lead their constituents by showing good examples." I still do not know what he means. So I presume you too. Let him give you a few practical examples: "The State Government will also beef up the State Library and the libraries in villages with more books and computers." Why? "These libraries now lack content to attract members." There is more. In addition, all gifts and souvenirs to State officials invited to officiate at events should be in the form of books and other "reading materials", instead of brassware, songket or handicrafts, the New Straits Times breathlessly reports today (20 May 2004). But he has more to say: "The allowance may not be much, but the books will expand their knowledge."

He was buying loyalty with his cabinet and government appointments. He knows this loyalty cannot last. But the huge electoral majority allows him the right to do as he wants. It has, in one sense, blinded him to the dangers awaiting him around the corner. The sycophantic coverage in the mainstream media - the New Straits Times today reports, matter of factly, that he and the deputy prime minister, Dato' Seri Najib Tun Razak, would be returned unopposed in the UMNO elections. It could well be, but there's many a slip 'twixt the cup and the lip. The BN leaders, so blinded by this electoral success, throws caution to the winds, believes no one dare challenge them. But as UMNO leaders find out, this huge majority makes them arrogant and dismissive of the ground. They believe in their omnipotence, not listen to reason, but in the end would find their own ground dismissive of them.

"OVER THE PAST FEW days," says the New Straits Times today (19 March 2004, p4) "more than 600,000 letters from the PM (Prime Minister Dato' Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi) have been sent out to 'balik kampung' voters - that bloc of the electorate who reside outside their place of birth but are registered to vote in their hometowns." How did the National Front (BN) know who these voters are, if the self-proclaimed fiercely independent Election Commission did not feed that to it? It is also clear government facilities are used to send these flyers out. No political party, including the BN and its 14 component parties, could mount an exercise as this on its own in the eight days available between nomination and polling day. The BN has had much help from the government departments, its agencies and the EC. Let we forget, the EC does all it can to frustrate the Opposition. Its chairman talks of government and Opposition parties when it is clear that once Parliament and the state assemblies are dissolved, there is neither opposition nor governing parties. The prime minister is the caretaker prime minister, and the ministers mere caretakers.

But the countdown has begun. The Star has a front page photograph of posters being printed. The New Straits Times has the Sabah Election Commission officials checking and sorting out the administrative paraphernalia for the elections. The newspapers now devote two and more pages on election news. The official hesitance is now replaced with an optimism of how well it would do in the polls. The news is full of individual candidates and constituencies, and how the Opposition would have to worry about the election deposit, so strong is the organisation in those constituencies. The strongest card it has is its long years in power, not how it governed: people are reluctant to throw out a sitting government, however bad, for fear of the unknown under a new government.

He faces two important pressures: that PAS could seize Kedah; and the need, for his own survival, to offset it with the return to BN of either or both PAS-run Kelantan and Trengganu. The deputy prime minister, Dato' Seri Najib Tun Razak, has rushed down to Kedah, and is terribly impressed with the reception, which he argues is a good sign that the state will remain firmly in BN hands. Crowds of 5,000 followed him wherever he went. There are two reasons for that: the BN's well-tested rent-a-crowd policy is augmented by a PAS organisation which has asked its supporters to welcome federal leaders with large crowds. Pak Lah came to similar conclusions in Kelantan and Trengganu. A prime minister cannot address crowds of 5,000 in hostile territory, so, depending on whether you believe the New Straits Times or the Singapore Straits Times, 50,000 or 30,000 attended. Curiously, for crowds of this size the newspapers would have at least had photographs of the crowds. There was none of that. Suffice it is to say that there was a large crowd. But it taken as read in a political society where support is measured in how many attend, that BN-controlled newspapers often drop a zero from the estimated crowd at an opposition function and add a zero for BN rallies and functions.

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