The MCA and the community is too divided to give the Star and Dr Ling any breathing space. UMNO and the Malay community sees the Star now as Dr Ling's mouthpiece. The knives are out whoever is the next MCA president. When the Star overtook the New Straits Times, it was helped by the NST's corporate descent into unrepayable debt and the Anwar affair which caused the Malay to desert it in droves. Now the Star is in that position, and UMNO is not about to let it wriggle out of its predicament. Both the Star and the NST support the president of the political parties which own them. But the Star has not the political clout the NST has.

The California Public Employees Retirement System (Calpers) withdraws its investment funds from Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines and Thailand for reasons as varied as poor human rights record and money. Malaysia decided it damns her, though she would not spell it out, for the travails of that unheard, unseen man forcibly whiling away his time in a lonely cell in Sungei Buloh Prison. Now, Tan Sri Ramon Navaratnam, the retired civil servant and corporate worthy, in a letter to the New Straits Times today (04 March 2002), insists US investors should not dabble in politics, and fears other countries could follow the US lead and skew the international financial structure. He does not say how, but says Calpers investment strategy would make nonsense of the long-term interests of the US and of "free and fair international trade and finance".

In other words, the Malaysian government wanted to imply the the US targetted Malaysian Muslims because of their race and religion. Unmentioned is the hint that the US, despite the war on evil, still is partial to the jailed former deputy prime minister, Dato' Seri Anwar Ibrahim. Interstingly, the New Straits Times today attacks a man close to Dato' Seri Anwar, Mr Douglas Paal, by referring to an attack the New Republic made on him. Mr Paal may be the new head of the US interests section in Taiwan. He is an effective lobbyist, has delivered what he set out to do. He runs a think tank, a normal route for anyone without an official position, to stay in the Washington loop, is well-regarded. And a far better choice than the unknowns the Mahathir administration have a knack of engaging to represent it. He is one of thousands there are in Washington.

Now the Malays hold UMNO and the government to ransom: it had had enough of promises and talk, and want results. Years of unaddressing Malay doubts and fears now comes to a head. The Malays are fed up. They want nothing more than the heads of those who brought this country to this present crisis. UMNO summarily ignored Malay desires and requests; over the years, the ante was raised after each crisis, and especially after the Anwar Ibrahim affair, that UMNO leaders must now throw to the wolves its own kith and kin to the wolves to show it honestly wants to resolve the crisis. Dato' Seri Abdullah's message about the witch-hunt, and the front-page banner headline in the New Straits Times, shows UMNO forced to do as the ground demands. But the proof of the pudding is in the eating; and moving the Tun Daim cronies is but a start. It is far from enough.

Since it becomes a political and tourist embarrassment, the deputy prime minister, Dato' Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, wants stiff penalties for pyromaniacs and others who set fire to their rubbish in the open. But he cannot decide if this open burnish is a serious offence or not. It is up to the court to decide on it, he says. Obviously, his government does not agree with him. The Environment Quality Act provides for a maximum fine of RM500,000 and five years in jail. But it can be compounded with a fine of RM2,000. So, amidst the crisis which the deputy prime minister talked of, three plantations and three factories in two states no doubt knew the seriousness of what they did when they were told to pay RM2,000 for helping to cause the current problems. The New Straits Times would have us know if was a stiff fine: of the six, four were "slapped" the maximum compound fine. No doubt the companies would be shivering in their pants at this fine! If the matter is as serious as Dato' Seri Abdullah claims, why is this not addressed with the seriousness it should.

The New Straits Times on Friday (15 February 2002) bemoaned, in a pointless article it is famed for, that the Malaysian public intellectual did not understand Plato, Ibn Khaldun, Antonio Gramisci, Rembrandt, Warhol(!). The writer wants Malaysian intellectuals to be slotted into Isaiah Berlin's categorisation of them into "hedgehogs", "those who knew many things" (as the article describes); and "foxes", "those who knew one thing". She confuses experts with intellectuals; she forgets one does not need to be an expert to be an intellectual; indeed, rarely does one make the shift. Unexplained is why public intellectuals should be one or the other of this categories.

So, not surprisingly, my friend, Mr Shamsul Akmar, in his column in the New Straits Times today (16 Feb 2002), demands to know who the ex-minister is. This man, he contends, is a Trojan horse for American interests, and should be exposed. He arrives at this conclusion by way of how Britain established a beachhead in Malaysia by deciding upon Raja Abdullah as the Sultan of Perak from amongst feuding Malay chieftains, and kept Malay in British colonial domination. In other words, no one knows if the ex-minister is guilty, let us pillory him anyway!

There is no smoke without fire. And if you read the Malaysian newspapers, especially the New Straits Times, you get the feeling that a crackdown is imminent. The target appears to be PAS. The New Straits Times yesterday (15 February 2002) devotes most of page 2 to carry sundry reports of PAS perfidy: "PAS leaders responsible for the disunity"; The Persatuan Ulama Malaysia (PUM) is a PAS front and the government should, by implication, have nothing to do with it; Muslim student body denies it is 'used' by PUM; Chief Minister likens PAS actions to communist tactics; PAS cancels ceremah after meeting; the Government will do anything that would put pressure on PAS. The ceremah in Baling which turned violent and a police truck was torched is yet another sign of PAS getting out of hand. Radio Television Malaysia continues to dog PAS with its "trailer" advertisements about the Memali affair and other examples of what they see as opposition violence.

The Malaysian government considers the Islamic Supreme Council of North America so objective as to accept its assertion that the jailed former deputy prime minister, Dato' Seri Anwar Ibrahim, handed US$10 million to North American institutions with links to terrorist groups. This is stated by no less than the deputy prime minister, Dato' Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi. The New Straits Times made it its front page headline news of the day (14 February 2001). Dato' Seri Anwar is not mentioned by name, only as an ex-minister. He says the government investigated ISCNA chairman Syaikh Muhammad Hisham Kabbani's claim, found it to be true, and regurgitates it at the Chinese New Year gathering in Penang. He is now convinced Dato' Seri Anwar did indeed ensure Malaysia is known to the US government and its media as a terrorist and a militant state.

No one, not even the usually critical Straits Times in Singapore, looked beyond the official announcement. Who would benefit if Pulau Tioman is duty-free? In the 1970s, a casino was planned, but quickly dropped when opposition to it threatened votes. It was too far away from the coast, and reached only from Endau in Johore, and it would have upset the local villagers. In those days, that was enough to scuttle a project. The then prime minister, Tun Abdul Razak, in whose parliamentary constituency Pulau Tioman was, would have none of it.

Two months ago, The Sun newspaper was a much-admired newspaper. Its reporters were proud to be working for it, what they wrote was prominently featured, and their colleagues in other newspapers drooled at the freedom they had to report and comment. It did not aim to best the two market leaders, The New Straits Times and The Star, but for a niche market in the Klang Valley. It had a soul, and soon it was neck-to-neck with the NST in circulation. It still ran at a loss, but that had to do with its inflated start-up debts and too few advertisements, not its popularity or journalistic competence. Today, it is on its death throes, surrounded by vultures -- competitors, political, financial, business -- waiting to pick at its entrails at its death. Its owners, at the material time, Tan Sri Vincent Tan and his legal sidekick and holiday companion of chief justices and attorneys-general, Dato' V.K. Lingam, are responsible not for its success but its death.

So it is, as 2002 rolls in, with Malaysia's three English-language newspapers: The New Straits Times, The Star, and the Sun. One is controlled by UMNO, the second by the MCA, and third by a business man dependent on government contracts to survive. Each decided to shoot itself on the foot, and put themselves at risk with its readers. And reflected an arrogance combined with fear. Even more frightening is its huge corporate debt, which makes it easy for who controls the Treasury to pull the plug.

The New Straits Times
31 Decembe 2002, Letters, p11

The New Straits Times, Kuala Lumpur 26 December 2002, Letters, p9

And the Malaysian Civil Service is not about to. If a ministry or department does not respond, it has no recourse. In the past two decades, I have used it three times; in one, I was told that it would be resolved if the man on whose behalf I approached would get his artificial leg if only he would convert to Islam; in another, the file disappeared after four years; and the third withdrew his complaint after five years. The PCB is a government department for timeserving civil servants; it exists to make life difficult for those who cross its path. Mr Lee's column in the New Straits Times today views it in its image, not what it set out to do. Few know it exists. If you want the PCB to be known so the public could refer complaints to it, its presence must be made known to the public in every government department and office that deals with the public. It is not. It is only known now to those who know of it.

Today's Sun story reveals something else. The Sun is among the breeziest and best written of Malaysian newspapers, with a coverage that leaves the New Straits Times and the Star far behind. It comes up with stories that explain and reveal more than the others. And it comes up with news items which embarass the government, which could not be heavy handed with the press without attracting cries of censorship and other. It still smarts from its bruising battle with Malaysiakini. But now The Sun is reined in without any need for it. It is possible, indeed probably, Tan Sri Dato' Seri Vincent Tan's future in the government gravy train is subject to the Sun put in its place.

The mentri besar of Selangor, Dato' Seri Mohd Khir Toyo, wanted condoms sold even to married couples only by prescription. When the import of his stupidity became known, and he was rightly attacked for it, he wriggles out of it. But in such a way that he is not a fit person to be mentri besar of a state. He wanted condoms banned, he now says, to prevent children for mistaking them for balloons. He did not like the way condoms were displayed, besides food items. "We have cases where parents were put in a spot by their children who wanted them to buy the condoms because the children thought the colourful packaging containing the contraceptives were sweets of chocolates," he told reporters yesterday (12 Dec 2001 - New Straits Times, p5).

So, a few law firms, those with tens, if not hundreds, of lawyers on their staff, went ahead and advertised their wares on their websites, and cocked a snook at these arcane arguments. The Bar Council did not think it worth their while to chastise them, although a few would be asked to follow the rules, usually when the clamour for it was too much. These firms are too powerful and some have implied immunity to break the rules as they think fit. I do not need to spell out which these law firms are. So, it was but natural that the Legal Profession (Publicity) Rules 2001 relaxed the existing rules so strict that they could only admit to being advocates and solicitors. The New Straits Times in a front page story today (11 December 2001) describes the lawyers as being shackled by stringent advertising rules, and that they can now breathe easy. They can advertise abroad, they want a level playing field, whatever that means, can compete for expensive regional corporate work and put Malaysia on the global legal map.

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