He issues statements which the mainstream newspapers once studiously ignored but not any more, even his criticism of Pak Lah's new administration. He is an invited speaker at the 12th Malaysian Law conference, and what he spoke is avidly reported. When on 06 December, the Star reported the Malay Education Congress's plan for a Tabung Putra (Putra Fund), and of the Tengku as its chairman, he re-entered the political mainstream with a bang. Besides the Putra Fund, there is the Malay Development and Education Federation (MDEF) and the Malay Development and Education Research Institute. "The three bodies will play a central role in the education of the Malays in future," he said. The Putra Fund would raise and manage money to further Malay education. It would replace MARA, now privatised to a Malay business man but in unrepayable debt to a Singapore bank, has lost sight of its aims and plans. Even UMNO and its youth wing, which would have stung to action at any suggestion like this from anyone, is strangely silent. The mainstream newspapers, having reported it, retired to the sidelines.

But not Dr Mahathir. He governed as an imperial and imperious Prime Minister, reducing all institutions and people around him to ciphers, brooked no opposition, behaved as is he was in absolute control. He has no respect for Parliament, ignored it, spent money freely without Parliamentary approval by dipping into the till of Petronas, the Employees Provident Fund, Tabung Haji and other off-budget agencies. Neither he nor his successor could do that for long. The off-budget agencies are all but bankrupt. Neither the Speaker nor the EC chairman and other senior officials of his administration would have survived so long if they had the quaint notion in Mahathirland of constitutional propriety and distance. There are too many senior officials and cabinet ministers who rue the day they crossed him. But this arrogance and imperiousness comes with a heavy price. When the worm turns, there is hell to pay. Which is what happens now. The cossetted supercilious respect for constitutional propriety now turns into a deliberate camoflauge to hoodwink and mislead. Parliament accepted its impotence, and none dared challenge him.

If he must take credit - if credit it be - for anything, it is his systematic dismantling of government institutions. In his 22 years in office, he destroyed them so thoroughly that he cannot, when he wants to, depend on them to buttress his policies and governance. He lurched into an orgy of privatisation, all failures despite government bailouts and are now managed by the government. He ignored Parliament, and went on a spending spree without official approval and making use of the huge reserves of Petronas, the Employees Provident Fund, Tabung Haji (the Pilgrimage Fund Board) to be remembered as a great builder. But Putrajaya and other super structures are built to make Malaysia in time bankrupt. The cash cows almost all are, or would be in a decade.

There is a difficulty here. Dato' Seri Adnan lies. A Pahang state investment subsidiary, Pesdec Corporation Sdn Bhd, has 45.546 million shares in the Bukit Tinggi resort. How could he then not know about the licence? Tabung Haji, the pilgrimage fund board, has shares in Pasdec, so it has an indirect interest in the Bukit Tinggi casino. When Tabung Haji insists it would only invest in companies that are "halal", does it now say that liquor and pork is but not gambling? How did the minister in charge of religion, Brig.-Gen (rtd) Abdul Hamid Zainal Abidin, approve it?

And since management these days are run by accountants and management specialists who believe only in reducing the red ink in a balance sheet. You would see that in practice. A company gets into trouble. An accountant is brought in to restore it to profitability. For a high salary and usually a three- or -four year contract, he cuts and chops the company to bits, selling off subsidiaries and retrenching staff. He is paid by results, and he walks off at the end of. But the system he has set up is guaranteed to fail a few years down the road. By that time he is off 'rescuing' some other company. The banking system collapsed this way. As did Tabung Haji, the pilgrimage fund board. And hundreds of companies listed on the Kuala Lumpur Stock Exchange.

The Lembaga Tabung Haji or the Pilgrimage Fund Board was said to be so badly run, before the new minister in charge of religion, Brig.-Gen. Dato' Hamid Zainal Abidin aka Brigadier Mullah, took over in 1999, that he ordered a complete revamp. So diffident and unsettled is he that he has, since he took over, removed all close to his predecessor, and went on a rampage to prove he could run it better than ever. So he brought in what was then described as professional management, upset the cadre by paying them salaries three or four times more than the incumbents.

THE MALAYSIAN GOVERNMENT'S Islamic face, more political than ever, is about upstaging PAS at its theocratic agenda. But that is stymied at the parlous state of its Islamic institutions, none more than Tabung Haji, the once-well run organisation to help Malaysian Muslims make the Haj. It grew phenomenally, which with efficient management, that its success attracted predators. There is this unfortunate but ingrained belief that cash rich government bodies are there for any politically well connected businessmen to take over, and for those with lesser ambition, to bleed it dry. The Prime Minister, Dato' Seri Mahathir Mohamed, found this to be only too true, after the rot set in, and appointed a man he trusted, and trusts, Dato' Seri Abdul Hamid Othman, who restored morale and confidence to turn Tabung Haji eventually to what it once was.

An insiduous counter-attack by Malay civil servants is to remove, by fair means or foul, the names of buildings and institutions named after non-Malays. Officially denied, but it happens all the time. Many a departmental head is now under pressure to leave his department more Islamic or more Malay or both. So, the Ipoh city council, with the active help from UMNO, MCA, MIC, Gerakan councillors, renamed Jalan Koo Chong Kong, named after a Malaysian hero killed by the communists, to Jalan Tabung Haji. In the resultant furore, the change was annulled; the mayor's excuse that he did not know the man was a Tan Sri! It is a matter of time that name would disappear.

UMNO has another impediment: the collapse of the Malay billionaires and businesses it created to herald the Malay's arrival in the world of the 20th century. How they floundered here diminishes its political and cultural standing with the Malay, one it does not know how to overcome. For one, every businesses and institutions it created -- Bank Bumiputra, Pernas, Tabung Haji, Perwaja, MAS, Renong, UEM, TRI amongst others -- is bankrupt or in financial stress, owing up to RM10 billion each and more; some had to be rescued more than once.

The Jihad between the two Hamids is now several mutinies, in which the Hamid who should be on top -- the 'new' Hamid aka Brig.-Gen. (R) Dato' Abdul Hamid Zainal Abidin cannot understand he is, and finds creative ways to put the 'old' Hamid, Dato' Seri Abdul Hamid Othman, down to reaffirm his position. But however hard he tries, he is found wanting. He is so embarrassed at this that when it became public, Tabung Haji ordered its staff, in a memo, of what would happen to them if they talked to reporters. This memo indirectly confirms what I write in Sangkancil about the travails of Tabung Haji is spot on. The 'new' Hamid, by his attitude, alienates many in the organisation. Even senior officers have doubts about how effective he could be. The 'old' Hamid is a much more polished man and had no qualms of asking for help from his staff or praise his predecessors. That had the Tabung Haji staff eating out of his hand. He did not carry tales or complain about anyone to his staff, and when he found himself in a spot, all of Tabung Haji would help him resolve it.

Political power in the BN is personal to holder, who clings to it to the exclusion of power for the community they represent. So, what UMNO wants, the BN parties go along. The ease with which civil servants can persuade the non-Malay party members in state assemblies and local councils to act against their community is a sign more serious than is admitted. They ignore time-honoured government rules which forbid, for instance, the wanton changing of road names with a history behind it. So, Jalan Koo Chong Kong in Ipoh is renamed, for no rhyme or reason, Jalan Tabung Haji; Batu Caves in Selangor Selayang. The Kuala Lumpur City Council arbitrarily raises the licence fees for dogs five times to RM50, and the number of dogs one can keep depends on where you stay. (But for two years, the dogs wear no dog tags: they were ordered too late and arrived well after the licences had been issued. But that is another story.)

The 'old' Hamid, a polished Islamic worthy with a doctorate in Islamic studies, wears his erudition well and profers advice with insight and foresight; the 'new' Hamid intent on putting the 'old' down. In other words, the jihad of the Hamids continues unabated. No where is this in full nakedness than than in the affairs of Lembaga Tabung Haji, the pilgrimage fund board, where the minister Hamid, now in charge, is hell bent to destroy all traces of his predecessor, the adviser Hamid, from the body, while packing the organisation with as many cronies and acolytes he could find. Those working there find the heat unbearable, as many are declared redundant for reasons other than competence. It would have been funny, only that it is not since moral is low and about 1,000 could lose their jobs.

All we know of Keadilan these days is that one supreme council member called another a pariah. That was enough for the MIC president to protest. Keadilan, so we are now told, is therefore a party unfit for Indians. We refuse to address the issues except by diverting attention. The only time this was not -- the humiliation and destruction of the then deputy foreign minister, Dato' Seri Anwar Ibrahim -- the country rose in unison to question. The after-effects of that still dictates Malaysian politics. But since the man is in jail and unlikely to surface for another decade or so, it is forgotten, though it is alive to spring a surprise when least expected. But the moral authority is shaved yet again. Even in Tabung Haji, where missing funds are the norm. Usually in the hundreds of millions of ringgit. No one cares! And the DAP is surprised that in an Islamic state that Malaysia proclaims she is, non-Muslims are deemed as zimmis! Why so?

The Mayor of Ipoh, Dato' Talaat Hussein, is caught with his pants down when he ordered Jalan Koo Chong Kong, named after a Perak CPO shot dead by the communists, to be renamed Jalan Tabung Haji. We have come to expect these changes for no rhyme or reason except it is distinctly Malay or Islamic. It is in line with an official but unmentioned and stealthy policy of Islamisation and Malayisation of Malaysia that goes on before our very eyes. When the Prime Minister, Dato' Seri Mahathir Mohamed, insists, without amending the constitution or debating it in Parliament, Malaysia is an Islamic nation, and every member of the governing National Front agree and not allow any discussion, he impliedly justifies such idiocy as renaming roads to ensure Malaysia eventually is a Malay country in which non-Malays must live in sufferance.

The Jihad Of The Hamids Under The Shadow of Tabung Haji Jaya

Well-connected individuals maintain accounts with Tabung Haji, the Pilgrimage Board, of tens of millions of ringgit. You cannot deposit more than RM3 million per individual, but that is for the unconnected. A member of its board regularly deposited millions of ringgit well beyond the maximum allowed. There is a law which allows regulatory agencies to demand a listing of assets if it believes one lives beyond one's means. The first time it was used, two mentris besar lost their jobs. Now that rule is used only when you cross swords with the government.

Surprises there would be. Not all to be dropped are deadwood, only politically inconvenient. The minister in the prime minister's department, Dato' Abdul Hamid Othman, has resigned, ineffective in countering PAS, as he was expected to, and politically neutered after he lost the Sik parliamentary seat to PAS's Dato' Shahnon Ahmad. He is expected to be non-executive chairman of Tabung Haji. Four others are expected to be dropped: UMNO secretary-general and federal information minister Tan Sri Khalil Ya'acob, culture and tourism minister Dato' Seri Abdul Kadir Sheikh Fadhir. The second woman minister, Datin Siti Zaharah, is also expected to be dropped, replaced by promoting the deputy minister in the prime minister's department, Datin Shahrizat Jalil. A few deputy ministers could well be promoted.

To link Kuala Lumpur with the Kuala Lumpur International Highway, the government decided on a dedicated superfast rail link and a dedicated elevated highway, which would speed travellers to and from their destinations with speed, efficiency, comfort while enriching those who build and operate it. The rail link, which should have been completed, remains on the drawing board. The contract for the dedicated elevated highway was given to a consortium of Anson-Perdana and Tabung Haji. But before it could be built -- and when it should have been finished -- a power play by a Bolehland business man has him in control of the project. Since Dato' Abu Sahid, of the Maju Group which took over Perwaja, is the business man, it should be but natural that steel form the basis of construction. And so it has. At a time of official fiscal belt tightening, the project cost is raised by RM700 million, of 50 per cent higher. At a time when we have foreign exchange problems, all that steel, despite the stirring claims of Perwaja providing the steel, would have to be imported.

The ABB-CBPO consortium, sitting on massive losses, is so sanguine that one cannot but believe it has much up its sleeve. Tan Sri Dato Dr Ting is certainly cornered, despite the bold front he puts up. He has had a recurrence of the stroke he suffers from within a fortnight of being sued by two directors of Wembley Industries Holdings Berhad for RM83 million. As I see it, it is a convenient time for him to give up the ghost of Bakun. Since the International Finance Corporation (IFC), a subsidiary of the World Bank, seem willing to finance the dam at market rates of interest, new Bolehland institutions will move to take that up. The current front runners are a consortium led by that great nodding marionette, Tan Sri Francis Yeoh: YTL, Tabung Haji, Siemens and Alcatel. My information is that Tan Sri Dr Ting would depart from the scene with control of Granite, the listed company that allegedly has a billion ringgit contract in Ekran Berhad's scheme for the Bakun dam, and little else.

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