THE United States CANNOT yet shake itself out of its mindnumbing terror one year ago today: that in 30 minutes, two commercial jetliners, hijacked, smashed into its citadels of financial and military power; if a third had not crashed, or shot down, in the fields of Pennsylvania, of political nerve centre. The World Trade Centre, the Pentagon, the White House represents the might of the United States in this unilateral world it dominates. That it was unexpected sufficiently unnerved the US government to divert Air Force One, in which President Bush was travelling, in panic, while they unscrambled to take take stock.

The Malaysian Airport Holdings Berhad chairman, Tan Sri Basir Ismail, 'surprised' the Prime Minister, Dato' Seri Mahathir Mohamed, with a memento from the past: a 1959 Pontiac Catalina, the car he owned when in Kedah four decades ago -- and with the same number plate, K7600. The Prime Minister is pleased; he often is when he is fawned upon by cronies and acolytes and presented by them with baubles he likes. He is pleased as pink with the gift. He took his wife out for a spin, like in old times, and pronounced himself pleased. "I am happy, for sentimental reasons," he said. But nothing in Malaysia is as straightforward as it appears. A 6.3 litre, left hand drive 1959 Pontiac Catalina might cost $12,000 (not RM12,000 as the New Straits Times says - there was no ringgit then), but to buy it in 2002 from a specialist antique shop in the United States, and have it brought here by air, must cost at least 40 times that.

The original Great Game was between Great Britain and Imperial Russia. Both suffered horrendous casualties -- in one telling example, all that remained of a 16,000 strong convoy of British men, women and children, from Kabul when it reached Jalalabad was one doctor. The Soviet Union moved into Afghanistan in 1979, fought an unwinnable battle to be its Vietnam. Its plan to modernise the state was stopped by a combination of Muslim fundamentalists backed by the United States. The Russians were forced out.

The Malaysian defence minister, Dato' Seri Najib Tun Razak, commits every sin in the book as the jailed former deputy prime minister, Dato' Seri Anwar Ibrahim, when he called on the US defence secretary, Mr Donald Rumsfeld, at the Pentagon early this month (May 2002). Both went with the Prime Minister, Dato' Seri Mahathir Mohamed's blessings, but one stuck to his feudal script and other did not. One returns in honour and the other sits in his lonely prison cell in Sungei Buloh. Dato' Seri Najib went to lay the groundwork for Dr Mahathir to officially embrace Washington. He is honoured and praised for his role in fracturing Malaysia's foreign policy of equidistance into one of total reliance on Washington where it matters. He is warmly received, he made commitments to allow as many as 1,000 US military overflights over Malaysia every month, reinforced US-military links, took the United States into his confidence than he would ever the Malaysian public. Yet, Malaysia has for the past 35 years prided in its foreign policy of equidistance from the Big Powers. Dato' Seri Anwar did not such thing. If he had, he would probably be hanged as a traitor by now.

The government is not disposed to explain. What it does is not only correct, but should not be challenged since the people voted it into power. This is the logic Dato' Seri Abdullah now adopts. The police cannot be wrong when it is. It is like the United States insisting that terror is only when non-government groups instill it upon the people; when the government does, it is for the greatness of mankind, that when people die by terrorist bullets and bombs, it is despicable; when governments bomb the people, it is in the cause of freedom. Double standards like these that give the people a horrible option: vote for a government which guarantees to make your life difficult or one which could, even if it is from the Far Right or Far Left or religious, improve your lot, if at least for a short while.

So, his comments on a sole superpower is not meant to be applied at home, especially if it strengthens democracy. Democracy in Malaysia is in chains, hobbled, in restricted residence, like the regime's enemies, obeys only the whip of its master in Malaysia, the National Front, and occasionally bashed up by the police as the jailed former deputy prime minister once was. As the world must pay homage, if it wants to or not, to the United States after an unprecedented challenged to its power last September caused it to go berserk, so the country to BN. Any sustained opposition attempt to wound the BN's underbelly causes a retaliation as serious as President Bush's threat to deploy nuclear weapons against its enemies.

The BN government would not address it, dismisses any criticisms or questions of it, ignores them when they are raised in Parliament. The debts mount unfailingly, even as the government tries to put a rosy picture of how good the economy has been. But with every announcement of losses it cannot but reveal show a sordid mismanagement and mollycoddling of cronies. The government finds creative ways to justify it. The Prime Minister now says MAS's RM10 billion loss is not due to mismanagement under Tun Daim's crony, Tan Sri Tajuddin Ali's oversight, but because of a worldwide scare of flying after the Sept 11 disasters in the United States. It is not. But he cannot be blamed as severely because he is targetted for his links to one whom UMNO wants an accounting. As the money flows in, the desire to hunt him down dissipates. And so an external issue is raised, which had no relevance to how MAS acquired the debts in the years before September 11, 2001.

The deputy prime minister, Dato' Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, was certain the US immigration officials deliberately targetted a 30-year-old Malaysian denied entry into the United States, implying racism in what happened. A day later, when a 38-year-old Malaysian complained of similar harassment, he backed off. The impression given is the US targets Muslims, is racist, should be condemned. But is that the end of it? How do Malaysian immigration officers treat foreigners who come here on valid visas? Why are they sent back without by your leave? A few years ago, one who was sent back on arrival was the comptroller of immigration invited by his counterpart here. The official reasons given here are what the US immigration officers gave: they intend to work here, they did not have enough means of support, they look like terrorists, and like immigration offices at airport everywhere, harshly treated before they are sent back.

When Singapore banned her Malay schoolgirls from wearing the tudung to school, and suspended three who did, Malaysia took it as a deliberate attack on Islam. Coming as it did after the clearly anti-Muslim actions in the wake of the attacks on the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon in the United States, it was, to a disinterested observer, an unfortunate move by Singapore. But look closer, and you see a different picture.

He tries too hard. He misreads history. What the Greeks did was a brilliant subterfuge in a war that was ten years. It was brilliant generalship that won that war. To say this "ex-minister" is the Trojan horse of an unnamed power of economic and military strength is laughable at best. If Dato' Seri Anwar Ibrahim is a Trojan horse of the United States, as the Government likes us to believe, the government must act swiftly: the US ambassador be declared persona non grata and expelled, and Dato' Seri Anwar charged with treason. When the integrity of the nation is at stake, there is no compromise. The Malay rulers of the 19th century slept to allow the British to take control. We cannot have the 21st century Malay leaders sleep to allow the United States take control of this country, could we?

Meanwhile, let us look at Malaysia's own record in combatting terrorism and militancy. Mr Yazid Sifaat, a former capitain in military intelligence, is detained without charge under the Internal Security Act in Kamunting for terrorist activities. He was managing director of a company called Intech Focus, the chairman of which is a retired lieutenant colonel. The US would like to ask Mr Yazid a few questions about how he came to appoint Mr Moussavi Zacchiaras, now facing a charge of terrorism, as its representative in the United States. This is denied now, but it was on that basis that Mr Zacchiaras obtained his entry visa into the United States; as those who have dealt with the US consular service know, they are pretty thorough on checking the backgrounds of those who want visas.

An anagram of Enron is Renon; add a "G" -- and you have Malaysia's Enron: Renong. Mr Kenneth Lay's counterpart is Tan Sri Halim Saad. What drove both is the same "G" -- greed and government influence. An Enron happens in the United States once in a while, when the blatant political influence it had on the administration could not stave it from disaster. And it pays the price. Mr Lay is before Congress, he refuses to testify, under constitutional provisions that allow him to, but he faces the prospect of imprisonment for how the seventh largest US company collapsed in debt under his leadership.

And not forget Pravda, which accuses Malaysia of harbouring the family of Chechnya's leader, Mr Aslan Maskhadov, and several others? It alleges Mr Maskhadov himself comes here on occasion. It has, for Dr Mahathir, an unintended consequence: He was due to visit Russia, after his current tour of the United States (where he would not meet President Bush, who would be in East Asia then), Argentina (to holiday at his ranch there), Antartica, Poland and Germany. He would return from Antartica, rest, than go on to Poland and Germany. Russia is not keen on his visit. He is due to return in time for the F-1 motor championship which ends on 18 March.

Afghanistan has tripped more powerful nations than the United States. Since Alexander the Great conquered parts of it in the 4th century BC, none, including Great Britain and the Soviet Union, could hold on to the country for long. Its history is a continuing tale of ultimate defeat of the foreign conqueror.

BA underestimated the impact of President Bush's war on terror, which the BN government jumped on to destroy the credibility of its main opponent, PAS. There is more. Indera Kayangan is the anvil on which BN hammered the Chinese to force it to take a stand. Since World War Two, there were three such. In 1948, the Chinese had to chose between the communists and British colonial rule; in 1969, between Chinese and Malay chauvinism; and now between two worldviews on Islam. The pragmatic Chinese jumped on the bandwagon that would at least give them monetary security. In that respect, the terrorist attacks in the United States on 11 September 2001 is godsent to the BN. The opposition missed, indeed ignored, its impact, and would pay the price long after that is no more the issue.

And he finds it in the Kesatuan Mujahideen Malaysia, since changed to Kesatuan Militan Malaysia. No one knows what it is, but since the chairman of it is a PAS-leader's son, it must be linked to PAS. It does not matter if it is or not. Nor even if KMM exists. It comes in handy, especially after 11 September, to label his enemies with it. The arrests and detentions do not stop in Malaysia. In Singapore, the authorities have found a few Islamic Davids hell bent on revolution. Could all this be true? Of course, it must be true. Would the police make arrests on mere suspicion? You may think they would, but the home minister would deny that. After all, even Jane's Intelligence Review reveals insidiously the Al-Qaeda network wormed its way into the countries of the world that even even the mighty United States has no clue about it.

The destruction of the World Trade Centre twin towers is not about how efficiently Mr Guiliani cleaned up the mess but how it changed the Anglo-Saxon view of the world. It is easy to lump the Caucasian West into this, but it is the Anglo-Saxon world, led by the United States, that dominates, and that domination is shaken beyond repair. Years after Mr Guiliani disappears from public view, it would not be what he did but what Mr Bin Laden unleashed that would rattle not just the West but the world.

Dr Mahathir would have known by now that his predecessor and good friend, He Whose Name Must Not Be Mentioned, had ensured that our grandchildren would be paying for our folly and His Greed. But he would not be touched. He is in the same dilemma Mr Hamid Karzai is with the United States: he cannot allow Mullah Omar to be extradited to the United States as Washington wants as the good doctor cannot arrest the brilliant financier, as fawning newspapers were only too happy to describe him not so long ago, without jeopardising his own position. The banking system is flush with cash because it now lends only to those the government guarantees, and with adequate security. Or on direct orders that near-bankrupts be lent billions. But even near-bankrupt billionaires are few and far between.

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