THE WAR ON TERROR, as dictated by the United States, is fast becoming one in Malaysia, as it already is in many countries with fealty to Washington. This is adopted to keep the opposition away from politics, but all it has done is to keep it alive. In Indonesia, this is more widespread than is reported in the news reports, that getting prominence only when this affects the government or foreign countries with an axe to grind, usually and not exclusively Australia. In the process, President Susilo Bambang Yudhyono is seen against the war of terror, the fine elements of which are Washington's, or Australia's dictates. Malaysia has gone wholly with the United States on this, because its largest opposition is Islamic, which it wants to say is pro-war on terror, mainly to blame it Islamically, but gets caught in a bind as the National Front's version of Islam – now Islam Hadhari, but that is under the present prime minister, Pak Lah, only; it was not under the former leader – does not cut much ice in the villages.

A few middle class men and women cannot make the change, but they can bring others in. Mr J.B. Jeyaratnam, a lawyer and former district judge, had that role in Singapore for 40 years, and remains, in his seventies, honest to his belief. His refusal to kow tow to the People Action Party government, taking official harassment and bankruptcy in his stride, has led others to join him the years that followed. What is remarkable is he is Indian in a Chinese society. Chee Soon Juan, a former university lecturer, is the modern, and Chinese, version. He is in the political dog house for his pains. The task is made easier over the years because the government makes policies often without thinking that upset the middle class. This has happened in Thailand, France, Italy, Nepal, countries in Latin America. Cuba would not be what it is if it had not been led by the middle class against the United States.

SADDAM HUSSEIN'S TRIAL IS an example of victor's justice: First the trial, then the execution. That he will die is certain. But Iraq would be even more volatile either way. But putting to trial former leaders for what they have to do as leaders – that of Saddam Hussein is one, of Slobodan Milosevic another – would redound on US and European leaders once the worm turns, as it will. The United States realises this, and have offering aid in return for not clamouring for Americans to be tried in an international court. The publicity surrounding the trial of defeated leaders is deafening, giving the impression they do not have a case. But they do. And present it effectively. The Milosevic trial at the Hague was seen by Serbs as a punishment for not following Western dictates. His death, and burial in his country estate in Serbia, was a national event in his country, and the Western agenda over what was Yugoslavia is in shambles.

It is money that makes the world go around. No where is this clear publicly than in the United States, and now Iraq. It is so in other parts of the world, but the world is told it is more important in these two countries. The publicity surrounding the release of Jill Caroll, a Christian Science Monitor reporter, from a Iraqi group, was a piece of good news for the United States in an otherwise bleak Iraq. Both the US government and the Christian Science Monitor was emphatic that no ranson was paid. We are told to believe it, when we know any problem they have is solved by money. Journalists, especially American, are prime candidates for kidnap in Iraq, as it is in Afghanistan, even Pakistan. This is why they stay in their hotel rooms in Iraq, or in the so-called Green Zone, where the US and its allies are coccooned in apparent safety. To show that Iraq is in control, people like the US secretary of state Condileeza Rice and British foreign secretary Jack Straw visit Iraq often to show that all is well.

We live in an age of public relations. What the spin meisters say is more important than what is. This is true for Malaysia as it is for the United States. What happened is not important, what the spin meister says is. The United States went to war in Iraq on a lie. But the world is told by the United States the lies do not matter, what was important is that Saddam is gone. In the runup to destroying Iraq, the United States let out that if Iraq continued to be ruled by Saddam it was a disaster for the United States. But is the United States more in more danger after Iraq had been destroyed? American proxies are now in power in Baghdad, those who govern cannot leave the former Saddam administrative centre, the so-called Green Zone, without being armed to the teeth, they do not travel to the countryside, except rarely but only if they watch their step.

CRYING 'FIRE' IN A CROWDED theatre is not acceptabe, It may be freedom of speech or expression, but the responsibilty that goes with it, equally important, prevents it. That is accepted the world over. Similarly, the publication of a cartoon depiciting the Prophet Mohammed in a bad light, when Christianity representing the west is involved in a crusade against the Muslims. The editors can justify this as freedom of speech. But there are in the law books of most Christian nations severe punishmnent for caricaturing Jesus, for instance. That they are not enforced these laws is that the societies have moved ahead and do not impose these laws. The publication of the cartoons in Denmark, and republication in other countries, to anger the Muslims is deliberate. In this extension of the war on terror, the United States have stayed out. What we hear is European reaction. It could also be an attempt to take the advantage of the United States in this war on terror. Europe has played second fiddle to the war on terror, and see no reason why it should allow the United States to represent Christianity.

THE United States IS losing badly in Iraq. It does not release news of any kind from there. In the past, before the reality struck in, one could not escape from Iraq, which it saw as evidence it is winning, whatever that means, the war. The government there is bothered about bird flu, as if that is the most important thing amid the mayhem the US has caused, is causing, in that country since it invaded it in 2003. The citizens have become the insurgents, and more join them daily as they see their life more hopeless day by day. There is the occasional talk from Washington of cutting down troops, but the aim of the invasion, based on false reasons like Iraq's nuclear capabilities, was to set up a permanent base in the Middle Eat in Iraq. That alone will make sure the continued insurgency. The Sunnis, in power since 1920, accepts that it will never rule Iraq again, so it will destroy the country, probably more viciously, than the US armed forces have done.

Singapore thinks it is a Chinese island surrounded by a hostile Islamic sea, and first patterned itself to Israel in the Middle East, and then a United States outpost in the region. It remained afraid of Malaysia, and became globalisation's South-East Asian centre. It ignored its traditional entrepot trade with its neighbours, Malaysia and Indonesia, and thought it had a march on its neighbours by being as Western as possible. Mr Lee had a plan, and has faithfully followed it, but he has created a capitalist soceity with a communist heart. The people who carried this out kept their mouths shut and made themselves rich and western. The second generation of civil servants knew the value of keeping their mouths shut, and doing what they are told. It brought in the US armed forces into the island republic so that it assumed a Malaysian attack on the island republic would be an attack on the United States. But it could also be the other way. In any case, if the past is any guide, it would harm Singapore more than Malaysia. The US leaning towards Pakistan has not prevented India from attacking it.

Dato' Seri Anwar, who left for the United States on the night of 14 January 2006, has decided he would be in the Opposiion. He would have rejoined UMNO but his re-entry is an issue. At the last UMNO general assembly, a resolution, hastily withdrawn, would have barred any who left the party rejoining as he would be a traitor if he left. It was meant to affect only Dato' Seri Anwar, but three of UMNO's six presidents, two of whom prime ministers, would be affected by the resolution. On the practical side, many in power in UMNO do not want him in to climb to the top on their shoulders, and then be cut off from the mainstream. He did that once, and lightning, as they say, do not strike twice in the same place. UMNO cannot live with him, nor live without him! But he has thrown in his lot with the opposition, though not which party. But he flies the flag for PKR for the moment, although he does not – indeed, cannot – hold office yet.

ASEAN IS A DEAD LETTER. What started as a bang in 1967 will go out in a whimper. It is now beholden to outsiders, especially the United States. The chairman of the ASEAN Summit in Kuala Lumpur which just ended, Malaysian Prime Minister, has made sure of it. The United States papers have said the country need not worry because ASEAN's chairman is a 'friend'. Pak Lah gave interviews with the Wall Street Journal and other Western newspapers, but not to a local. He, like all Malaysian leaders, want to be loved by foreigners, especially from the West. Local journalists write about ASEAN only on public statements, and do not report beyond their brief. But this does not mean they do not have opinions or hear others talk about it. They do. Only they discuss it with the colleagues and does not write about it because they would annoy their editors and more important, the officials. Malaysian officials think therefore that the ASEAN Summit is a success while it is run down. ASEAN foreign mininsters met annually in the past, and the focus of reporting was on what they said, leaving their bosses, prime ministers and presidents enough manouverability to accept or reject what was agreed by the foreign ministers. But not now. The ASEAN Summit, which was orginally held when it had to, is now an annual affair. Next year's will be in the Philippines. But it is now an organisation its members do not control.

NO INTERNATIONAL ORGANISATION SURVIVES if it is not altered to fit the times. Nor would it survive if the promoters are not keen. The latest that will not survive is ASEAN. Nor would the East Asian Summit. Both have lost the reason for being. The EAS has become a talking shop, with all members afraid of China, and to make sure of that, it has admitted Australia and New Zealand as members, but not North Korea. The United States hates North Korea for its independence, and so it is not in the East Asian summit. The 2005 chairman of ASEAN put the knife into the organisation by doing all that a non-member, in this case the United States, wanted discussed. The ASEAN Summit thought that one Myanmarese lady was worth more in ASEAN than 4 million Thai Malays. Neither EAS nor ASEAN can discuss matters of mutual concern without making sure the United States approved. In EAS, Australia and New Zealand are in it to make sure; in ASEAN, this year's chairman is touted as the United States' man. The Wall Street Journal thinks so. ASEAN and EAS has become talking shops, in which nothing of importance will be discussed. They have become organisations more important to the outside world, in which journalists and academics have become more important than the participants. Both ASEAN and EAS are dead, but it will linger on for years, because the countries want it to exist. But no decision they take will be of importance.

THE ASEAN SUMMIT IS OVER. It is held every year now, instead of occasionally as it was agreed in the past. The next one will be in the Philippines. The most important decision it has taken is to fine- tune the East Asian Summit, in which is invited the United States's Sheriff in the region, Australia, and New Zealand, which though has taken an independent stance in the past is always on the side of the West where it matters. ASEAN was once an economic grouping, in which the foreign ministers met annually. It was effective then. Now it is another talking shop, more of interest to the Western academics than its members. It was founded in 1967 in Bangkok to stop Indonesia and Malaysia going to war with each other again. It met annually to discuss common issues. ASEAN was accused then of not pulling its weight, but as more nations became members, it lost its raison d'etre. Indonesia and Malaysia, and therefore Islam, was sideline as the Buddist nations - Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos, Myanmar - joined Thailand to dominate the grouping. It means nothing now. It is more like the European Union now. The presence of 2,000 journalists, and this did not include the 200 that came with the Indian prime minister, Mr Manmohan Singh, and the 300 was in the party of the Japanese prime minister, Mr Junizuro Koizumi, and the academics joined to make this meeting irrelevant.

SADDAM HUSSEIN IN THE dock challenges the United States and its plans to make Iraq in its image and get at the second largest oil reserves known, after Saudi Arabia. He is on trial for his life, orchestrated by the US. He is in their custody. It decides when or how the trial will be held. The US must censor the trial reports and photographs before it can be published. He has too many supporters in present day Iraq, and they should not ever know he is putting up a fight. But Saddam Hussein in the dock is so threatening that witnesses give their evidence behind a screen; the judges and the prosecution can see them but not the defence. The trial of Saddam Hussein and his men is holding to ranson the US invasion of Iraq. The trial was decided to be in Iraq. The US made his first mistake when it charged him with minor offences, when they should have charged him and his men for the offense they have kept to the last. It did not know what it was doing, allowed Saddam Hussein to take charge. CNN and other television reports that the people of Iraq are not convinced. The judges, who except for the chief judge are kept hidden, can pronounce only death, the sooner the better. If he is acquitted in his first trial, the US is more on the defensive. It cannot afford that. Saddam Hussein has said he would expect the death sentence, and prepared for that. An Arab ruler expects to be killed if he loses or is overthrown. But he is arrested by an invading army, which did not know what to do once it had Iraq. The Invasion was done for false reasons. There was a rush to claim credit for the invasion, and the officials in Washington and their proconsul in Iraq did not agree what to do next. The decision was taken to create a government from start, with lthe Sunnis, who have ruled since the 1920s, excluded. the Sunnis saw the writing on the wall, decided they would never rule again, went against the US, and the country is in chaos.

Those who dismissed reports of CIA allowing its prisoners to be tortured elsewhere in secret prisons now accept it as fact. The waffling on CNN the other day when a direct question was asked of Mr Hadley made them convinced. But the US has been known to torture. It was done discreetly in the past, the reporters do not report it for fear of their access to the US government and military restricted. It was done routinely in Vietnam. It tortures people they invade. Abu Ghraib prison is one example. Waffling their way out of that mess, the US officers judged the US commandant of that prison, and a few low ranking US military guilty. To make sure it did not happen again, the chief of Guantanamo Bay prison who oversaw the torture there was sent to take charge of Abu Ghraib. But this was worse than putting the fax in a hen coop. The torture goes on in secret. It does not make the newspapers, so it is all right! But every man tortured without reason has gone to the other side. No amount of puffery and whaffling will change that. Afghans tortured in Guantanamo Bay and now speak proudly of having learnt English will turn enemies of the United States. The US actions will get more recruits to the insurgents than they could have been recruited.

THE MESS IN IRAQ today would not have happened if the United States had planned before Iraq was invaded. Their plans were of quislings, who were not given positions in the Iraqi government unless they held Western citizenship. In Australia, its citizens could not be in politics if they held dual citizenships. In Iraq, that was a necessity. Iraq had a working government, but that was destroyed for no reason than no planning. No one could be in the new government who held a Baathist Party membership. That restriction threw the experienced Sunnis out of the new Iraq. It was a precipe for disaster. The United States and those who followed it depended on quislings who had an agenda of their own, and who told lies without batting an eyelid. The United States was sucked into a quagmire. The Sunnis created an insurgency, knowing it would not be ruling power, and had no interest in a new Iraq. It got fighters from the Middle East, those who could not go back to their countries after fighting for the United States in Afghanistan against Russia. Osama bin Laden. a wealthy Saudi Arabian who is not allowed back, was, after all, once a CIA agent. So was Saddam Hussein, whose trial makes him a great figure in the Middle East each time the trial fumbles. And it has fumbled more often than not. The United States wants to hang him for what he did as a head of state. All his arguments are waved aside. They created a law that did not exist when he ordered the killing as head of state. The United States had, after all, supported Augustino Pinochet as president of Chile, and turned a blind eye when he allegedly committed the offenses for which he is now found guilty. The killings were done with United States connivance, in Iraq and Chile. The new circumstance in Iraq meant he would have to be killed.

AFTER 45 YEARS IN journalism, I have been told to join the people who run this country. I should be concentrating on other issues, like the poor. I said the poor in this country is poorer because of the policies now carried out. Another in the group said an average person in authority would not feel comfortable unless he has RM50 million in assets. Now, I know why a former civil servant is working hard at 77. He has only RM10 million in assets. He tells me he is a failure. This is not the first time I have been asked to give up my principles. Thirty years ago I might have, although I doubt it. I am 66, with my life behind me, I treat the offer with the contempt it deserves. I have known all the UMNO presidents and prime ministers, some of them personally, but they have not asked me to join them. I know the present prime minister, Pak Lah, well enough for him and his wife, now alas the late, to drop in at my flat while I was recuperating from my open heart surgery, though I have not met him a while. I hear from friends he is angry with me for what I write about his policies. But that is how the other prime ministers thought of me. I have been expelled - from Singapore - for my views, taken to court - one has not finished although it began in 1994 - and threatened with arrest. I do not intend to migrate, although there was pressure on me to go to the United States after my Nieman fellowship at Harvard University. I had a lifetime visa to the United States, but it is not valid after 11 September 2001. I do not think I would ever visit the United States again. The only place I will migrate to if I am asked to leave is to Kerala, in India.

Singapore, priggish at the best of times, now consider casinos, to attract the foreigner. Elaborate rules are drawn to keep the Singaporeans out. Singaporeans are warned not to enter these casinos except under very stringent rules that favour the rich and the powerful. Similar rules are in force in Malaysia, but there is a special room in Genting Highlands casino, for instance, for Malaysian cabinet ministers, sultans and Muslim highrollers - for whom, like the Muslim poor, gambling is banned in Islam - and kept hidden from the populace. But how many former and present cabinet ministers break it every time they enter the casino in Genting Highlands? The casinos, in Singapore and Malaysia, are for the foreigner, for whom facilities are built to which its own citizens are banned. Singapore is a rest-and-recreating centre for American troops who were then fighting in Vietnam in the 1960s, and is today host to about 2,000 troops of the island. mainly as insurance against Malaysia attacking the island republic. But both are kept on a tight leash by the West and Caucasian countries. The governments in both keep the citizens in the dark while its leaders take orders from the West, usually the United States. Especially in the war on terror. The governments of Singapore and Malaysia are with the United States, but most of the people are not. To stay in power, they believe they must. They warn of 'Muslim fundamentalists' on behalf of the United. And behave as prostitutes do. They expect to remain in power for all times. But so did Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden. And look where they are now!

Today we face the Mahabharata in its modern form. What is invented today is a re-invention of what had been the norm in Atlantis so many thousand years ago. But there is a twist in the modern Atlantis. It can get its version out only by hoodwinking its people and others. The fight in the United States over Iraq is more vicious because of the public relations specialists. The journalists have been coopted, and they are angry. The public discussion of the Plame Affair and the role of journalists in the lack weapons of mass destruction in Iraq is a sideshow to the real issue: the invasion of Iraq. It is being orchestrated by a new breed of specialist in public relations called perception management experts. The aim is to tell lies to the public. The Bay of Tonkin incident which caused the United States to be an active participant in the Vietnam War was found years later to be a lie. The weapons of mass destruction in Iraq is found to be a lie within a few years because of the presence of public relations experts. The inherent lies are found out sooner today because the truth is managed by public relations experts. The modern Mahabharatha is between Islam and the United States in which Islam represents the Rishi Kings and the United States Atlantis. It need not be said that the Rishi Kings won.

APEC LEADERS MEETING IN Busan, South Korea, discussed, among other subjects, bird flu. Less people die a year of bird flu than a day in the United States of car accident deaths. Indeed, more people die of car accidents around the world, even in APEC, in a day than bird flu in a year; police and military brutality around the world is much serious and prevalent than bird flu, but we do not see APEC, or any regional or international body, discussing it. The world spins on corruption, and it affects us all; yet the matter is not discussed seriously in any international forum. To ensure that corruption will not be brought to court, laws are passed, in every country, to make that more difficult. Bird flu is a laboratory disease that has escaped the coop. As Aids was. The AIDS campaign is over. But how many people have died of AIDS throughout the world in the years we have been warned against it. APEC essentially is a regional body in which the United States, China and Russia is in the same forum. It is their agenda that the rest of APEC accepts. It gives officials a chance to spend public money living it up in foreign countries, even if it was not plain sailing in Busan. Riots and public protests made it inconvenient there, but they were coccooned half-a-mile away in their fortress-like hotels. I have attended many such meetings, and not only APEC, and in countries around the region. But all these international meetings ensure that the divide between the rulers and the ruled at home are wide apart. In a few countries, this is noticed, and the people retaliate.

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