The British made sure Iraq was kept secular and ruled by the Sunni since l920. It made sure that its prime ministers were Sunni. That was rigorously followed by the leaders who followed. The Americans changed that, and pay the price. The Sunnis – who form a minority in this mosaic of religions – know now they will never get back into power, and destroy what the Americans have not. The oil piplelines are now blown apart. Today, the Americans are on the retreat, do not crow about their 'successes', and are ready to cut and run. It is a failure which has become normal to them: Philippines, Liberia, Iraq, Afghanistan, Korea, Vietnam. The freed slaves of America were sent to form the government in Liberia; their descendant rulers were machine gunned on the beach by a native revolt. Whether Saddam Hussein is found guilty or not does not matter.

Except for Vietnam, the countries in the region has had Indian influence, brought no doubt by early travellers and business men from India. The Sanskrit they brought along has been corrupted to local parlance, but it is Sanskrit nevertheless. Prince Souvanna Phouma is a former Laotian politician, who told me in the 1960s that his name means Swarna Bhumi in Sanskrit. Tengku Abdul Rahman, Malaysia's first prime minister, had thought of naming his country Langkasuka, as the capital of ancient Indian empire was known, but he was dissuadid because the area was now part of Thailand. The cultural links still continue. When a Thai priest in the palace dies, his replacement is from south India, even today. India had many points in its favour But it has spoiled all that in its mad rush to be tops in the region.

Today, only the insurgent's dastardly behavour, as they say, is reported. Even the Arab media has toned it coverage. To make sure it does, its media is regularly killed. It is dangerous to be from the media if one has a different view from the West of the civil war in Iraq. The reporters were the megaphones of the invasion. Later, they took a more neutral stance, and now are cowed because their number is killed, both by the Americans and the insurgents. Iraq is now more dangerous than Vietnam ever was. But instead of understanding the enemy, the West not only annoys it but gets the world to accept its assessment. Osama bin Laden is kept alive, at least in the public imagination, since he is the leader that the war on terror is hoping to kill. But he has become the beneficiary, just as Ho Chi Minh was. Ho Chi Minh's death robbed the Americans of an enemy in Vietnam, and they had to leave with tails behind their legs, This will happen in Iraq too.

But Al-Qaeda is an American creation. It was used to get the Soviet Union out of Afghanisation so that it could get into the mess there. It forgot, or did not realise, that Al-Qaeda members were Islamic fundamentalists, who accepted American money and training to eventually overthrow them as well. To it, the Soviet Union, now Russia, and the United States were foreigners out to rule Afghanistan, and that it would not allow. The US knows a lot of about Al-Qaeda – its operations, its senior operatives. that it is built like an American organisation – but Al-Qaeda is successful because it gives its leaders in the field the freedom to operate within a set of rules given it. Washington pokes holes in what it sees as Al-Qaeda's operations, but it says them so that the Americans are not unduly frightened. Al-Qaeda taunts the United States with frequent video and audo tapes to keep the Americans frightened. It came into Iraq after the US invaded the country. Most of its fighters are foreign, now in about the same proportion of the US-led coalition. For all this interest in seeing Osama bin Laden dead, it is a fact that if he is, the Americans would in time leave Iraq with their tails behind their back. It took only seven years after Ho Chi Minh's death for the Americans to leave South Vietnam in defeat.

ASEAN was founded in 1967 so that Indonesia and Malaysia would not ever go to war. When the new members came in, it was not either of these two countries which were important, but the Buddhist nations – Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, Myanmar. And so, these two countries did not for it to be relevant. In the meanwhile, a secretariat has been set up in Jakarta, with Malaysian as its first secretary-general and Singapore took up that post as the second. But it is Bangkok which decides whether ASEAN survives or not. It will let it continue, as ASEAN countries are more caught up in internal and bilaterial affairs. It is a fact that Malaysia and Thailand are caught in the problem of Thai Malays, who are ethinically Malays in Malaysia but have Thai citizenship. Malaysians believe that all Malays must be united under its leadership, and conducts its foreign policy to win a march over Parti Sa Islam (PAS), whose control of Kelantan the ruling National Front believes has to do with many Kelantanese having relatives with the Thai Malays.

Because Indonesia and Malaysia represented the main members, the ASEAN raison d'etre kept it going. But the moment the Buddhist nations - Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos, Myanmar - took a dominant role, Indonesia and Malaysia, both Muslim nations, ceased interest in keeping ASEAN alive. So they never bothered. ASEAN became another organisation dominated by the West, and was no longer important. ASEAN got a secretariat, and journalists from the West kept it alive. The member countries in ASEAN kept it alive, for it showed how important they are when the organisation's meeting is held in their capitals. The traffic was diverted for this year's conference at the Kuala Lumpur City Centre that the city was impassable to vehicular traffic. All that the Malaysian in Kuala Lumpur made of it is the traffic jame they encountered, and the public statements Malaysian leaders made. The other leaders were mentioned not for what they said, though that got published if they agreed with Pak Lah, but for the human interest stories.

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.

The elaborate circumstances under which Saddam Hussein and his men are on trial has gone awry. The witnesses are not willing to reveal themselves for fear of what would happen to them outside the court. Every one in authority would like to see Saddam Hussein dead. But the trial was first held during Ramadan, when trials involving death sentences are rarely held, and it is postponed two weeks before the elections in which US's favourite sons will win. Iraq will be ruled by proxy, but with a strong insurgency. Both do not care what happens to Iraq. The government the US formed lives in fear of its lives, and dare not leave the "Green Zone" except under armed escort. The government will not get down to the ground for the same reason. It cannot last, as President Nguyen van Thieu did not in Vietnam. Because of Saddam Hussein now, and Ho Chi Minh then. The arguments heard today in Iraq is those that was heard in Vietnam then. The battle then was between "Freedom" and "Communism", in which the United States was on side, but the Russians got proxies to fight, and the United States lost. In Iraq, the government it formed is peopled by Iraqis who left the country and hold a Western situation. They know that if worse came to worst, they could always go back to the country of Western citizenship. Iraq will be a desolate land for the insurgents are not interested in taking over. Every effort they made to keep a functioning country was rejected: the US is not interested to negotiate with the guerrillas. But it wants to give the impression it is winning the war. So it gives a rosy picture of what is happening in the country, and decry the guerrillas. As they did, in the aptly named "Five O'clock Follies" in Saigon. With this one difference. People could walk about freely in Saigon then, as they cannot in Baghdad.

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 PRIME MINISTER, DATO' Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi (Pak Lah) is furious with his deputy internal security minister, Dato' Noh Omar for having said that foreigners could go home if they thought Malaysia was cruel. But he does not drop the deputy minister from his government. He dare not, for Dato' Noh and his supporters may join his opponents in UMNO, which has the power in the National Front government. The home affairs minister, Dato' Azmi Khalid, who had to postpone his visit to China from yesterday to 20 December 2005, blames 'negative press reports". He makes a slur on the Chinese government, which the previous day had protested against Malaysia ill- treating its citizens. The Malaysian public is blamed, and anyone else, if only to tell the world that it is not the government's fault. The Malaysian Government illtreats its citizens and they keep quiet. Those from India, Pakistan, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Vietnam are, but their governments keep quiet; so it assumed wrongly China would too. Malaysia supports, or vaccilates in public about its departments and agencies illtreating the Chinese tourists, and cannot admit that it has done wrong. In this first crisis of its making, it is in dissaray. It thinks it can explain its side of the story, but no one, especially the Malaysian public, believes it. The foreigners, especially China, disbelieves it. The mainstream newspapers in Malaysia, which by and large is the National Front's public relations machine, has carried articles of police and immigration manhandled foreign tourists. The National Front government has no case, but acts as if it has. It could ask its experts to solve the issue, but they are chosen for their political reliability not for their experise.

Maybe this is not how a journalist should work. That what I write is not worth reading because it does not represent the 'truth'. But I am read, even by journalists, for a different view I provide. I am often told I am a 'conspiracy theorist'. This is often hurled at any who does not accept the perceived truth. I challenged the perceived truth in Vietnam; I was lucky there because I was the only Indian reporter, though a Malaysian, and India was a neutralist nation and chairman of the International Control Commission. That challenging has not left me. And my writing mirrors it. If the authorities find that irritating, they should not try to shut me up; they should change their policies. Few in Malaysia are critical in English, but Malay papers and journalists are. I write but a fraction of what contains in the Malay or Chinese papers. The officials and politicians read the Malay papers now with more care, and act to prevent the pot from boiling. The English papers are not critical so we are told because the Caucasian foreigner will not come otherwise. The Tamil papers represent factions in the MIC, and can be ignored. It is the Chinese papers that has landed the Malaysian government in a mess today. They printed photographs of a naked Chinese woman doing the ear squat, which Pak Lah has said gives Malaysia a bad name overseas! There is no mention of the locals badly treated by the police, or police brutality which is common. Ask Dato' Seri Anwar! But why does a naked woman do the ear squat for a minor offence?

THERE AUSTRALIAN OUTCRY ON Singapore's anticipated hanging of an Australian of Vietnamese origin is expected. There was a similar outcry over Malaysia hanging two Australian Caucasians. There is no difference in the outcry. The Australians have found reasons for the media that the trials were unfair. But they make no such claim when Singaporeans, Malaysians, Thailand, Vietnamese citizens are hanged. Their attitude is they deserved it, and they were not 'our' citizens anyway. There is much wrong in the way death sentences are handed out in these two countries, and many have kept their date with the hangman innocent. So what is special about Western and Australian citizens hanged in Singapore and Malaysia? Nothing, only that these countries are the prostitutes of globalisation and should know their place. They should not upset on the West or Australia by hanging one of their citizens. Malaysia defied that, during Tun Mahathir's term as prime minister, by hanging two Australians and one Englishman. Singapore makes an issue once in a while, jailed an Englishman for breaking Singapore laws, sent an American home when he has sure of being convicted under drug laws and hung. The Australians are not interested if one of their citizens who is not Caucasian, and so he will be hung. As he should be. No country, not even a prostitute of globalisation, should be deterred against carrying out its laws. The death sentences for carrying minute amounts of drugs was put into the law books, in Singapore and Malaysia, at the West's insistence. It is now a problem in these countries, given their unfairness, that death sentences are carried out in secret, and the Malaysians know of it usually only after the fact. It a political issue here so it is kept hidden. In contrast, the Australian leaders are on the defensive that one of its citizens, a model, found with banner drugs in Indonesia, is in fact a Muslim.

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.

But in this information war, the enemy is stupid, reacts to what the Americans do, and cannot think or act on their own. But they are not. The Americans thought Ho Chi Minh stupid. But and his advisers, one of whose books on guerilla warfare is taught in military schools in France and the United States. They blame them for not fighting set piece battles. But they will not. In guerila warfare, they fight when the enemy is not looking. Any damage it causes is victory for them. Ho Chi Minh wrote poetry in his free time while he was leading the guerilla warfare or as President of North Vietnam or as President of Vietnam. Osama bin Laden was a Saudi Arabian son of privilege who exchange a cave for a big house, and riches for poverty. He is obviously a strategist. The Americans recruited him to drive the Soviet Union out of Afghanistan, and gave him weapons and everything needed. But Osama had a different aim. And that aim he is perfecting. The more the West particularly the Americans blame him for their difficulty in Iraq or in the Middle East, the more his support grows. He remains intractibly opposed to the West, has touched base with the poor Muslims around the world in which the Muslim leaders are supportive of American global war on terrorism. Malaysia's rather harsh words on the bombing of Amman is a case in point.

The United States had the information war in its favour in Vietnam in the early stages. But it was the Vietcong and Vietminh who won. There was also discussion in Washington over whether the Vietminh controlled the Vietcong. It did not matter. Both were on the same side fighting the Americans and their cohorts. It was the only fight by proxies when the two giants of the Cold War, the United States and the Soviet Union, got involved in a fight. But the United States was not satisfied with proxy fighting, it wanted to, and got involved, in the fighting. South Vietnam was lost to North Vietnam. The Americans claim they won because they do business with Vietnam. But if business was the aim, they could have done it without losing a war. They have treated the war in Afghanistan as another war on terror. But it is bogged down there, as the Soviet Union was and the British before that. They happen to be Muslims, and so it is a war of terror. Whatever it says, it is bogged down in Afghanistan. To leave would be as dangerous as staying. The advisers in Washington have seen Iraq as similar to Afghanistan because Islam is the dominant religion. But as the Pakistani civil servant would tell you, it cannot rule the North West Frontier and the remote areas it look when it set the line of control in the dispute over Kashmir. There are periods when a strong government in Islamabad can estabish control in these areas, as President Ayub Khan, himself a Pathan from the North West Frontier, could. The Pathans have ruled in Afghanistan for about 150 years, and there is relative calm now because a Pathan is the West's blued eye boy President. But he still cannot leave his official residence without an escort, or leave Kabul by road. The Pathans – the Taliban (literally, the student) are from this group – will be an opposition if any group that it likes comes into power. The Taliban came to power in Afghanistan because the people it disliked, who were traditionally gardeners and cooks, came to power. Hamid Karzai is not only a Pathan, but from the ruling class, of the Populzai tribe. The United States probably did not chose him for his tribal connections, but the country is peaceful for who he is.

It is important for the United States and Britain, especially after its quagmire in Iraq after it believed it would be welcomed with flowers, to win its ubiquitous war on terror. The United States, Britain, Australia would not apportion blame so soon in a police case, but they had already decided guilt of Al-Qaeda or others opposed. In Vietnam in the 1960s, the Vietcong had been blamed for atrocities perpetrated by the United States and its allies. The world believed it at the time, but retired officials have written their memoirs in which they said how these atrocities were done. The war on terror is against Islam, and the United States and its allies decided to make their first strike in Iraq. What happened in Jordan could be part and parcel of the Islamic reaction. We are not sure. Others could be involved. If the United States can act in other countries, so can the Islamic movements. In this case, it need not be Iraqis; it could also be Islamicists around the world who are opposed to the West's condemnation of Islam. Or even citizens of the West who are Muslims.

In Malaysia, where almost all the sources of information is official, as it must be when putting out news that offends authority usually means the sack, people do not bother. One told me he buys the paper out of habit; another told me his wife gets it in school under a scheme to push the newspaper sales, and he reads only the advertisements, and depends on the Internet for news and views. So when a cabinet minister or civil servant is attacked, because those in government want him to, newspapers can be as critical of them as they like. It is so in Singapore too. There is no difference in newspapers in Malaysia, Singapore, Myanmar or Vietnam. Journalists the world over assume the press in Myanmar and Vietnam are not free, because of its politics, but the press is not free either in Malaysia and Singapore, as it is not free in London and the United States. When the Prime Minister of Malaysia makes a tour overseas, he takes with him a bevy of reporters. But then so does the president of the United States. It does not matter that one is paid for and the other is not. The intention is the same: to get favourable of the tour back home.

That the US tries to limit Al Jazeera's reach is seen in shutting it out when it can. They were given the coordinates of the Kabil office. Long after, the US strafed the office, killing its correspondent. The Palestine hotel is bombed, and the Iraq insurgents blamed. But the US did not want journalists in Iraq, and the atrocity would divert attention. It did not work. The insurgents might still have done the bombing, but until the evidence of that is forthcoming, I would believe it is the US or its allies that did it. The British after all raided a police station under its control where two Marines, caught redhanded bombing a car, had been sent, and two Americans had been captured doing the same thing. The British and the Americans are quiet on why they did it. I was told only the Russians had reported the arrest of the Americans. That is because the US chose not to. Books now talk of the propaganda nature of the war in Vietnam. We cannot expect any less in Iraq. Who gains the propaganda war in Iraq wins. At present, the US is losing, and shorten the odds by taking out the journalists who sees with his eyes that what the US says is not the truth. The poodle journalists have become barnyard dogs, and can reduce their number only by killing or making their life difficult not by argument or propaganda.

Would the election in December make any sense? The Sunni underground will not vote, or is he does, he will make sure his vote will not be counted. He does not see any hope in this new Iraq. Those Iraqis in power hold citizenships of the West and most were parachuted in. The discussion on the constitution was not with the people who had to vote for it, but President Bush, Prime Minister Tony Blair and other Western leaders. A referendum on the lines it was held in Iraq will not be held in settled communities. In Malaysia, the election in 1969 was postponed twice in Malacca - when the candidate died before the election and when a state of emergency was imposed for riots in Kuala Lumpur. Public rallies, especially by the opposition but not by the National Front, in peaceful Malaysia. Elections are postponed if there is any serious law and order situation. The referendum in Iraq annoys the Sunni and the Iraqi nationalist, and would make it difficult for the United States to succeed. I keep harping on what happened in South Vietnam. It is the United States which invaded the country, and fought against the nationalist. But there was not much destruction then. There is in Iraq. The Vietcong and Vietminh eventually won in South Vietnam. In Iraq, the nationalist knows the dice is loaded against him, and does not want to return to the power that Saddam Hussein had.

A BAD PEACE IS EVEN WORSE THAN WAR, said Tacitus, about the Roman conquest of Britain. He also quoted the British chieftain Calgacus tell his troops about Rome's insatiable desire for conquest and plunder and to 'savage, to slaughter, to usurp under false titles, they call empire; they make a devastation, and call it peace." He wrote this 2,000 years ago but it refers to the United States as well, now. Mr Donald Rumsfeld, the US defence secretary and one of those who hurtled into the war in Iraq without an exit plan, said the United States was more powerful than Rome. The United States behaved now as the Romans then. And like the Romans, the United States are left wondering where they went wrong. It is perhaps trite to suggest now that you do not go to war with an adjective, but that is what the war on terror is all about. The United States did not want to sound racist, so the war against Muslims quickly became the war on terror. It invaded Iraq because of oil. It is a Muslim nation, so the adjective made sense in Washington. Its reasons at invading Iraq has proven false. There were no weapons of mass destruction, and Iraq had no nuclear plan. That it had both was why it officially invaded the country. It displaced the Sunnis and Baath party members from power, and put Saddam Hussein on trial. It had no plans other than ensure that the Sunnis and the Baathist Party did not rule. But in deciding that, it made sure that Iraq was not a oil producing state anymore, but a fourth world state which was like Vietnam in the 1960s. It war on terror made sure that all Sunnis world wide were targetted. In the Middle East, the Sunni sect of Islam dominated, and the Arab street was with the Iraqi, who did not like his country to be ruled by an invader, which the United States is. The coalition it has cobbled is a smokescreen, to make other countries join it in this war on terror. It went on an information war to regard those supported the Iraqis as foreign insurgents, as if they are not foreigners. The referendum on the American-drafted constitution may yet pass, but the insurgency would not end.

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