That is how Tan Sri Vincent Tan (remember him?) and others like him got into the press and into the public's mind. Today, no newspaper in Malaysia would carry reports that he shed tears in public as Dato' Patrick Lim did. Tan Sri Vincent and Tan Sri Ting Pek Khiing sued me for not believing their spin meisters. I am prepared to believe them now they are business men of repute, as they demanded I should then, but are they now who they were then? Under the next prime minister, Dato' Patrick would be ignored. But the bankruptcy petitions against me would succed in the end. There is now an attempt to make me one. All because a business man and his lawyer are angry and upset they could not shut me up. They can make me a bankrupt, which they probably will in due course, but they will remain flawed forever.

PAK LAH IS IN DIFFUCULTIES because his son-in-law. Mr Khairy Jamaluddin, does what he likes and any one who questions him can be entangled in libel suits. Mr Husam Musa, a PAS MP, asked a few questions, in an online PAS hewspaper, about his sudden wealth, and ECM Libra has sued both. The company has decided that asking Mr Khairy questions like Mr Husam's is a blight on it. But a defamation suit can take years in the Malaysian courts, particularly if Mr Husam and the PAS Publishing company defends it. The chances are good that it will last after Pak Lah leaves office. Tan Sri Vincent Tan sued me in 1993, I lost all the way to the federal court, but another federal court bench decided the bench headed by the then chief justice, who went to New Zealand on holiday with the lawyer for Vincent Tan, was flawed. I am still waiting for the federal court re-hearing. 12 years after i was sued. Mr Khairy could be in the same boat as Tan Sri Vincent. But Pak Lah is already saddled with the backlash over this.

THE FORMER FINANCE MINISTER, Tun Daim Zainuddin, is on a rampage after he was implicated in the Metramac scandal, and Mr Justice Sri Ram, about to retire, said some snasty things about him. Metramac's lawyer, Mohamed Shafee Abdullah, is facing a possible contempt of court charges for what he said after the Appeal Court hearings. Tun Daim and his compatriots assume that justice will only be served if judgement go their way. They could be excused if they had said this after the Federal Court had made its judgement, when all avenues of legal proceedings would then be over. But he, and his lawyer, is wrong. People go to court when their versions cannot agree, and the judge decides, as in the Metramac case, on the balance of probabilities. That is if everything is right and proper. Tan Sri Vincent Tan, a friend of the UMNO establishment then but not anymore, took me to court, arranged for a hearing at double-quick time, without my knowledge. I had some lawyer who called me saying he was going to discharge himself if I did not give him any instructions.

Over the years, MPs were kept in the dark, and when they asked questions, they were threatened with defamation suits. The National Front got its favourite business men to silence the journalists. Tan Sri Vincent Tan took me to court, and on a serious of moves which showed that he gets the judges he wants, won all the way to the federal court. By then he was out, the I was given a rehearing of the Federal Court on the grounds that the Chief Justice had gone on a holiday with the lawyer for Tan Sri Vincent Tan. This was followed by Tan Sri Ting Pek Khiing of Ekran, who sued me in Miri and I have to go there to file. Both are friends of the former prime minister, Tun Mahathir Mohamed. Tan Sri Ting's case did not go any further after he could not justitify his claim as events caught up with them, is now out of the corporate scene, a diabetic in Singapore. Tan Sri Vincent is ignored by the prime minister's friends now, and his flagship, Berjaya Corporation, owes RM800 million, most to its subsidiary. Defamation action will succeed, in Malaysia and Singapore, is it is quickly settled. The National Kidney Foundation in Singapore sued any one who said it was spending unnecessary money, but according to a government-appointed firm of accounts, it seems it did. But the National Kidney Foundation is in trouble, and the newspapers there go to town, because the PAP wants to bring down a popular politician.

NO PUBLIC DEBATE EXISTS in Malaysia. The threat of defamation, usually by men and companies with much to keep hidden, is thrown with alacrity to establish their position. They are in a hurry for they will lose their influence when the prime minister retires. Tan Sri Vincent Tan and Berjaya Corporation were Mr Khairy and ECM Libra. He sued this writer for defamation ten years ago, but that is not over yet although he and his company does not influence Pak Lah now as he did Tun Mahathir Mohamed then. He tries to be close to Pak Lah, but can he succeed where there is ECM Libra around? These companies will not explain, and Malaysians will know them as superb companies, and mention only that it is successful because they are close to the prime minister. Even political parties and MPs are not allowed to ask questions. Malaysians should be kept ignorant while these companies stole a march over other companies which do not have such connections.

THE PRIME MINISTER'S CRONY, TAN SRI Vincent Tan, gets what he wants. Dato' Seri Mahathir Mohamed, cannot do enough for him. He wanted a casino in Bukit Tinggi. He got it. He misused it. He was forgiven. Even when it turned into a political problem for the BN-run Pahang state government. Pulau Tioman is turned into a duty free island to benefit Tan Sri Vincent who, in the name of development, busily rapes the island. He wanted to turn into a regional gambling centre. The government builds an airport estimated at RM500 million. The people living on the island, mostly fishermen, could do with a few amenities like a health clinic and a school or two. But that is not as important as an airport for a crony. The MP for Rompin, which includes Pulau Tioman, is also the second finance minister. He bends over backwards to provide more than the crony's needs.

THE NATIONAL FRONT (BN) GOVERNMENT quietly builds a RM250 million airport in Pulau Tioman, where the Prime Ministerial crony, Tan Sri Vincent Tan, owns a much-hyped holiday resort, so Airbuses could land. But the final cost could double. The second finance minister, Dato' Jamaluddin Jarjis - JJ to everyone but to the Opposition PAS he is JV - wanted it built in a hurry and ahead of more important public works projects like low cost houses, schools and rural health clinics. Why? When the Government cancelled the Tioman resort's additional 100 slot machines given it when Tan Sri Vincent breached his licence for 250 slot machines at his Bukit Tinggi Holiday Resort by installing 420 and advertising it worldwide as a casino. JJ justified it as a move to encourage eco-tourism. The Tan Sri Vincent-owned Berjaya Air runs propeller aircraft several times a week and it is hard put to fill the seats. In any case, the only reason people - even eco-tourists - fly to Tioman is the resort. If Tan Sri Vincent is so sure the airport would have crowds flocking to it, he should have built it on his own, and not ask the Government to build this wasteful airport. After all, it is built for his own benefit and for him alone.

THE NATIONAL FRONT (BN) IS CAUGHT in a bind. The Opposition raises issues it cannot rebut. It is often caught out when challenged. More often than not, it decides discretion is the better part of valour. Its MPs refuse to be drawn into a political fist fight. None of this is reported in the BN-controlled media, which is all the mainstream, but these issues are transferred to the public domain by the Opposition parties. When it does engage with the Opposition, it is often caught short. When the Parti Islam Malaysia (PAS) MP. Mr Husam Musa, wrote a potentially damaging book about the two casinos in Pahang, and how Malaysia is now a "darul kasino", it caused so much political damage in Pahang and elsewhere, that the Prime Minister. Dato' Seri Mahathir Mohamed, invited him for tea. But before that, an UMNO leader asked Mr Husam to apologise for what he did. He was denied his prime ministerial tea. The political fallout from that unwise decision to grant a casino to a Prime Ministerial crony, Tan Sri Vincent Tan, at the Bukit Tinggi resort boomeranged on the BN and Dr Mahathir when Tan Sri Vincent began his gambling operations, and advertised it worldwide. The licence had to be cancelled, causing this so-called international business man and a few UMNO cronies nearly RM800 million. It turns out that the Pahang state government and a minister in the Prime Minister's Department also benefitted. As if this is not bad enough, the official Malaysian Airline System sponsors horseracing in Australia.

The newspapers concentrate, when it suits them, on petty corruption and write about it for weeks. It is one way of lulling the people that something is done about it. The corruption reported is at the level the people begins to relate to. And applaud them all the way. I had an email the other day to which I did not reply - I do not to anyone who believes in criticism behind a smokescreen - in which he accused me of criticising the cronies of the establishment for the damage they are responsive for in the Malaysian body politic. Look at the good works the likes of Tan Sri Vincent Tan and T. Ananda Krishnan do: the number of child-care centres, the occasional scholarships they give, their concern for the underdog. This writer's focus is on the lollies he gets, not the widespread damage the crony giver causes the country. When the government takes an interest in rooting out corruption, as in the Ampang Jaya muncipal council recently, the problem for it all is at whose feet corruption cannot be seen to fester, in the case the mentri besar of Selangor and a state executive councillor.

They need a merchant bank? They rush to the hottest merchant bank on the block: the newly established ECM Libra. Why? They insist that they are the best, and provide a service more personal and more relevant than what is on offer. What better way to get into the Pak Lah inner circle than be brought into it by the favoured cronies? The T. Ananda Krishans, the Tan Sri Francis Yeohs, the Tan Sri Vincent Tans and their wannabes rush to avail of its services. ECM Libra has one advantage in one of its three partners: Dato' Khalimullah Hassan, a media and business adviser to Pak Lah. This former journalist is a crony and behaves like one: cronies are not be discussed except in the hallowest of words, and if you make the mistake of defying that, you must invite trouble.

A FEW MISTAKES TURNED UP in this piece but the arguments I make is not deflected. The survey was done not by the Business Times but the Malaysian Business, a monthly publication of Berita Publishing. Malaysian Business, in pointing this out, says I should not have added the total remuneration of Tan Sri Lim Goh Tong and Tan Sri Vincent Tan for by doing so I would be counting the total twice or thrice. The Business Times, in its report, does not make it clear. Not every one has access to either the Malaysian Business or the annual reports of the companies on which this survey is based. So one depends on papers like the New Straits Times and its business insert, the Business Times. I therefore asked several in the corporate field, including one CEO of a listed company, to read the article and tell me what they thought of what the two Tan Sris earned: not one said it was not as I had described.

The Berjaya Group, which comes next, sunk further into a quagmire when its leading light decided to turn his Bukit Tinggi resort into a casino, against the law, and ran into a political storm and had to surrender his licence. Its leading light is the self-styled international business man of unquestioned repute, Tan Sri Vincent Tan (he is upset when his given name, Chee Yioun, is not mentioned in the same breath, so I shall not) is next as the CEO of three companies whose shares scrape the bottom that it is a penny stock, there for the flutter but not serious investment. But that has not restricted his pay packet. Three companies are listed - Berjaya Group, Berjaya Sports Toto and Berjaya Land - and they paid him in salary and directors' fees about RM24.75 million which with his shareholdings in them rose to RM35.3 million.

What about the RM100 million padi museum in Alor Star, which the Mahathir crony business man given it, Tan Sri Ting Pek Khiing, abandoned after the foundations were laid and demanded RM35 million for it: it is not known if he was paid. It would be a first if he was not. It is in the nature of cronyistic behaviour that one should not complete, if possibe, any project given him. One example will suffice: Tan Sri Vincent Tan, that international business man crony of impeccable repute, has failed every major privatisation he has been given, and he was given more than most, and still clamours for more.

How did this come about? Last week, the Pahang mentri besar, Dato' Seri Adnan Yaakob, to divert attention from the casino mess he is in, said "people did not like their 'wakil rakyat' showing off their wealth". If they did, he warned, they would not be candidates in the general election. What about those who, like the second finance minister, Dato' Seri Jamaluddin Jarjis, put at risk the BN's electoral chances in the state by allowing virtual casino licences to the super crony, Tan Sri Vincent Tan? They do not flaunt their wealth, so how do they come within this new restriction for candidates? To continue, the Prime Minister said the UMNO constitution need not be amended, "this is only an administrative matter". The UMNO secretary-general, Tan Sri Khalil Yaakob, any proposal like this must first be discussed by the party leaders. But if it is made, "it is a good thing".

TWO WEEKS AGO, THE UTUSAN MALAYSIA COLUMNIST, Awang Selamat, had a dig at the Berjaya Group chief executive, Tan Sri Vincent Tan. He had a tongue-in-cheek piece about Chinese towkays and gambling machines. No one was mentioned, but Tan Sri Vincent was right to claim it referred to him. He demanded a retraction and an apology. The article, he said, put Malay business men, especially those linked to him, in a bad light. That, as the world knows only too well, cannot apply to him. He got both. What else could this UMNO-owned and -controlled newspaper do but grovel. Especially when Tan Sri Vincent is the favoured super-crony of the Prime Minister, Dato' Seri Mahathir Mohamed. At least until 31 October 2003.

THE PAHANG DARUL KASINO CONTROVERSY has sunk deep into the UMNO psyche. But hardly anyone even alluded to it in the controlled debate at the UMNO general assembly. Speaker after speaker raised other issues and how it would have fared worse in the 1999 general elections if the new electoral list, with its more than 600,000 new voters, had been used. The Bukit Tinggi casino, run by the super crony, Tan Sri Vincent Tan, UMNO now accepts, is one election issue in the coming general elections, most likely in the first few months of 2004, which could cause it to lose perhaps 20 seats, and one state government. One prominent UMNO leader was harsher: UMNO and the National Front (BN) must divert attention from that, or face, in his words, 'disaster'. The second finance minister, Dato' Seri Jamaluddin Jarjis, was heard to tell to any who would listen he would react soon to the questions lobbed at him by PAS in Parliament. That might be too late.

Tun Abdul Hamid Omar, who succeeded Tun Salleh, started the rot. His successor, Tun Eusoff Chin, continued it. He scandalised an already scandal-proof court when photographs of him on holiday with his favourite lawyer, Dato' V.K. Lingam, in New Zealand appeared on the Internet. He and his client, Tan Sri Vincent Tan (he of the Bukit Tinggi casino fame) were also photographed with the then Attorney-General (later Federal Court judge and now comatose), Tan Sri Mohtar Abdullah, and their wives, on holiday in Italy. What added fuel to fire was Dato' Lingam's arrogance and Tun Eusoff's subservience ensured anyone before him with the other side represented by Dato' Lingam found the judicial cards stacked against him. Tun Dzaiddin Abdullah, who succeeded him with a new broom and an unsullied reputation, could not, no matter how, turn the judiciary around. What destroyed a judicial tradition of two centuries cannot be reversed in decades, let alone in two or three years.

ON VESAK DAY, 15 MAY 2003, THE PRIME Minister, Dato' Seri Mahathir Mohamed, was in Serdang. He was to meet the second finance minister, Dato' Seri Jamaluddin Jarjis, for breakfast. The minister had to be in Kuantan at 12.30, time enough to be late for that. Cabinet ministers, like sultans, never arrive on time. Except, unlike them, to meet the Prime Minister. Dr Mahathir is late, which for him is unusual. As they discussed, over a late breakfast, the matter at hand, a helicopter landed on the grounds outside. Dr Mahathir was surprised: cabinet ministers can commandeer aircraft only if his office allows it; the minister in any case is too low in the pecking order to qualify. The super-crony, Tan Sri Vincent Tan's Berjaya Group had placed a helicopter at the minister's disposal. The Prime Minister was not amused.

THERE IS MORE TO THE BUKIT TINGGI CASINO than is known. And puts the National Front (BN) and UMNO in a spot. Every time its leaders talk of it - so far only the Prime Minister, Dato' Seri Mahathir Mohamed, and the Pahang mentri besar, Dato' Seri Adnan Yaakub, have - more evidence of wrongdoing and outright lying is revealed. The Prime Minister revoked the gaming licence at the casino but the Bukit Tinggi resort, since it is owned by the super-crony, Tan Sri Vincent Tan, insists it can renegotiate it. Others who breach the conditions are fined heavily and the licences revoked. But not Tan Sri Vincent Tan. No whitewashing can convert this elaborate casino complex costing, in the end, RM1,000 million and more, to attract gamblers from all over the world into the social club Dr Mahathir insists it is. Even Tan Sri Vincent does not believe him. But the government expects us to.

THIS NAIVE BELIEF THAT IF THE MANTRA - Bukit Tinggi casino is not a casino - is repeated endlessly by three people like the Muslim "sembayang hajat" prayer, it would not be. The Prime Minister, Dato' Seri Mahathir Mohamed said it yesterday. And shortly after by the Pahang mentri besar, Dato' Seri Adnan Yaakub, and the super-crony Tan Sri Vincent Tan-owned Bukit Tinggi casino's general manager, Teh Ming Wah. Now that the Great Man has spoken, we are told, it is not a casino. The only problem is that, unlike a sembayang hajat, when tens of thousands will pray for a stated goal in unision for days on end, this casino mantra is repeated by only this trio. This could have worked once, but not now. The injured innocence with which this mantra is repeated says it all: "It is unfortunate that certain parties have misconstrued and sought to politicise the matter, leading to allegations to the media with little regard to factual accuracy" and "Dr Mahathir has made such a clear statement on the matter".

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