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A supercrony is allowed to operate Pahang' second casino

THE GOVERNMENT OF PRIME MINISTER, DATO' Seri Mahathir Mohamed, taunts the Islamic constituency and its own perception of Malaysia as an Islamic country to issue a controversial casino licence to a super crony, Tan Sri Vincent Tan. The government has not announced it, but Tan Sri Vincent Tan, a self-proclaimed international business man of unquestioned repute who hesitates not to sue any who would not accept his view of himself, is cock-a-hoop at being allowed to operate a casino at his money-losing, privately-owned Colmer Tropicale resort in Bukit Tinggi, Pahang state, outside Kuala Lumpur. It opens this month. With 250 electronic, or computerised machines featuring such gambling games as baccarat and roulette. It is a minnow compared to Genting Highlands casino, but it is money-spinner from the day it opens. No casino in the Far East has lost money. If he had not been allowed to, his Colmer Tropicale resort would have gone the way of the nearby Mimaland resort, which collapsed spectacularly in the 1980s when it could not get the gaming licences needed to attract custom.

Bukit Tinggi is in Pahang state, which also hosts Malaysia other casino at Genting Highlands. It is Tan Sri Vincent's third special deal with the state: the present information minister and UMNO secretary-general, Tan Sri Khalil Yusoff, when mentri besar of Pahang, alienated the land to the Sultan of Pahang on the understood-condition that it would be sold immediately to Tan Sri Vincent. Another holiday resort of his, Pulau Tioman, was not paying its way. The government helpfully allowed him to run an airline to the island, which was also turned into a free trade zone, after Langkawi and Labuan. The Colmer Tropicale resort fulfilled a Prime Ministerial whimsy, but it could not, in a thousand years, pay its way as pseudo-French resort. The casino could. So he is given a licence. Even if it damns the National Front government of his patron, one Dr Mahathir Mohamed, as peopled by Islamic charlatans.

Why was the hurry to have it up and running this month, when he could, if he had any political, or indeed business sense, waited until after the general elections that must come next year? Could he not wait because he needed this potentially explosive political lifeline to stop his creditors from acting against him? Would it save him? Help in the past did not. He was given a RM1,000 million lifeline in 1991 and in 1998. He was given the Sports Toto gaming concession, the Indah Water Konsortium privatisation, the KL Monorail, and allowed to build some of the substandard stadia for the 1998 Commonwealth Games. This super crony is repeatedly bailed out, only to fail again, with a near-flawless record of turning every gold mine he is given on a silver plate into dross while making himself a lot of money. His flagship, Berjaya Group, languishes on the Kuala Lumpur Stock Exchange around 20 sen, about five percent of what it once was. Along with every KLSE counter he controls, including his gaming counter, Sports Toto.

While this casino might help Tan Sri Vincent rearrange his finances awhile, it puts Pahang BN in a political dither. PAS is making severe inroads in the state, enough to put the fear of God into many an UMNO politician, especially the mentri besar, Dato' Seri Adnan Yaakob, and the man-who-hopes-to-be-Prime-Minister, Dato' Seri Najib Tun Razak. PAS works out of the limelight, to frighten UMNO whenever news of what they do filter out. In several state and parliamentary constituencies, UMNO stalwarts say their candidates would be defeated not for who they are but that they are from UMNO. UMNO bigwigs in parliament and state think of switching constituencies. But it may not help. In several constituencies, the most active political party on the ground is PAS. It is accepted, even in UMNO, that no constituency in Pahang, except perhaps the new constituency of Cameron Highlands, is safe, and the scramble for safe seats is what drives Pahang UMNO today. The BN would face the fallout from this, with MCA and MIC candidates equally at risk, in which the beneficiaries would well be DAP and Parti KeADILan Nasional..

PAS makes an unsually strong challenge in Pahang. Many leding lights have to decide if they should continue to be loyal to the UMNO vice president, Dato' Seri Najib, or switch to the Prime Minister-to-be, Dato' Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi. The malaise within UMNO leads many a state assemblyman and member of parliament to ignore their constituencies; several have not visited their conwstituencies for years since 1999, and only start to do so only in the past few months. Now there is another issue: the second casino in the state. In the 1970s, the law was amended so casinos could be set up 35 miles off the coast, so that one could be set up in Tioman, then as now, in the Pekan constituency of the then Prime Minister, Tun Abdul Razak, and now his son, Dato' Seri Najib. Tun Razak, when he heard of it, shot it down. Then Genting Highlands casino was set up, and now another in Bukit Tinggi, a few minutes away as the crow flies. Tan Sri Lim Goh Tong of Gentings and Tan Sri Vincent were cronies of the politicians in power in those days.

In the 30-odd years between Genting and Colmer Tropicale, the country shifted from Malay dominance to Islamic dominance. The world view has changed. No Malay politician can survive in Malaysia if he does not wear his commitment to an Islamic state prominently on his shirt sleeves. It is this that puts added pressure on UMNO and the BN. UMNO has not thought through its Islamic credentials, nor allow Parliament to debate it for fear of what could come out of it, especially with PAS forcing the pressure. It has declared Malaysia is an Islamic state, and that, in its view, is all that is necessary. It had hoped that by labelling Malaysia an Islamic state, it would soften the PAS pressure. But its scatter-brained approach could not last. Within UMNO, there is a demand to be told how it differs from PAS's worldview, and why. But UMNO leaders cannot explain or debate it, except in generalities, which is neither here nor there. The issue of a second casino licence in Pahang, which can only be issued by the Federal ministry of finance, opens yet another can of worms which UMNO must wriggle out of to survive - in Pahang and in Malaysia at large.

M.G.G. Pillai
pillai@mgg.pc.my