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Why two cabinet ministers defy the Prime Minister

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.

The government is in rigor mortis over the illegal casino at Tan Sri Vincent's Bukit Tinggi Resort. The cabinet had allowed it 250 one-armed bandits. He wanted more. His crony in the cabinet, Tengku Adnan Mansor subborned Dr Jamaluddin to ignore the Prime Minister and cabinet to give him what he wanted. He got a virtual casino licence, 420 one-armed bandits, internet gambling. Dr Mahathir was shocked, when he ordered it raided, at what he saw: the one-armed bandits were all over the place, even in the toilets. He cancelled the licence. Furious behind-the-scenes talks go on to have it restored. The resort, with the casino, is valued at more than RM800 million, with a guarantee of RM200 million profit from it for two years. It is to be part of the re-organised Berjaya Group. It is doubtful if it can. The prize was the casino, not the 15,000 acre resort. It can forget about its licence. No government would dare restore it. It must also be charged for breaching the conditions of its licence.

Yet Dr Jamaluddin flaunts his connexions and cocks a snook at Dr Mahathir. The Prime Minister and the cabinet are wrong to approve the 250 one-armed bandits. Clubs once were allowed five of them at one time. It is allowed thrice that now. Each machine, after expenses, brings in at RM25,000 a month. For some reason, many retired police officers are licence holders. But gamblers from around the world would not flock to the Bukit Tinggi casino play the one-armed bandits. They could do that at their local club. Or to the Genting casino. Tan Sri Vincent has given this special favour so he could make some money out of it, a mere RM500 million or thereabouts if his scheme had succeeded. That the cabinet approved it without a murmur, the minister of religion and the religious adviser kept quiet, suggest it was not the first.

Dr Mahathir has only cancelled the licence. He should have sacked the two ministers. But he shies away from drastic decisions these days. Dato' Seri Ling Liong Sik, resigned from the MCA, and, by convention, his cabinet seat. But Dr Mahathir dilly-dallies over it. He hopes time would erase the crimes, and life in the end be what it was. It would not. He is now caught between a super-crony, whose greed surpassed his loyalty, and his unwillingness to create a scene to sack ministers who stray from cabinet responsibility. He retires in six months. He does not want a cabinet crisis now. Has he a choice?

As for the two ministers, it is left now to the voters of Rompin to sack Dr Jamaluddin from the cabinet in the coming general elections. Tengku Adnan, a senator, had hoped to be MP from Pahang. He can forget that. This bungled casino licence is once which could damage UMNO's chances, in Pahang if not elsewhere, if PAS runs with it. The Malay ground in Pahang is incensed at it that even the defence minister, Dato' Seri Najib Tun Razak, is not safe in his Pekan constituency. The PAS inroads into Pahang is more serious than UMNO believes. Besides, the man has enemies, that two influential UMNO groups, at least, work overtime to have him defeated.

The government is caught in a vice (no pun intended), and a moral dilemma. At a club in Subang Jaya, most of those at its gambling den were Malays, with a sprinkling of Chinese and Indians. In one golf club, a former UMNO minister and his wife is said to gamble away RM30,000 a day. At another, a one-armed bandit gobble a Malay policeman's RM300. He was in uniform, unconcerned at his loss. The Chinese gamblers go to illegal casinos, aplenty in and around Kuala Lumpur, and no doubt, elsewhere in the country. In one Chinese restaurant, waiters direct patrons who want to gamble, to a room geared up for internet gambling. Large winnings are paid off in cash, from its local agent, in 20 minutes. Is it legal? No. Is any action taken against it? No.

The government surely knows of it. But it has no moral authority to act. Not when the cabinet has men once sacked for revealing state secrets, or offering to sell them, or has links to gangsters and triads, or are visibly corrupt. How can it then crack down when it cannot, and bungle it when it does? When all it matters for it is to remain in power at all cost? When it insists incumbency is for ever? When those who work to defeat the ruling party in general elections are enemies of the state? Dr Jamaluddin and Tengku Adnan, neophytes in the cabinet, adds to it. Dr Mahathir must act to remove both from the cabinet. So UMNO has a chance to set its house in order. In other words, in this matter, he must be cruel to be kind. But would he dare?

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