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Dr Mahathir's image maker has an image problem

WHO ORGANISED THE KUALA LUMPUR WORLD Peace Conference, which ends its inaugural two-day session today, 10 August 2003? Tan Sri Lim Kok Wing. Who is its chief sponsor, The Limkokwing University College of Creative Technology? Who got the inaugural award for fostering world peace? President Jacques Chirac of France. Why? The LUCCT wants to open a Paris campus as part of Tan Sri Lim's grand scheme to bring kulture to the cultured Parisians. He believes in his own rubbish: that without any basis, Malaysia and Malaysians can take on the world. The Prime Minister, Dato' Seri Mahathir Mohamed, was on hand to grace the occasion.

What he said did not matter. But he would not miss a trick to be present when his favourite cronies have a bash. He relies on this former cartoonist so much that he does not often think through on his spin doctor's regular fix, and causes more problems than he realises for the nation he leads. His greatest failing, in 22 years as Prime Minister, is his inability to choose good men to do his bidding.

Take one case in point. The National Economic Action Council placed a series of high profile advertisements in Malaysia and regional papers to press its case with Singapore for an economic rate for the water it supplies. As the two countries exchanged insults, in a typical tit-for-tat reaction, there appeared in the New Straits Times on 01 July 2003, a seemingly reasoned and well-argued article on how bilteral ties could be improved. The writer of that article? Tan Sri Lim Kok Wing. He would not written that article off his own bat. He could not even have written it. And the New Straits Times is not about to print an article of this importance from a man who in the past has shown no interest in issues like this, unless it brings him lots of money. And he would not lend his name to it unless Dr Mahathir wants him to.

That it appeared in a Malaysian newspaper led many in Singapore to believe Malaysia has at last seen reason. There was no such thing. Shortly after, the advertisements ran. The NEAC had no role in it. It was ordered to run the advertisements on behalf of the Government of Malaysia. It was thought it came from a Malaysian think tank. It came from the fertile money-making brain of Tan Sri Lim Kok Wing, who is believed to have made hundreds of thousands of ringgit in fees over this campaign alone. Where he slipped up was that when a Malay view on the crisis was what the Malaysian government wanted, it is a Malaysian Chinese who represented the Malay view. But to him his conscience is clear: if there is money to be made, especially when it is given him on a platter, and he can be regularly photographed with the Prime Minister, who is he to reject it?

Dr Mahathir relies on him much. When the former MCA president, Dato' Seri Ling Liong Sik, refused to step down and threw the party into a crisis, Dr Mahathir called on Tan Sri Lim Kok Wing to be the mediator. The man has no political sense or even an understanding of issues, but does that matter? A Prime Ministerial mediator needs to be infused in self-importance, of which he has aplenty, and pass the message. Nothing else is needed. His office-boy could have done a better job. But it shows how important Tan Sri Lim Kok Wing has come to be at this time to Dr Mahathir. It was to him Dr Mahathir called to prepare the posters and election material for the first general election in South Africa which ushered in majority rule.

For one with such close ties to Dr Mahathir, Tan Sri Lim Kok Wing is an insecure man. He rushes hither and thither to be at any function Dr Mahathir is present. Sometimes, this penchant of his can border on the ludicrous: a prominent Malaysian was celebrating his 81st birthday to which Dr Mahathir was invited. Tan Sri Lim Kok Wing would not attend if Dr Mahathir was not; in the end, he did not. Dr Mahathir, as gracious as ever, had sent in his apologies but sent a handsome present, and later met him privately in his office. He needs to reassure himself he is who he believes he is. But like most cronies, his success is dependent on regular infusionsn from the gravy train. But that must stop on 01 November 2003, when his cronydom must come to an inevitable end. He comes up with creative ideas to further his own future, the latest being the Kuala Lumpur World Peace Conference.

So, who is Tan Sri Lim Kok Wing? He ran an advertising agency in the 1970s, when I first met him. He earned his 15 minutes of fame with the "Guli Guli" cartoons he churned out before he abandoned it as crony fame beckoned. Like all cronies of the Establishment, he has made little or no success of anything he ventured into, and succeeds only with regular projects to keep afloat. He started the Limkokwing Institute, the tuition centres Malaysia became famous for, by preparing students for degrees and diplomas from overseas universities. It is this institute which is not the Limkokwing University of Creative Technology. He deludes himself, and others, into believing he runs a university and advertises boldly it is the LimkokWing University and in lighter type below "College of Creative Technology".

He is the owner of the Malaysian Design and Technology Centre (MDTC) in Cyberjaya. It should have gone to the UiTM School of Art and Design, but when you have friends in high places, does proficiency and integrity matter? Today, he does not want to talk about it. It flounders. He is the first man allowed to have a personal name to his University College. But he wants all to believe he runs a university, and it is often referred to, and advertised, as the University of Limkokwing. He is given these special privileges because he is the image maker for Dr Mahathir and the Malaysian Government. Which probably accounts for the terrible image problem both have.

He does not miss a trick to project himself to the media and the public at large. If he is involved in a project, you can bet he is behind it. He co-ordinate UMNO Youth's "Malaysians for Peace" movement which has died a natural death after the US-Iraq war. Similarly, he concocted the now discredited Rakan Muda programme, which earned him tens of millions of ringgit in fees. The programme, like many of his brilliant, has gone the way of the dodo bird. But he has failed in his most ambitious project: to ensure Dr Mahathir would continue to be Prime Minister so long as he needs to earn a living as a crony. That is a forlorn hope, as crazy as every one of his "brilliant" ideas to make Malaysia look tall. All it shows is how much problems he has brought Malaysia. But then cronies are meant to do that. In that he succeeded brilliantly.

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