Can The Means Be Firm If the End Is A Blur?

["M.G.G. Pillai" <pillai@mgg.pc.my>]

Since September 1998, every major government decision, which included
the arrest of He Who Must Be Destroyed At All Cost, could not be made to
stick.  The Dato' Seri Anwar Ibrahim affair, which, we were told, would
be "short and sharp", is anything but, to mire the government in a
political crisis that would not go away so long as he remains in prison
and the Prime Minister in office.  The Budget had to be presented twice
when the government, in fright, dissolved Parliament before it was
passed.  Parliament had to called twice, and still be unconstitutional. 
No major policy is announced these days without it being revised on the
run.  So, the home minister, Dato' Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi's order
that political party magazines and newspapers could be published only
twice a month turned out, in the end, to be directed at the PAS's hugely
popular "Harakah" newspaper.  The deputy home minister refined his
minister's order to insist they could lose their publishing licences if
they updated their Internet webpages more than once a fortnight, putting
at risk Malaysia's much vaunted promise of no censorship on Internet. 
The Prime Minister made no bones about why these rules were enforced by
attacking PAS and its Harakah.  The prime minister's department orders
Bernama, which carried the deputy home minister, Dato' Chor Chee Heung's
threat, to pull back that story; Dato' Chor then cries that he had been
misquoted.  This is unlikely, and Bernama would not quote him if he was
just his master's voice:  he now says all he said was that the licence
would be revoked if it published more than twice a month.  Even with
Bernama's habit to misquote Malaysian leaders, even if others found she
had not.  The Prime Minister's famous remarks at a public rally about
unrelaible Jews comes to mind. 

     The Prime Minister and his oligarchic ilk scramble as their
blurred, myopic vision dim as they move ahead, their only aim to
frustrate the Hermit of Langgak Golf from scuttling the leaders, and the
permanent removal from Malaysian politics of Dato' Seri Anwar Ibrahim. 
The Prime Minister wants another term, not to lead but so that cronies,
courtiers, siblings would not be made to account for their financial
misdemeanours while enriching themselves further.  When the end is not
focussed, as now, the means dissemble.  So, official policy is changed
by the hour and day. Rules and regulations are not followed.  No one
plans strategically, and Prime Minister only tactically -- to remove the
immediate "enemy".  The Harakah affair is the latest, but not the last. 
The Hermit is targetted now, because to stay in office, the Prime
Minister must continue to be UMNO president.  Within UMNO, the Prime
Ministerial oligarchic machine battles against those with a clearer view
of the country's future.  Tengku Razaleigh keeps his counsel, still
disinterested, but that is enough to throw UMNO leaders into a frenzy. 
Three mentris besar, without consulting him, reveal a Solomonic decision
as only Bolehland knows how:  let his eschew the presidency and deputy
presidency, and they would nominate him for the vice presidency!  Since
he says he is not a candidate, why are these leaders chasing their own
tail?  Who are they to speak on his behalf? 

     Tun Daim Zainuddin's Budget pronouncements, bullish without any
reason to, has revived the numerous billion ringgit projects mothballed
after the 1997 Asian crisis.  The works minister, Dato' Seri S. Samy
Vellu, cannot let a press conference go by without announcing yet
another billion ringgit project.  Tun Daim himself wants the
Indonesia-Malaysia-Thailand Growth-Triangle (IMT-GT) projects, deferred
by the crisis, implemented "quickly" -- without discussing this with the
other two countries.  The residual arrogance that Malaysia knows what
its neighbours want is yet another proof of her megolamanical view of
the world.  The Malacca-to-Palembang bridge, which UEM and former
President Suharto's daughter were partners, has made way for a new
Penang-to-Medan bridge -- against without finding out if Indonesia would
allow such a bridge, if it could be built, to further alienate Western
Sumatra and its environs, including Acheh, from Jakarta.  No rational
review could justify these projects and others, but the Prime Minister
wants his last term in office framed in hype.  The courtiers, cronies,
siblings cannot let go an importunity to acquire even more wealth -- and
sink even more soundly in debt -- is too good an opportunity to miss.
What does it matter if the projects are needless, wasteful, irrelevant,
uneconomic so long as the commissions are paid up front?  Has there been
formal discussions with Thailand and Indonesia over Malaysia's plans? 

     But greed is the single motivating force;  all others take a back
seat.  The IWK fiasco is important only in that showed up now.  Every
single privatisation would come unstuck and immure the country into
deeper debt.  All these proposed projects only lead the country to
certain bankruptcy.  The Prime Minister is where President Ferdinand
Marcos was before his final re-election and immediate exile.  The
mainstream newspapers try to rouse the country into believing that UMNO
still wants the Prime Minister and the deputy prime minister to continue
in office.  But the first nominations they received -- from Tawau --
could well be nullified:  the delegates only nominated two for the vice
presidency instead of three.  But then why is one surprised at this? 
The second guessing has come even to UMNO divisional nominations! 

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