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Many people may be shocked by this question, or even consider this as a distasteful joke. But I am serious, and my answer is yes. Not limited to being arrested, the Prime Minister can even be put away permanently in a detention camp, if the modus operandi with which the Internal Security Act (ISA) has been used recently to detain opponents of Mahathir’s leadership is strictly adhered to in arresting the PM.

And what is this modus operandi that has been applied to Mahathir’s opponents? It is as follows:

1. Police arrest an opponent of Mahathir’s leadership under the ISA, on the ground that he threatens “national security”, though no such evidence has been produced. The detainee is kept incommunicado to the outside world, including his lawyers and family members, “for security reasons” as claimed by the police.

2. The public protests this ISA arrest to the Minister of Home Affairs, whose portfolios include the police department. The Home Minister replies that he does not wish to interfere with what he calls a police decision to maintain law and order, and clarifies that under the ISA, the police has the authority to detain a person for 60 days for investigation.

3. A family member of the detainee then makes a habeas corpus application to the court to release the detainee. The ground of application is that the arrest is male fide, as the police have failed to produce any evidence of unlawful act committed by the detainee, and it has also inflicted unnecessary cruelty on the detainee by denying him access to his lawyers and family members.

4. During the hearing, the police refuse to submit details to substantiate their allegation of “threats to national security”, on the ground that disclosure of such details will compromise “national security.” The Judge (as in the case of Augustine Paul) concurs with the police and rejects the habeas corpus application on the ground that under the ISA, the police are not obligated to give details to justify their arrest.

5. Prior to the expiration of the 60-day detention by the police, the Home Minister duly signs on a 2 year detention order, committing the detainee to a detention camp for the same period. The Home Minister does not give any evidence or details of the detainee’s alleged wrong-doings.

Under the ISA, the Home Minister can renew this 2 year detention order for an unlimited number of times. Detention under the ISA is not subject to judicial review.

It will be seen that if the above modus operandi is followed strictly, not only an innocent ordinary citizen but also the Prime Minister can be put into a detention camp forever, that is, if the Home Minister and the Judge behave exactly as they have behaved against the recent political detainees. (Readers are reminded that a prime minister detained incommunicado looses the opportunity to exercise his authority or influence).

I am not suggesting a legal way to push the Prime Minister into a detention camp. But I do suggest the nonsensicality of the ISA law and the unconscionable judicial decision by judges such as Augustine Paul. The combination of nonsensically abusive laws and moral-less judges has given the Executive unbridled power to condemn an innocent citizen to unlimited torture and imprisonment. And this is what happened to the recent series of ISA detention on opponents of Mahathir’s leadership.

To the horror and indignation of the Nation, this inhuman ISA cruelty has now been unprecedentedly extended to university students opposed to the ruling power (one of them is the President of the Student Representative Council of the University of Malaya) on the pretext of looking for culprits in connection with the recent burning of a university hall. Based on the notorious record of the police in forcing false confessions from past ISA detainees, most prominently those in connection with the recent infamous trials of Anwar Ibrahim, these students who are detained incommunicado, are now at the mercy of the police, whose penchant to inflict physical and mental torture is by now legendary.

All the opposition political parties and NGOs in this Country have instantly demanded in unison the immediate release of these students or alternatively charge them in court. Even if this request is not acceded to immediately, the minimum the police should do, is to allow the detainees immediate access to their lawyers and family members. This is to allay fears of police abuse on these students, in view of the unfavourable police record and the Prime Minister’s expressed vindictiveness towards these students.

It is bad enough to use the ISA to crush legitimate political opposition, but to extend that uncivilized cruelty on students, just because they are critical of the Prime Minister’s leadership, is truly abhorrent and detestable. The Prime Minister may have been encouraged by the apparent ease with which he has got away with the recent abuse of ISA on his opponents, but it serves him well to be warned that he is now stretching the limit of tolerance of this Nation by descending to such despicable depth as to unlawfully victimize students in his ruthless quest to suppress legitimate political dissent.

Kim Quek.
09.07.2001

The vote tally from MCA’s EGM must shock its President, Ling Liong Sik a great deal. He who had earlier declared that 80% of the party supported him in the Nanyang newspaper takeover, finally had to console himself with a tiny margin of victory, just 53%. Well may he declare that a small victory is still a victory, but if this is seen as a vote of confidence in him, any leader with just 53% support is on very shaky grounds indeed.

The MCA as a party has now lost all credibility as representative of the Chinese community. Fifty-three percent of the delegates at the EGM ignored the fact that the community is solidly against the Nanyang takeover, and that over 500 Chinese guilds, associations and alumni have signed memorandums condemning it. They instead voted to support their discredited leader and central committee on whom they depend on for positions and future advancements. Fifty-three percent of the delegates voted in shame, far too many for the community to excuse. And now, Gerakan has stepped into the breach, offering to be true representatives of the Malaysian Chinese.

But Gerakan has not come off all that cleanly. As revealed, they were also bidding for the papers, in fact, at $1 per share higher than MCA. They only lost because they didn't get Mahathir's nod.

The problem is not just MCA, it is also Mahathir who has again alienated the Chinese by attacking the two papers in question, Nanyang Siang Pau and China Press for publishing issues of interest to the community. Does anybody really expect Gerakan to stand up to Mahathir? What a laugh!

Why did MCA pay such a senselessly high price to silence two independent papers? Mahathir may have revealed quite a lot about his involvement, but the Old Liar cannot have just “given the green light” to MCA as he claimed. The virulence of his attack against the two papers indicates that the whole thing was most probably his brainchild. Ling Liong Sik does not have the courage or the nerve to undertake such a risky venture himself. He has no courage except that which Mahathir gives him. He obeyed his master as a slave would, and would not back out of the deal even in the face of opposition from the whole community and half his party. In Ling, Mahathir has the most faithful of all slaves.

If MCA continues to hold on to Nanyang, the party will be destroyed even further. With the boycott of the two papers gaining ground, the party could lose its shirt, including The Star as well, not to say of the repercussion in the 2004 elections. In its highly biased coverage of the controversy, The Star has also come off badly, and can be expected from now on to lose ground to The Sun. MCA may think that on the positive side, it has at least gained two new propaganda machines, but, you can’t propagandize if you have no credibility. By shoving into MCA’s mouth more than it can chew, the old-style dictator has choked his lapdog nearly to death.

I write to comment on the Nanyang controversy. One of things that I feel very few people know is that the new CEO of Nanyang, P.C. Liew, has a history of ruthlessness when he was editor-in-chief of The Star.

I write this so that our Nanyang friends will be prepared when dealing with him at work. His smile is the most dangerous sign.

I have known him since the sixties when we were together in the New Straits Times. I was a reporter while he was a junior sub-editor. He was known as Liew Ah Choy then.

When the then MCA President Lee San Choon's crony H'ng Hung Yong was appointed editor-in-chief of The Star in 1977-78 when the MCA bought over the paper, Liew was made the chief sub-editor. He then changed the name his father gave him to Liew Peng Chuan, thinking that Ah Choy sounded cheap (not like our good old Lim Ah Lek who is very proud to be called Ah Lek). Since then, Liew has been using P.C. Liew as his corporate identity.

Within a year or so in The Star, Liew begun to plot to oust the then group executive editor Gobin Rutra. He succeeded. Eventually, when H'ng Hung Yong fell out of favour with the new regime of MCA acting president Neo Yee Pan, Liew took the opportunity to align himself with Neo and was made the editor-in-chief. He is a ruthless and dangerous man to work under. His favourite warning is "Heads will roll!" He usually surrounds himself with a group of cronies who will entertain him, even with girls (his weakest point), in order to get promotion. Today, many of his former cronies are running The Star. Liew even abandoned his wife and family for a sweet young executive in The Star. Ask his former wife and she will tell you how ruthless he is.

During his rule in The Star, Liew used the paper to help Neo Yee Pan fight the war with Tan Koon Swan. He admitted so during an interview with a Hong Kong paper; actually, he was trying to justify his sacking from The Star, claiming that he was a victim of Tan Koon Swan and his team B. Incidentally, Ling Liong Sik was then the team B deputy leader and he succeeded Koon Swan as MCA president when Koon Swan went to jail on corruption charges. The fact that Liew can now work for Ling Liong Sik speaks volume about his principles.

After he was sacked by Koon Swan, Liew went to England to study law. His grateful cronies collected enough money to help him in his studies.

Those who had worked under him at The Star can testify about his ruthlessness. People he or his cronies don't like get transferred from one place to another. Some were blacklisted and not given increments or promotions for years. Only his balls-carrier, people like current Star managing editor Michael Aerie and executive editor Teh Eng Huat, though not very intelligent but cunning, were promoted to key poistions. Both Michael and Teh were so-called union leaders in The Star then but sold their souls and sold out the NUJ members to get top postions.

I hope that our friends working in Nanyang will be very careful about this man. Stay united to face him.

By Retired NST journalist

One must admire the stubborn determination and tenacious manner in which MCA President Ling Liong Sik clings on to the takeover of Nanyang as if his life depends on it. It seems that even if the lifeblood of the party bleeds away, Ling is determined to ram the deal through the bulwark of Chinese opposition and MCA grassroot discontent.

If Ling had displayed the same tenacity and resoluteness in advancing even one Chinese cause, the Chinese community would have much to celebrate and his name would be assured of a place in their collective consciousness. But it appears that Ling has devoted his strength and effort in pushing the wrong cause.

Indeed, if it were a purely business deal, such widespread and bitter opposition would have given any leader pause and the wise leader would hasten to reverse the deal which threatens to split the party and alienate it from the community it must draw its support from. Is business the main aim of a political party?

But it was not a good business deal even when viewed purely as from the business perspective. Based on the revenue flow of Nanyang, the revenue stream could not even hope to pay off the interest on the massive loan of RM230 million that had to be taken out, never mind the principal.

If the two Chinese dailies are to be used as propaganda machines then they have been rendered ineffective by the widespread opposition against their takeover. Readership is falling and any display of partisan politics and one-sided views in its pages would send readership plunging drastically to threaten the newspapers with closure.

So it is not a smart business venture nor a good political move. Why then decimate the party and commit political suicide with no clear benefit in sight? What could be so important that the solidarity of the party and the community's goodwill had to take second place in the President's dogged determination to bulldoze the deal through? Do the wishes and aspirations of the Chinese community mean nothing?

We are left with a cold sinister possibility staring us in the face - that Ling was merely obeying the wishes of prime minister Mahathir to muzzle and rein in the Chinese press.

How else could a man of no courage suddenly find the will to push through such a controversial deal?

It comes down to a shocking realization of how much of a yes man Ling has become. A leader willing to sacrifice the support of the community he is supposed to represent and to tolerate a damaging split in his party just to please Mahathir.

Just as the Anwar Ibrahim persecution was the defining moment which highlighted the brutal oppression of the Mahathir administration, the Nanyang affair is the defining moment when Chinese realize with painful clarity what sort of self-serving and cowardly leader they have.

We can only hope that in trying to serve Mahathir to the end, Ling will destroy himself politically. And he should be kicked into the garbage bins of history and regarded with utter contempt as a man who sold his race to benefit himself.

There can be absolutely no doubt that it was the Very Corrupt Eusoff Chin who tried to pervert the course of justice by telephoning Justice Datuk Muhammad Kamil Awang, instructing him to strike off the petitions challenging the 1999 Likas state election result. Who else could it possibly have been of the three suggested names? So black is Eusoff’s reputation that Justice Kamil intimates that most lawyers have already been guessing correctly. And Chief Justice Dzaiddin, to whom Kamil had communicated the identity of the person, when asked whether he was surprised, replied succinctly: ‘No.’

No well-informed person of course, is in the least bit surprised, given that Eusoff Chin was so nakedly corrupt, crooked and fraudulent in his time. He was exactly the sort of morally flexible person whom Mahathir loved to put in high office, the sort who would sacrifice every moral principle to serve his master with knee-bending humility. But even for corrupt persons, Eusoff simply went too far. He has never given an explanation for the Bowman papers, which detail how he and his family holidayed together with lawyer Lingam and the latter’s family. Before the papers were revealed, he tried to bluff his way out telling us all that he had merely bumped into Lingam going to a New Zealand zoo, flourishing receipts and spewing out plenty of affecting details. The once haughty Lingam had never lost a case in Eusoff’s court.

The courageous Justice Datuk Kamil also revealed that many other judges also received the same sort of interfering telephone calls. What is not known is how many actually obeyed these calls, but judging from the government’s record of winning cases during Eusoff’s tenure, the answer must be: “quite a lot.” It is well-known that uncooperative judges would not only have no chance of promotion, but would likely to transferred to the back of beyond as punishment. Just as Eusoff bent at the knees to Mahathir, Augustine Paul and Arifin Jaka similarly kow-towed to Eusoff in the judicial persecution of Anwar Ibrahim. All three took turns to publicly rape Justice in broad daylight.

Ex-Attorney General Mohtar Abdullah was of the same moral fibre as Eusoff and it was no surprise that he found nothing to prosecute concerning Eusoff and Lingam’s joint New Zealand holiday. The police are now investigating this latest revelation and will Mahathir now step in to protect his faithful ex-slave? Will the new AG prosecute Eusoff for the very serious crime of perversion of justice? We do not have sufficient confidence that this will be the case, given that the finger of dirt will eventually point all the way to Mahathir. However, it is clear that in the court of public opinion, the Very Corrupt Eusoff Chin will be given the drubbing he richly deserves

No one who has got half a brain believes that any of the ISA detainees were planning terrorist action to bring down the BN government. Not even someone as intellectually dull as Abdullah Badawi. Like the fake judges Augustine Paul and Arifin Jaka, all men were tools used by a dictator. But this is not to say that they cannot be held responsible for their actions. It’s still their own free choice to be used as tools of oppression while honest men would have resigned. But how does Abdullah Badawi square his part in this crime against humanity with his own religious conscience? Can the lure of power really be so corrupting?

Despite his obedience, there is no guarantee that the marionette will ascend his master’s throne as promised. Part of the master’s strategy is that he uses and he abuses. Badawi, being almost without character or colour of his own, with his dog-like eyes fixed patiently on his owner, is a nice little pet for the time being, a change from the rebellious Anwar Ibrahim. But there is, as yet, not the least indication that Mahathir will be quitting the stage any time soon. Dictators, unfortunately, have long lives because they have already created their heaven on Earth. Pak Lah could be in for a long wait and, even then, Mahathir could still anoint someone else on his deathbed.

It remains to be seen whether the Federal Court will free these detainees following Justice Hishamuddin landmark ruling in the Shah Alam High Court freeing two ISA detainees. This is a pretty big “if” because the entire whorehouse judiciary is also a tool of the Executive and Justice Hishamuddin ruling was landmark only in the sense that it was a rare display of courage, not that anyone was in doubt as to what a just ruling ought to be.

In the meantime, how can the supposedly religious Badawi be insensitive to the anguish of the ISA detainees denied their freedom, a trial, access to lawyers, very limited access to their families, and whose only crime is that they are leaders of the Opposition? Can any decent Malaysian be silent either to this gross abuse of Executive power on the basis that it is none of our business?

What a Protestant pastor wrote when he was being imprisoned in a concentration camp during World War II should be a reminder to us all in this country. "When they (the Nazis) came for the communists, I didn't speak up because I was not a communists. When they came for the Jews, I didn't speak up either because I was not a Jew. When they came for the Catholics, again I didn't speak up because I was a Protestant. Then they came for me. By that time there was no one to speak on my behalf."

In what has been hailed as a landmark ruling, Justice Mohd Hishamudin Mohd Yunus of the Shah Alam High Court ordered the police yesterday to immediately release Abdul Ghani Haroon and N. Gobalakrishnan, detained under the ISA since early April, saying their detention was unlawful and mala fide. This is the sort of courage that many observers felt has been lost from the Malaysian judiciary since 1988, when Mahathir engineered the removal of Tun Salleh Abas as Lord President.

Indeed, little seems to have changed since Dzaiddin took over as Chief Justice from the Very Corrupt Eusoff Chin last year. The courts from top to bottom seemed to remain in their cesspool of injustice and filth, as exemplified by Augustine Paul, the gutter judge who threw out the same writ of habeas corpus intended to free several other ISA detainees, claiming that the court had no jurisdiction to hear their case. But Justice Hishamuddin has now risen to the occasion and, in the streets of Kuala Lumpur, people gasped in sheer wonder and cheered at this tiny flame of justice burning amid the ruins.

So courageous is Justice Hishamuddin that he not only criticised the police severely for their mala fide arrest of the two detainees, but also slammed the ISA as no longer being relevant to the country, thus putting himself directly at odds with non other than Mahathir himself who had earlier praised these arrests and defended the ISA as being “more effective” because it did not require any evidence. But for once, the judiciary has intervened to protect inoffensive citizens from executive excess, as is their duty in a true democracy.

Of course, this victory may be short-lived. The two detainees could be re-arrested by police any time and IGP Norian Mai has appealed to the Federal Court. At the start of the hearing, when Justice Hishamuddin ordered the police to produce both detainees in court so that they could defend themselves against the fairy tale charges of Norian Mai, both the Court of Appeals and the Federal Court overturned this decision, as though it were not a reasonable principle for every accused person to be present at his own trial. This ought to have been a warning to Justice Hishamuddin to deliver a judgment pleasing to the government, but the good judge appears to be made of sterner stuff.

If the Federal Court again overturns the Shah Alam High Court, the higher court will be judged by all Malaysians in the Court of Public Opinion as being utterly despicable, immoral and gutless. Even if Justice Hishamuddin is later victimized by a sickeningly corrupt system, all Malaysians will still thank him for his landmark ruling in one magnificent moment of the truest courage while, at the other end of the spectrum, we observe Augustine Paul still bowing, scraping and kowtowing to the Executive, his knees deep in muck and offal.

The way the MCA is pushing through the takeover of Nanyang despite intense opposition by the Chinese community speaks of a party bankrupt of morals.

We can understand the reservation of the public to any political party owning a newspaper. The bare-faced declaration that this a purely business deal is meant for idiots and simpletons which are in short supply in modern Malaysia. Even as MCA President Ling mouthed his empty words that the editorial content of the Chinese dailies under its control will not interfered, major changes are being made to the editorial and management staff of the Nanyang Siang Pau and The China Press.

We can expect that the once fair and independent reporting of the Nanyang Siang Pao and The China Press will be muzzled, criticism of the MCA will disappear from its pages while no opportunity will be lost to sing praises of the party.

The widespread and intense opposition from the very community which is considered its power base should give pause to any political party about to embark on an intensely unpopular action. What is puzzling is that the party leadership is prepared to ride rough-shod over the angry howls of protests from the public and even its own rank and file to take over Nanyang Press.

How can a political party risk alienating the people it is supposed to draw votes from to maintain its hold on power? Does it not need the electorate anymore?

Faced with a storm of protests, any astute politician would have backed off. This dogged determination to seal the deal hints of political goading from MCA's masters in Umno. But perhaps it is not so puzzling when we see the MCA for what it truly is. It is a party which has long lost its relevance to the Chinese community.

Like Umno, the party has become so rotten that popular support from the Chinese community is no longer sought and cultivated. Like Umno, its leaders must try to cling on to power by a variety of high-handed actions, dirty tricks and money politics.

Fair criticism of the party can no longer be tolerated because the rot has set so deep that the party is no longer defensible. Neither can it reform itself. So the party must silence the critics by actions such as this odious takeover that we are witnessing now.

Perhaps the morally bankrupt leaders think that everything can be repaired once the storm subsides. Is it that simple when the wishes and aspirations of the Chinese community were bulldozed upon in the ugly dash to fulfil it's own political agenda?

We are witnessing the desperate action of desperate men. Men who in their pathetic desperation to cling on to power would delude themselves that a widely respected newspaper can be muscled in and turned into a party propaganda organ without so much as losing its credibility and readership.

Let us hope that the loss of the Nanyang Press will be balanced by the MCA paying a horrendous political price take over and corrupt it

Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad's declaration of non-involvement in MCA's take over of Nanyang Press is as believable as his earlier disclaimer of involvement in the ISA arrest of Opposition leaders, attributing the latter to pure police decision to maintain law and order.

No one should have any fancy that a person like Ling Liong Sik could have the courage to undertake such a momentous and risky venture (politically and financially). The take over of Nanyang is unmistakably another political swoop by Ling's master, the Grand Maestro himself.

Once this take over is completed, it will signal Barisan Nasional¡¦s total control of the press in this Country, as the remaining major Chinese newspaper Sin Chew seems to have joined MCA in this take over and has conspired to black out the relevant news to prevent a backlash from the Chinese society.

This is a sad day not only for the Chinese society, but for all freedom loving Malaysians, in particular the Opposition parties and their supporters who constitute one half of the population of this Country. From now on, the tiny windows that were traditionally opened to carry news of the political struggles of the Opposition from time to time (albeit often stealthily) will be shut. One dreads to imagine the suffocation that patriotic reformers of this Country will have to endure henceforth.

However, to Mahathir this is his crowning moment, for he has just driven the last nail to press freedom after 20 years of systematically chipping at it, through successive repressive legislation and gradual acquisition.

At this final hour before the agreement is sealed by both parties, the deal can still be thwarted under the following circumstances.

The first scenario is when Mahathir is convinced that the take over of Nanyang is so deeply and extensively opposed by the Chinese society that such resentment will carry over to the year 2004 to erode substantial Chinese electoral support to Barisan Nasional in the General Election then.

The second possibility is legal obstacles within MCA. MCA has to climb 2 huddles before it can seal this Agreement. This deal has to be approved by the MCA central committee in a meeting schedule on 30th Wednesday, and by the Board of Trustees of Huaren Holdings, which is the investment arm of MCA to execute this take over.

While the central committee is expected to approve this deal, the Board of of Trustees of Huaren may not, as one of the 4 Trustees in the Board has voiced objection to this take over, and unanimity in decision is most likely needed.

The Board of Trustees is made up of the MCA President Ling Liong Sik, Deputy President Lim Ah Lek and 2 others. Lim Ah Lek, arch rival to Ling, has voiced his objection and he certainly has the character to stand up for his conviction against Ling. But the crucial question is not Ling, but Mahathir. Will Lim Ah Lek be strong enough to withstand the pressure from Mahathir? This is the moment to make history. The Chinese society and all freedom loving Malaysians will eternally be grateful if he stands up for what is right at this crucial moment.

Kim Quek
29.05.01

If the MCA has a creed it will be: “Ask not what the party can do for you but what you can do for the party leader’s coffers. The MCA exists not to promote the interests of the Chinese community, but to promote the business interests of its leaders. To kowtow to Mahathir and UMNO is of course, one sure way to get rich contracts and business deals. Hence, the wealth of MCA President Ling Liong Sik and his immediate family can only be counted in billions.

If the MCA today has the support of the Chinese community, it would not need to buy up the Chinese dailies, Nanyang Siang Pau and China Press to act as its propaganda mouthpieces. To subject them to party control would be the end of their independence. By acting in this fashion, the MCA loses even more credibility for this desperate measure will only result in further erosion of whatever little support it still has. Readers are not so stupid as to be unable to distinguish unbiased reporting from propaganda; even self-censorship does not work in this Information Age when alternate news are available through the Internet.

It is interesting that Ling should try to reassure the public by referring to The Star as an example: “The Star is credible, reliable, truthful and responsible. It cares for the poor and under-privileged and is a nation builder. And we will do exactly the same with Nanyang Siang Pau and China Press.”

What a vomiting statement! The Star is fit only to line your birdcage or be torn up for use in the toilet if you are poor. It has totally glossed over the current Chinese newspaper controversy. It failed to report the almost complete opposition to the MCA plans, that 40 writers and columnists have vowed not to write for Nanyang and China Press, that 14 Chinese NGOs have voiced opposition to it, that even rank and file MCA members are opposed to the deal. Why? Because the filthy Star is owned by the MCA. So you can judge for yourself just how “credible, reliable, truthful and responsible” it is. If the MCA does with Nanyang and China Press exactly what it does with The Star, these papers will likewise be fit only to line your birdcage or be torn up for use in the toilet if you are poor.

In the past weeks, The Star has even censored news that the Education Ministry has been cheating on the non-bumi quota for varsity places over the last two decades. That is a measure of how much it cares for “the poor and the underprivileged.” If there is any news that might embarrass UMNO, The Star pretends that it doesn’t exist because like the MCA, it has to kowtow to UMNO as well. The only reason why people continue to buy this shit-ridden paper is because the alternative English dailies are just as bad.

Now it appears that all Chinese dailies must be similarly corrupted. The other two major Chinese papers, Sin Chew Jit Poh and Guang Ming Daily, are already owned by a businessman with strong links to the MCA. These two papers have not even covered this current controversy, despite its great importance to the Chinese community. What sort of horse-shitting papers will self-censor the most important news? You’ve guessed it, those papers that are owned by or linked to political parties. Once Nanyang and China Press are taken over, its senior management will be replaced by those without backbone, morality or integrity, the same sort of person as Star editor, V.K. Chin whose editorials rival those of the NST in sheer vomit.

Decades of tight media control in Malaysia has failed to brain-wash all Malaysians. Yet, the solution to the growing “problem” of having too many independent thinkers in the country seems to be to impose even greater media control. But those of us who have already waken up can never go back to sleep again.

The image of pigs is particularly apt when thinking of MCA high office bearers. These are the people who have little regard for anything except their own comfort, and the lucrative business deals in which they wallow. These are the people who fatten themselves and still keep taking in more riches, who merely squeak when it comes to real community issues.

Always toeing the government line, MCA has betrayed the Chinese community more times than there are ways to slaughter a hog. Even in a matter as dear to the Chinese heart as education, the party does not think twice before sacrificing community interests, whether it is Merdeka University, the Chang Ming Thien Education Fund, Vision Schools, SJK Damasara Chinese School, the upgrade of TAR College to a University etc. Typical of how the MCA behaves is its response to the recent public statement by Mahathir that the government might consider introducing national service for the non-bumiputras only.

Any keen observer will immediately realise that the PM was merely speaking off the cuff without any attempt at seriousness. National service is an idea that has come up time and again but has never been implemented simply because of the enormous cost. But this did not stop MCA President Ling Liong Sik from declaring his party’s whole-hearted support for the idea, and moreover, that the MCA will help find the non-bumiputra bodies that the army needs. This stance was taken without the least bit of community consultation; would Ling and his swines care if such an implementation leads to Chinese migrating in droves? Ling would be well aware that the reason why non-bumiputras are reluctant to make a career of the army is because of a perceived lack of opportunities for them to advance within the defence forces, but the sky will have to fall down first before we hear him say anything that might reflect badly on the government.

MCA’s posturing over the plight of SPM top scorers unable to gain places within the local public universities is just that, posturing. The party was remarkably restrained in calling for change, and any public statement was prefaced with: “we do not question the quota system.” Even when it was revealed that the Education Ministry had been cheating on the bumiputra quota for the last 20 years, it was chiefly the DAP that made the loudest howls of protest. By contrast, MCA leaders and The Star, which is an MCA-linked paper, did not even dare highlight the injustice.

It is no wonder that there is a widening gap between MCA and the Chinese community. But why haven’t the Chinese community slaughtered top hogs like Ling Long Sik long ago? They can’t because they are not elected from Chinese majority seats, but from safe BN seats in Johore. But you can kowtow as much as you like to Mahathir and, at the end of the day, he can still kick your butt if he feels like it. Malaysiakini reported that Mahathir will appoint two special non-MCA assistants to advise him on matters relating to the Chinese community. And that is a sharp kick in the butt for the moribund, useless, good-for-nothing MCA.

Education has traditionally been the means by which persons of meagre backgrounds can bootstrap themselves to better standards of living. In the Malaysian context, this appears to be no longer possible; worse still, the middle class non-Bumiputra families now find the provision of higher education for their children to be a task entailing great sacrifices and heroism. Instead of climbing upwards, it is now quite conceivable for the sons and daughters of professionals to tumble down the social ladder simply because of unaffordable education.

While the cost of tertiary education overseas has escalated to fearful sums, non-Bumiputra students find themselves squeezed by a lack of local university places and a dearth of scholarships. The problem has become so acute that even the crème de la crème of such students now find themselves on the reject pile of local universities.

While the MCA may make a fine show of itself by championing these top scorers, this only highlights its failure to change an education policy highly damaging to the Chinese even after decades of so-called power sharing in the BN government. One gets the impression that they have only dared to be vocal because of the Prime Minister’s encouraging comments.

That the MCA has failed the Chinese as far as higher education is concerned can be seen in its refusal to support the upgrade of TAR College to a university and in its abject handling of the Chang Ming Thien Education Fund. Countless top-scorers whom they now pretend to champion would have wept tears of joys had the intended scholarships been disbursed by the MCA from this Fund. The problem is not solved by merely opening the gates a crack wider to admit the non-Bumiputra top scorers each year after a great deal of hoo-ha. One must also think of the legions of very able students just one or two steps behind the all-As who can be groomed into perfectly good doctors, lawyers and engineers.

This great waste of talent is indeed a human tragedy that no nation can afford. While the New Economic Policy has often been lauded as one that has helped maintain racial harmony in Malaysia, any solution that curtails the potential of certain racial groups can only be viewed as both regrettable and second-rate.

The architects of the NEP, had they been more enlightened, would have devised a policy that helps all the nation’s disadvantaged, regardless of race. As the Malays comprise most of the poor, a greater number of Malays would automatically be given assistance, but such a policy would be seen to be not only fair, but also non-racial.

As it has been practised, large sections of the Malay poor have gained little benefit from the NEP while a tiny elite have become obscenely rich. Perhaps the lack of qualified Bumiputra students to fill up the university quota is also a reflection of the failure of this policy. Would not the billions spent in bailing out crony companies be better used improving the standard of kampung schools?

The NEP is seriously in need of re-invention. Yet, how can any progress be made when even simple honest debate is at risk of being labelled seditious? Too often, we have praised Mahathir and BN for the country’s economic achievements without considering how much more could have been achieved without the bad social policies as well as the endemic corruption and cronyism.

Observers of the Malaysian judiciary have noted few changes since Dzaiddin’s much trumpeted promotion to Chief Justice, in replacement of the sickeningly corrupt Eusoff Chin. Despite many public statements putting forward his zeal to reform the whorehouse judiciary, abuses continue to occur, such as the appointment of the former Attorney General, Mothar Abdullah as Federal Court judge, which is like asking a robber chief to guard the treasury, the sentencing of an Anwar aide to 18 months jail for perjury and the rejection of a habeas corpus application by five ISA detainees by monster judge Augustine Paul. One wonders whether Dzaiddin has been insincere or is merely powerless; in any case, one would do well to severely tone down one’s expectations in regard to judicial reform.

There has, however, been two rays of hope: firstly, the rejection of ex-IGP Rahim Noor’s appeal against his sentence for his prison bashing of Anwar Ibrahim. Rahim’s paltry two-month sentence is a reflection of the prosecutor’s lack of zeal rather than of the appeal judges’ leniency. Secondly, High Court Judge, Mohamad Hishammuddin has supported the "habeas corpus" applications of two ISA detainees, ordering them to be produced in Court next week.

This is the same habeas corpus application that the puppet judge Augustine Paul rejected in his court, citing that the judiciary had no powers to intervene in the matter. A lot of horse-shit emanated from his mouth, including criticism of Suhakam’s public support for the ISA detainees. The monster effectively washes his filthy judicial hands of responsibility for protecting citizens against Executive abuses. If the police say, that the arrests are a matter of national security, then it is a matter of national security, no questions asked or evidence required. If the police claim that there are other “secret reasons” then there are “secret reasons” which the police can keep to themselves. A more knee-bending, bootlicking, shit-spewing judge you could not hope to find. This sort of judgement is enough to make you want to vomit — on his face.

But now, Justice Mohamad Hishammuddin of the Shah Alam Court has shown up Augustine Paul for the slimebag that he is. This real judge declared that the onus is on the police to prove that the detentions are justified, and that the detainees must be present in court so as to be able to present an effective defence. Arguments for and against their detention can be presented once the detainees are brought to court.

Government lawyers can’t wait to appeal to the Federal Court against this decision. Of course they don’t want to have to fight it out in court before an independent judge. The police have not got a shred of evidence that the two detainees have endangered national security. If so, why don’t they dare present it in court? It now remains to be seen whether the ray of light emanating from the Shah Alam High Court will go all the way up to the top. The Malaysian public have put the judiciary on trial.

Once again the issue of Chinese top-scorers with ten straight As in the SPM examinations being denied places in public universities rears its ugly head and in doing so confirm the abject failure of the MCA to safeguard Chinese interests. Despite the fact that the post of deputy Education Minister is traditionally drawn from MCA ranks, it highlights more than anything else the stark political impotence of the MCA in the Barisan Nasional grouping.

For umpteen years that this has happened, MCA has continued to affirm their impotence by submissively accepting this glaring anomaly. To the amusement of the public, it has also trumpeted the party's success in reversing a few cases of this unfair denial of university places as if such action show their worth to the Chinese community rather than being a mark of their powerlessness to change unfair policies.

But lately, faced with a significant erosion of support among the Chinese grassroots and criticism of their handling of education related matters like the Vision Schools and SRJK (C) Damansara relocation, MCA has suddenly found a feeble voice to call for changes to the university quota system to guarantee non-Bumiputra top-scorers a place.

Where was this voice for umpteen years that this has happened? More to the point, why has it taken MCA so long to find the gigantic courage to speak up to remedy what should have been an administrative matter?

It also comes as no surprise that MCA President Ling Liong Sik is not involved in any call for change in government policies to correct any anomaly and injustice. This morally gutless leader holds his position on the strength of his skill at political infighting and clinging to his job and would certainly not dream of sticking his neck out one inch to fight for Chinese rights.

Despite MCA's new found bravery in calling for change, Chinese should not hold their breath for any chance of success given the abysmal track record of MCA in looking after Chinese interests. The fact that Chinese schools have declined since independence despite increasing population and overwhelming demand for them is an eloquent testimony to the MCA's hopeless irrelevance to the community they pretend to represent.

MCA's political helplessness stems from the fact that there is no real power sharing in BN. The minority component parties were brought in as window dressing and to garner minority votes, not to share political power with Umno. In return their leaders were given economic opportunities and benefits. This is akin to buying over the village headman to keep the rest of the natives in line.

Barisan Alternatif is often attacked and derided for disagreements and arguments among its component parties. But this is the way of real partners who can agree, disagree, discuss and compromise. The eerie uniform consensus among BN leaders is an indication of the master-servant relationship between Umno and the other component parties and not a reflection of how well they work together.

Kevin Gan

Two months jail for nearly killing a defenceless prisoner while Anwar got six years for the finest technical interpretation of corruption plus nine years for sodomy that was never proved. Moreover, Rahim was allowed bail all the way through up to his last appeal while Anwar was never let out from day one of his arrest.

It is a measure of the prosecutor’s half-hearted zeal that Rahim was only charged with a minor offence carrying only a maximum of one year’s jail. It is a mark of the whorehouse judiciary that Rahim only received a two-month sentence plus RM$2000 fine from the Sessions Court, despite the horrendous circumstances of the attack. Instead of being thankful for this slap on the wrist, Rahim decide to appeal, expecting even greater leniency from whorish judges. Initially, he was right. The High Court removed the fine. But the Court of Appeals reinstated it. And because the sitting judges of the Court of Appeals happen to be independent, the prosecution quietly dropped their initial demand that Rahim’s sentence be increased. They were never serious about it in the first place, and probably expected that kangaroo judges would reduce Rahim’s jail sentence or squash it entirely. Their tactic rendered the Court of Appeals unable to enhance the 2-month jail term, but Justice Shaik Daud commented that the sentence was "too lenient."

The three Court of Appeals judges had many harsh words for Rahim and his dastardly crime. Yet, one cannot help feeling that the Father of Dogs got off lightly. With the normal one-third remission for good behaviour, Rahim will only spend 40 days in jail. He may stand to lose his RM5000 a month pension, but Mahathir will surely see to it that his attack dog be well supplied with bone after release. Many believe that Rahim would have neither the motive nor the courage to assault Anwar, who was the highest profile prisoner ever in Malaysia, without the express command of Mahathir. On the other hand, the long-suffering Anwar Ibrahim is still in great pain and denied the treatment of his choice for a back problem that Rahim exacerbated by his assault. But what can you expect of whorehouse justice?

If one is surprised over Prime Minister Mahathir’s proposal that “good” dictatorships are a better form of government than democracy for developing nations, it is only over this rare display of candour. This is a statement that tells us far more about the man himself than about political science in general.

You do not have to be at the high end of intelligence to notice this glaring flaw in the conception of a “good” dictatorship. Who is to decide what is “good” and what is “bad?” By definition, it is the dictator himself.

Given the realities of human nature as well as the lessons of history, no society can possibly put its trust into government by dictatorship, which has the added disadvantage of being peculiarly difficult to get rid of. It is strange that Mahathir should advocate this form of government for developing nations when so many of them have been ruined by authoritarian regimes — Iraq, Cuba, Myanmar, Indonesia, Yugoslavia, Congo and North Korea to name a few.

The checks and balances in a democracy are designed to cope with the all too human propensity for excesses and abuses, the very checks and balances that Mahathir has removed in Malaysia’s democracy. Specifically, he has vastly increased the power of the Executive at the expense of Parliament and the judiciary. Moreover, the mass media, frequently called the Fourth Estate, has been effectively muffled. To effect these, far reaching changes to the Malaysian Constitution were rammed through Parliament which, in more liberal countries, would have required years of debate.

Far from exercising their responsibilities as checks and balance, Parliament, the Judiciary and the mass media have respectively become the rubber stamp, tool of oppression and propaganda machine of the Executive. During Mahathir’s tenure, the Conference of Rulers has also been stripped of whatever reserve power they once possessed.

The dismantling of Malaysia’s democratic framework has led predictably to Executive excesses and its gross abuse of power. We saw this during the destruction of Anwar Ibrahim, and we are seeing it now in the detention of the ISA 10 under the flimsiest of excuses. Where are the checks and balances? The speaker refuses to let Parliament discuss the matter, the media is silent and the judiciary bends backwards to support the Executive. And, to top it all, Mahathir applauds the arrests as being very “good” for the country. One can only observe that he certainly relishes his role as “good dictator.”

So thorough has Mahathir been in his consolidation of power that there is now nothing he cannot get away with. He can even cancel the 2004 general elections if he looks like losing— it doesn’t matter on what pretext because Parliament will rubber-stamp, the media will play up a non-existent national crisis, and the judiciary will declare it lawful. As for the King, he will only be able to sit and wait to be advised — by the Prime Minister of course.

For too long, we have been silent while Mahathir steals our democratic rights one by one. The recent ISA arrests exhibit just how silent the greater part of Malaysian society is over this horrific abuse of power. On the hand, those who are silent might as well save their voices. The sad truth is that it may already be too late to save the country’s democracy.

Tsu Nam

Although Prime Minister Mahathir claimed that the ISA has served the nation well, the truth is that it has served him well. Mahathir appears to have confused threats to his own position with the exigencies of national security. But this is a man who has been in power so long that he no longer recognises any boundary between himself, his government and the State. Any protest against him or his government counts as a protest against the State, hence, the voice of dissent can only come from the mouths of traitors. Since Mahathir has effectively merged his persona with the State, his use of public instruments such as the police, judiciary and mass media to achieve personal ends is not difficult to understand.

But no authoritarian regime can possibly survive for long without a vast underlying support structure. What requires comprehension is why so many individuals in public office are willing to condone and carry out Mahathir's orders. The public perception includes the ex-Attorney General, Mohtar Abdullah, the Chairman of the Anti-Corruption Agency, Abdul Murad Khalid, numerous puppet judges, Cabinet Minsters, MPs and now, the Inspector General of Police, Norian Mai. These individuals are willing to lie, deceive and bend backwards in order to satisfy the dictates of their master, knowing full well that what they do is wrong. Would not an honest person prefer to resign his office?

Perhaps it is a sad reflection on humanity in general that the brave and upright person is a rare jewel among those who are cowardly, morally flexible and susceptible to rewards. To ensure survival, Mahathir exploits these all too human characteristics to the full. After all, BN, especially UMNO, works on a system of patronage, not on the basis of truth and justice, and no one wants to be next on the ISA list. There are persistent reports of Mahathir holding on to "black files" to ensure a person's continual obedience. These are the people who either remain silent over the worst abuses or come out publicly in support, such as the Law Minister, Dr. Rais Yatim, who not only shamelessly applauded the recent ISA arrests, but also blasted Suhakam for showing some spine. It was Lim Kit Siang who reminded Rais Yatim of the latter's previous, diametrically opposite writings from less subservient days.

Only the grassroots can regain the country back from the corrupt politicians, but with so many handicaps, this will clearly not be an easy task. The nation's gradual awakening in the cruel light of the Anwar crisis has been met with even more brutal repression. But if we remain afraid, can we ever shake off this long nightmare?

Tsu Nam

It was widely expected that the monster judge Augustine Paul would dismiss the writ of habeas corpus to free the ISA detainees but what was not expected was the extraordinary zeal which he did so and the shocking garbage he spewed out to support his judgement.

He said that the Executive has the legal right to arrest any citizen it sees fit on the vague suspicion of national security risk and this suspicion does not have to be proven or even asked to show reasonable grounds. Furthermore, he said that the court has no right to challenge, review or assess such arrests.

Forgetting the role of the courts to protect the citizens from abuses and excesses committed by the Executive branch, he willingly sold away the watchdog role of the judiciary and affirmed the right of the ruling clique to exercise its discretionary role to arrest and hold indefinitely just about anybody without being challenged. A more monstrous judge you could not find.

The knee-bending Augustine Paul went one step further to criticize the Human Rights Commission Suhakam for calling for the ISA detainees' release. He should have kept his mouth shut on what is clearly outside his court's jurisdiction. But no, he had to take the extra step to please his political masters to the point of making himself look like a rabid pro-government dog foaming at the mouth and baring its fangs at any challenges to his master's power.

This is not the first time that Paul has displayed his extraordinary desire to appease the government that went beyond puppet-like. A puppet jerks on strings that pulls it, its movement forced and unwieldy to show its reluctance at being controlled. But Augustine Paul appears like a demented nuclear powered robot judge going all out to please its programmer with biased judgements.

Most pro-government judges would have been more circumspect with their judgements. But Paul clearly does not know where to draw the line between appearing merely biased and looking like a fawning bootlicker. He embarrasses his political masters with his illogical and fantastic judgements. Just when you thought the judiciary can go no lower, he drags it down to match the shrinking reputation he enjoys among the public.

Forget about hopes of reforms in the judiciary awakened by the appointment of the new Chief Justice. Augustine Paul has shown us how thin this really is. Like a puff of smoke blown away by the wind, it is gone.

We have traditionally looked to the courts to seek justice and redress any wrongs. The courts are supposed to protect the oppressed. But who will protect us from rogue judges like this stinking, louse-ridden government dog?

KG

If ever there is a judge from hell, it is Augustine Paul. This gutter judge who disgraced himself by bending over backwards to serve his political master in the Anwar trial is set to deliver another repeat performance of how morally gutless he can be when it comes to dispensing justice. To the establishment, he is a dream judge, a spineless puppet whose strings they control. They do not even have to pull the strings because he jerks mindlessly to their tune out of his own volition in his extraordinary zeal to please the establishment.

Having sold away any shred of reputation he has of being impartial, this tainted judge should take no more part in political trials. He should be judging rape cases, sodomy cases and incest cases. He should have disqualified himself from judging the writ of habeas corpus by lawyers acting for the ISA detainees when asked to do so. Justice cannot be seen to be done by a judge whom the public has relegated to the ranks of puppet judge. He should have saved himself another public roasting and leave it to someone else to play the role of boot-licking government dog.

True to form this disgraceful judge delivered his first controversial judgement soon after the commencement of the ISA trial by accepting at face value the IGP's assertion that there are "secret reasons" for detaining the seven civilians under ISA. Like a stupid fool, he was asked to accept that these reasons will imperil the security of the nation if made public. One cannot but smirk at the manner in which he was treated as an idiot by the police. But knowing Augustine Paul's mindless eagerness to side the establishment no matter how ludicrous the circumstances, it is difficult to feel sorry for him.

Knowing the inaccessibly of the ISA detainees to their lawyers, Paul even had the temerity to question who gave the lawyers instructions with the menacing implication that they had no right to represent their clients whom they did not receive direct instructions from. In other words, his meaning is that the ISA detainees have no right to defend themselves. That this is coming from a man who is supposed to uphold justice and defend the wronged is an anguished silent scream of justice betrayed.

This is the sad case of a judge who has sold his soul lock, stock and barrel to Mahathir. If anything, his ridiculous antics in court worthy of a performing dog will serve to embarrass his political masters although it may achieve their nefarious ends. Justice will again be seen to be sodomized and the judiciary dragged down to new lows. It will put paid to the feeble attempt of the new Chief Justice to uplift the reputation of the courts. Augustine Paul will show us after all the hue and cry all that nothing has changed.

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly.
This one's definitely UGLY.

The continual detention of the ISA 7 underlines the moral bankruptcy of Mahathir and his degenerate government. While Mahathir may claim that the ISA has served the country well, the truth is that it has served him well. First formulated to fight communist insurgency, this particular piece of legislation has now become a convenient tool for dictators. Mahathir even did one better than the old colonial masters by removing judicial review for each renewal of the detention period. The Act should now be properly called the Mahathir Security Act.

Preposterous lies have been spewed all over the long-suffering public to justify the detention of the ISA 7, whose families are now desperately trying to secure their release through court action. They, however, have the impossible task of arguing their case before Augustine Paul, the monster judge who presided over the most shameful display of kangaroo justice the country has ever known, in the first trial of Anwar Ibrahim. It is a foregone conclusion that this particular court action will be a perfect waste of time no matter how brilliantly the lawyers argue. They might as well argue their case before a stone wall. The result will be the same, but at least a stone wall can be relied upon not to make comments insulting to truth and justice.

It is clear that only Mahathir can free the ISA 7, not his puppet judges or his slavishly obedient Inspector General of Police. However, Mahathir’s public comments give no indication that he is going to relent any time soon; instead, we observe a hardening of attitude and a willingness to use the most immoral means to secure his position. There is talk that the already restrictive Printing and Publications Act, under which the supine local news media labour, will be tightened to include the Internet, a move that could mean the end of Malaysiakini. Mahathir actions are also not consistent with those of a man who is preparing to step down in the near future, despite his declaration that the 10th General Elections will be his last. Anyone who still has any shred of belief in the old man’s foul mouth should refer to our section below. . Far from willingly giving up power, he is more likely to die in his boots. And this is the same man who declared that a good leader should not remain in the seat for too long. Long-suffering Malaysians can only call upon God to save us all.

Malaysians can only be outraged by the Government’s latest attempt to crush the Opposition, this time by using the infamous ISA to arrest seven activists. The wildest claims have been made by IGP Norian Mai, to the extent that the Reformasi movement was planning to overthrow the government using bombs and grenade launchers.

Such a claim is totally inconsistent with the methods of the movement so far, which has only organised peaceful street demonstrations of the sort that are permitted in all truly democratic countries. There has not been a single bomb exploded or Molotov cocktail thrown during street demonstrations. Hence, Norian Mai’s allegations carry not the least ring of credibility. Does he really think that Malaysians are stupid enough to believe them. This sort of thinking can only have come from a graduate of the Mahathir School of Lies and Hypocrisy.

If, however, the government has proof that these tactics are being planned, then the seven arrested should be charged under the criminal code and brought to trial. By using the ISA, which allows for indefinite detention without trial, any far-fetched accusations can be made since those accused cannot defend themselves.

Peaceful demonstration is one of the legitimate means of expression in a democratic country. Those organised in support of Reformasi so far have attracted relatively modest crowds. The idea that that they are capable of overthrowing the government of the day — such as has happened in Indonesia and the Philippines — is beyond the wildest dreams of even the most optimistic Reformasian. If such popular support is really present in Malaysia, then clearly the government has failed, and a government that has failed must go.

As the Home Minister and DPM, Abdullah Badawi, has publicly acknowledged that he had had no prior knowledge of these arrests and the use of the ISA, the order can only have come from a desperate Mahathir wallowing deep within the moribund UMNO. Both party and PM, having lost all hope of attracting the majority of Malays back to the fold, must now resort to terror tactics and the further use of brute force to intimidate, reduce and crush the Opposition. But like most of their ill-conceived strategies, it will only end up alienating even more of the population.

Is there no hope for a new Malaysia?
Can we weather the storms as recession sweeps the world and Asia?

Can we hope for a Malaysia with good governance and democracy?
Where Malaysians live in joy and racial harmony.

Without the bloodshed, chaos and needless anarchies
Without Umno, MIC, MCA and their racial hippocracies.

Can we face the challenges ahead with protectionism and outdated ideologies?
And face economic stagnation with old junk technologies?

Shall we continue with the false pretences of “Special Malay Privileges”
Or expose the selected few who shamelessly exploit these privileges.

While Mahathir continue to marginalise the poor majority,
Divide and rule by distorting racial harmony.

Did the NEP policies really benefit the Malay majority?
Or actually suppress their economic development with a subsidy mentality?

Should Malaysians continue to be hoodwinked by such unfair racial policies?
Or face the fact that this is only a ploy to enrich Mahathir’s cronies.

Shall we continue to be shackled by such idiocies
Or shall we advance full steam ahead with meritoracies?

In the face of globalisation and liberalising economies,
Will we survive or fall flat with bailouts for Mahathir’s cronies.

There’s no way Mahathir will go quietly
In office he will stay, to "kerja sampai mati".

A stalemate, for the BA will not sway,
"Perjuangan Reformasi Sampai Mati"

By J.Bao

Never in the history of Malaysia, has any unsuccessful political challenger been treated with such utter harshness, cruelty and plain vindictiveness as the unfortunate Anwar Ibrahim. Yet, Prime Minister Mahathir’s destruction of Anwar must seemingly be so complete as to encompass even the latter’s permanent health.

So inept were the show trials that there are hardly any well-informed or fair-minded persons in the country who believe that Anwar is guilty of the crimes against which he has been convicted, although the morally flexible have tried to justify this injustice as some sort of political law of the jungle. Instead, the public have been revolted by the manner in which various instruments of government were employed to crush someone whose only crime seems to have been to incur Mahathir’s blackest fury. These include the Attorney General’s Office, the Police, the media and, of course, the Judiciary, the desecration of all of which was a price the nation had to pay to satisfy one man’s incredible appetite for revenge.

That Mahathir can pull off the whole sordid affair and still emerge the clear victor in a subsequent election is testimony to the success of his propaganda machine and the odd notion of some that a leader can do no wrong as long as he delivers the economic goods.

Currently serving a 15-year sentence, Anwar is both ill and in continual pain. Moreover, he has had to endure the grief of his mother’s recent death. A less implacable leader than Mahathir might now be willing to loosen the arm-twist a little, yet Anwar has been disallowed the simple expedient of getting the best medical treatment available. Patriotism — wholly irrelevant in this context — has absurdly been called upon to demand his acceptance of a critical operation locally when it can undoubtedly be more safely performed overseas.

Mahathir would be well aware of the fact that if Anwar were to apply for political asylum while overseas, there would be no lack of governments willing to open their doors. But this only points to the failure of Mahathir’s case against Anwar that he has never been able to convince those at home and abroad of the prisoner’s alleged crimes.

The chances are that Anwar, if allowed out, will keep his word to return as not to do so will result in great loss of popular prestige. But even if this were not so, few would consider that an affront to justice, given that few believe he should have been jailed in the first place. Let us remember that the ex-IGP, Rahim Noor, whose cowardly bashing of Anwar contributed to the latter’s present difficulties, has yet to serve even a single day in prison and, in all likelihood, never will.

That Mahathir can publicly proclaim his government’s refusal to allow Anwar out shows clearly that the Executive and not the Judiciary is in control of the prisoner. As Anwar is yet to exhaust his avenues of appeal, it is properly the judiciary’s responsibility to decide on a possible bail arrangement, that is, if it is at liberty to do so.

It would appear too much to expect Mahathir to be magnanimous enough to allow his former protégé to choose between exile and prison. But what is sickening is the sheer pettiness with which he berated foreign diplomats for attending a briefing on Anwar’s medical condition when, in fact, no diplomatic conventions were broken. It is only a hate-filled person who cannot bear the slightest hint of public sympathy shown to his enemy despite the latter being down on the ground.

Also, by referring to Anwar’s injury as a “backache” and accusing the latter of “politicising” his medical condition, Mahathir reached new lows in the sort of inhumanity that shames his nation, his race and his religion. Whatever good that he may have done in the past, Malaysians should no longer tolerate a leader full of unrelenting cruelty and vindictiveness while lacking even the most basic human decency.

Tsu Nam

Well may the writer of “We Reap What We Sow”, (Malaysiakini April 4) wonder why we at Seachange Malaysia, and many other pro-Reformasi sites, have nothing good to say about Mahathir. Well may he deplore the fact that we reserve our sharpest barbs for him and his government while refusing to acknowledge the good that he has done for the country. The simple reason is this: we are the voices of backlash.

Rising from the deepest frustrations of Malaysians, we are the backlash against the supine mainstream media with their blind praise of Mahathir and their propensity to cloak in goodness, even the most inane things that he says. We show that there are enough persons whose critical thinking faculties have not been addled by decades of propaganda by these same media, who would never in their wildest dreams, print a letter critical of the Prime Minister. Given the all-pervasive reach of the mainstream media no one should imagine that our pitiful resources are more than a drop against the torrential output of those who inundate us daily with disinformation and the much varnished truth. To expect us to be balanced in this most unequal of contests is to demand that a billionaire and a pauper be both taxed exactly the same amount.

We are one-sided because we want to bury Mahathir, not praise him. We believe that the country has made great advances in spite of Mahathir, not because of him, and that we would all be on a much higher plane had he vacated his seat long ago. We do not need to dig for dirt when the Prime Minister supplies us with examples of his contempt for the public intelligence nearly every day: his vapid statements about Suiqiu and the Opposition’s role in the Kg Medan riots, his inane attacks against foreigners, his accusations in the face of Anwar’s medical problems etc. Just take this statement of his:

“They (Keadilan) saw what happened in a neighbouring country and appeared to be happy to see chaos, the killings of Muslims and Christians, Dayaks and Madurese; they are disappointed because there were no killings in Malaysia.”

Can any PM be taken seriously after making such a statement? In a truly free country, any leader who makes a single wild claim of this nature would be forced to issue an abject apology at best, and thrown out by a vote of no-confidence at worst. But Mahathir disgraces his office by such monstrosities time and again and again. Where are the voices of outrage? Where is the public anger, the boiling blood? Do not expect to find them in your daily papers but on tiny little set-ups like Seachange Malaysia

A recent report by Malaysiakini concerning police disruption of a signature campaign by students of TAR College in support of SRJK (Chinese) Damansara highlights just how authoritarian the ruling regime has become.

It is most unfit that the police should bring their overbearing presence into a restaurant near the College when no crime had been committed other than the imaginary one of “unlawful assembly.” If such is the case, then one wonders whether this fantastic law is violated every time some students have a meal together.

Indeed, any country that disallows this, the most inoffensive form of free expression to flourish should not, in all honesty, describe itself as being democratic. Do the authorities imagine that being democratic equates only to being allowed to vote once every five years in heavily tainted elections, and then having no further say in the affairs of the nation until the next time around?

The TAR College incident comes on the heels of several others including the harassment of an academic for supposedly inappropriate postings to newsgroups, the hauling in of Opposition figures for so-called sedition, the seizure of a Reformasi webmaster’s computer and the attacks on Malaysiakini.

All these underline the growing desperation of Mahathir’s regime whose battle to win the hearts and minds of the populace has degenerated into those tactics of fear more commonly associated with the totalitarian jackboot. And fear is, of course, the invisible ingredient that oils the machinery of authoritarian regimes — a brutal police force, unjust laws that are selectively applied, sickening show trials, relentless media propaganda —Malaysia has all of these in some measure, even if not yet to the same intensity as Stalinist Russia or Maoist China.

If this country is to have any hope, it is only because of those few who refuse to be cowed into submission and who are prepared to pay the price. The alternative would be to spiral downwards to the sort of hell that now characterises North Korea, where the brain-washing of an entire nation has produced citizens who see no contradiction in praising their Great Leader while, at the same time, dying of starvation. Perhaps it is significant that there has already been a call for local colleges to run courses on the thoughts of Mahathir.

Tsu Nam

Visitors to the SRJK (Chinese) Damansara are puzzled as to why the school has to close. The official reasons of being too close to the highway with the attendant danger, noise and pollution do not hold water. The school is served by a slip road which is segregated from the busy highway and hence safe. As for noise and pollution, there are schools in areas with worse conditions and in any case a deflecting wall can be built to shield the school from the highway if the Ministry of Education is so concerned.

To add insult to injury there is a national type school about 10 km down the road which is even closer to the highway but it has not been asked to close.

Unfortunately this incident highlights once again the unofficial anti-Chinese school policy of the Barisan Nasional government. The reason for that school's closure is not traffic or noise or pollution, but something deeply political. A new Chinese school has been allowed to be built in Bandar Utama so one Chinese school must close. If not for the furore over the school's closure, the new site at Tropicana will remain the sick joke and empty promise that it was intended to be. Unable to renege on this promise which was never meant to be kept, the Ministry has been forced to commence work on a site that largely a ravine, close to high tension wires and a rubbish dump and fronting a busy road and a condominium.

The Chinese community has good reasons to fear the loss of another Chinese school. Although the population has increased, Chinese medium schools have decreased. Construction of a new Chinese school means closure of an existing one under the guise of relocation. This is probably to beguile the Chinese community that new Chinese schools are in fact being built and MCA leaders can disingenuously claim credit.

Another example of this noxious policy is the proposed relocation of the Sekolah Menengah Hin Hua in Klang to Bandar Bukit Tinggi, a new mixed development at Jalan Langat. Hin Hua is a large, prestigious, well equipped Chinese school with a large hall and playing field. Its location is well suited to the environment and next to it are two other national type schools. The school is utilized to full capacity and has to turn away prospective students every year. Meanwhile Bandar Bukit Tinggi will have more than 1000 dwelling units and together with the recently completed Bayu Perdana housing estate next door means a pressing need for another Chinese school for the largely Chinese population. To show their sensitivity to the community's needs, the Ministry has allowed a new Chinese school to be built in Bukit Tinggi with the proviso that the well-placed and perfectly good Hin Hua school be closed down or shall we say, "relocated?"

Unfortunately the MCA is hopelessly impotent to counter the racial bigotry of the BN government. MCA like MIC is a subservient partner in the coalition, reduced to apologists and yesmen for BN's racial policies. Every year we see the spectacle of MCA politicians proudly claiming credit for helping Chinese students who scored all A's in STP gain entry into public universities after being ignominiously and inexplicably rejected. Perhaps like the "sandiwara" of school relocation, a bunch of deserving Chinese students are pointedly rejected every year to give the MCA politicians fodder for claiming empty credit for helping Chinese students.

Again and again we see the MCA play pathetically along or into the BN's zero sum game. Claiming credit for construction of Chinese schools when another has to close and helping perfect grade students get into public universities are hardly matters of pride, they are marks of shame that show up the pathetic role of the MCA.

The Alternative Front has often been derided by BN politicians for discord and disagreements among its component parties. But such is the way of real partners. Equal partners can disagree and debate and in the end reach a consensus. On the other hand, the relationship between the MCA and the MIC to Umno is like a master-slave relationship where so powerless they are that they can only kowtow and agree to whatever Umno wants.

Kevin Gan

The behaviour of Suqiu in setting aside the seven sub-points of its appeal that were allegedly insulting to Malay rights illustrates just how easily frightened the Malaysian Chinese community is.

As before the 1999 General Elections, the threat of communal violence was used to enforce obedience from a community that is without any real political power in the country. Indeed, if so inoffensive a piece of action such as an entirely respectful appeal should be ground down with such vigour, one wonders what the response to Chinese “demands” would have been.

But it is clear from this sad episode that, as long as BN governs the country, the Malaysian Chinese are in no position to make the smallest demand, be it the right to construct another Chinese language school or a new temple.

The affair has, once again, tarnished both the MCA and Gerakan who would be unlike themselves if they did not bow down to the wishes of Prime Minister Mahathir and UMNO every, every time.

To its own shame, Suqiu bought the argument of UMNO racists and their Gerakan running dogs that the wolf of May 13 was howling at the door. Yet, nothing can be further from the truth. So much has changed since 1969 that many Malays are now willing to concede that the implementation of the NEP leaves much to the desired and, in some areas like education, the crumbs can now be thrown to all Malaysian poor of whatever colour.

But even the most hardline of Malays would not have seen these harmless appeals as constituting a threat to their position, given the prevailing political reality. This includes those afore-mentioned UMNO racists who have quite clearly abused Suqiu in a pathetic attempt to heal the Malay divide.

Malaysian Chinese should no longer delude themselves in the belief that UMNO is a fair-minded party under whose umbrella they must crouch so as to be protected against acts of physical violence when such filthy threats emanate from the core of UMNO itself. That the Chinese were instrumental to UMNO’s return to power in the last General Elections makes such maltreatment particularly galling.

Yet, one wonders how the battered community will react come 2004. Will they continue paying protection money to UMNO thugs in the form of votes or will they realise that their destiny lies with another Coalition that will handle their concerns with rather more respect?

Tsu Nam

The backwater town of Lunas has never before rated a mention in Malaysian history. But now, its name could well be signposted on the road to a seachange in voter sentiments.

The Opposition victory in the Lunas by-election was wrested in the face of the most oppressive handicaps. In typical fashion, Barisan Nasional poured in men, money and machinery from its bottomless resource, aided by a compliant news media that even resorted to lies to discredit the Opposition. MCA fat cats were seen waddling about town, trying to explain away their uselessness to the few who would listen. The Works Minister, Samy Vellu, pulled all the purse strings gathered in his greasy palms to immediately repair local roads and unblock drains -- a crude attempt at voter seduction and a gross abuse of the process of allocating development funds that should have earned him widespread condemnation.

Yet, voters in Lunas handed BN an embarrassing defeat, despite the latter's sizeable majority in the last General Elections.

There are, thus, enough voters who will choose on the basis of higher principles in contrast to materialistic considerations: the continuing disaffection of the Malays over the injustices perpetrated against Anwar Ibrahim and the suspicions of the Chinese over BN encroachment into their legitimate rights.

This timely slap should awaken BN to the heavy price that it must pay for corruption and injustices, in particular, its restrictions against the media and enslavement of the judiciary.

The outcome of the Lunas by-election also emphasises just how dependent BN is on the Chinese vote as long as the Malay vote remains split. Indeed, the maturing of the Chinese electorate from one easily swayed by primal fears to one that demands to be heard represents a considerable threat to BN hegemony.

If BN moderates its unbecoming policies against the Chinese, it is not through any effort of the good-for-nothing MCA, but largely because of fears that the community will defect en mass to the Opposition umbrella. One sees this just before the 1999 Elections when a bank merger plan harmful to Chinese interests was suddenly dropped, and just before the Lunas by-election when the Education Minister "clarified" that no schools will be forced into the Vision mould.

On 29 November 1999, the Chinese, acting as kingmakers in the tenth General Elections, effectively derailed a nascent movement for change at a time when change was most sorely needed. Exactly one year later to the day, Chinese remorse is now evident.

With the Lunas example, the goal of depriving BN of its two-thirds majority in the next General Election is within sight. Indeed, should the Opposition unite further and should PAS discard its extremist Islamic stance, the sinking of the BN Titanic against the iceberg of public disgust would not be out of the question.

Tsu Nam

The scandal of the MCA in mismanaging the Chang Ming Thien Education Fund is another clear example of the MCA's lack of political will in helping and advancing the Chinese community. The party has become a vehicle for selfish Chinese aspiring to get rich by political means and who have no intention whatsoever of serving the community.

Philanthropist Chang's grave mistake was to entrust the fund to MCA through the Board of Trustees and Multi-Purpose Holdings Berhad (MPHB). If not for this fatal error, thousands of students may have benefited from the fund and gone on to realize their full potential. He realized too late that his dream would not be effected by the traitorous MCA which has its own sinister agenda and sued for the return of the fund. The resulting court case rendered the fund frozen for the past ten years out of the 20 years that the fund was established.

Recently we are given a set of ridiculous reasons why the fund was never disbursed to needy students including, the death of Chang. The mind boggles to make a connection as to why the demise of the selfless philanthropist should stop the charitable work of the foundation when it must be the intention of the late tycoon to leave a legacy of goodwill that transcend his earthly existence.

Other unbelievable reasons include the MCA leadership crisis and the collapse of the deposit taking co-operatives. In the same breath that MCA denied that they were responsible for managing the fund, the party's leadership crisis issue was trotted out as a reason. As for the collapse of the deposit taking co-operatives, intelligent people have to struggle again to find a connection. Perhaps the top MCA leaders were too busy with the co-operatives problems to manage the fund as they were with the leadership crisis. Bearing in mind MCA's insistence that they were never managing the fund, the party leaders must think that we are too stupid to notice the glaring contradiction.

It is not difficult to guess at the true reasons why the fund was never utilized. It has to do with the traitorous nature of MCA to betray and hold back the people it claims to represent under the pressure of the prevailing political forces. It is related to Ling Liong Sik's proud declaration that MCA owned TAR College will not upgrade to university status despite the demand for degree level education in the current job market.

Ling's declaration that MCA will not press MPHB for the balance of the interest payable to the Fund bespoke a party bankrupt of values. It is bankrupt of even the most basic decency of honesty and integrity with money entrusted to it. Ling's incredulous reason that "in life we only do one thing at a time" is both putrid and offensive. It portrays a person so morally bankrupt that not the barest attempt is made to justify a morally repugnant act.

MCA's decision to support and co-operate with MPHB in appealing the High Court decision to return the money to Chang's company, General Holdings is yet another extension of their traitorous act. Instead of the fund being utilized for charity, it will be frozen again for another few years. Again we have the incredible Ling Liong Sik claiming that they are "effecting Chang's dream" when in fact the MCA is slowly and surely murdering his dream.

The late Chang Ming Thien was a noble man who wanted to do a charitable act to help the needy. If MCA were to obtain control of the fund, we can expect disbursement to the undeserving and the connected based on political affiliation with a trickle going to real cases of need. We have the JE Fund as an example. How sad if Chang's glorious dream is to be twisted and perverted by an equally twisted political party that he had the misfortune of trusting. Chinese should reject the MCA for the self-serving, traitorous monster it has become, a monster which feeds on Chinese dreams.

Steven Tay

There's a widely held perception that there's no one to replace our current Prime Minister, Dr. Mahathir Mohammad. The ardent supporters of Anwar Ibrahim, of course, wouldn't agree with my statement, but they are in the minority anyway.

Is Dr. Mahathir such a non-expendable leader of our nation? Would chaos, in all facets of our existence - social, economic, politics - break out if Dr. Mahathir goes? Are we having it so good that a better future, in the absence of Dr. M, is totally unimaginable?

Many, not infrequently, ask this rhetorical question: who is there to replace Dr. Mahathir?

It certainly is a worthwhile question. Who indeed possess the charisma that our aged PM seemed to be possessing? Honestly, I could think of no one. Yes, no one!

However, we are not - certainly - the first to ask such questions. The question has plagued the minds of many before us, and would continue to plague many more in the future.

Whoever thought that B. J. Habibi (and later Gus Dur) would replace the now former Indonesian President Suharto? While he ruled, he certainly appeared indomitable and irreplaceable. The same could be said about the now deposed Yugoslavia's Milosovitch. Ditto Mao; ditto Deng; ditto, any of the Soviet leaders - Stalin, Khrushchev, Breznev.

The fact is succession is a problem for any autocratic regime. The autocrat in his quest for power quashes all his pretenders. Initiative generally is frowned upon; and only those who fawn, prosper - until they get too close to power, at least.

Since, Dr. Mahathir's rule is characterized by many features of autocracy, this awe that we feel towards him is only predictable. This awe sometimes manifests itself in deep-seated anger; and at other times as uncritical, supine respect. If this analysis is true, then the fact that we could think of no one to replace our PM is no argument against replacing him.

As a matter of fact, the fact that we could think of none is a very strong argument why his must be replaced immediately - or at least, as soon as possible!

Now, let us squarely face the question. Who would replace Dr. Mahathir? My answer: anyone whom Malaysians choose through a legitimate process, to lead them.

Yes, folks: Anyone!

Now, such an answer may sound like a no-brainer, a let down even, until we realize that a modern nation, by definition, is a nation that is governed not by men but by laws.

Since we are a modern nation, or at least one that aspires to be one, we shouldn't be beholden to a great man. What we need is a set of good, workable laws that ordinary people like you and me could mold and shape to address the concerns of the time. We have our constitution - the framework that gives us a common culture - and our common laws that regulates the conduct of men.

If anything, our great leader, Dr. Mahathir, has done a great disservice to us and to future generations of Malaysians by weakening all our cardinal institutions.

Think of it. Being a mortal, he, too, would be consumed by nature, wouldn't he? Who would then be there when he departs unannounced? Are we going to wait for some messiah to deliver us from our evils?

It is time we made our choice. We have to rebuild our tarnished institutions, so that they would be able to withstand the test of time. Our beloved Dr. M if he still cares for our well being - and not his legacy - should step down immediately. He may attempt to guide us from a less conspicuous spot, but he must step down first, nevertheless.

We've had enough of a great man. What we need is the empowerment of ordinary men.

Maanvili Tennavan
- Sungai Siput -

Between the Serbian Butcher and the Malaysian Horse-shit, there is much similarity. Like Mahathir, Milosevic had been in power well-past his used-by date; he controlled the mass media and used both repressive methods to prop up his regime as well as the disbursement of business favours to cronies. Consider this statement in The Age:

"Through his career he has controlled the police, military and paramilitary units and used the state-run media to demonise his opponents and stir up the Serbian people with a heady brew of nationalism and ethnic chest-beating."

Doesn't this call to mind the brutality of Mahathir's police, Special Branch and FRU, the use of mainstream papers to smear Anwar Ibrahim and the Opposition, as well as Mahathir's frequent attacks against the West as neo-colonizers? But Milosevic finally fell when the electorate voted against him, the Serbian people took to the streets, the army refused to shore him up, the police joined the demonstrators and even the state-run media turned against the dictator. Could such a thing happen to Malaysia?

Despite the well-publicised corruption of Mahathir's regime, including the waste of billions in public funds, the greed of cronies, the filth encasing the judiciary and the defilement of all public instruments of government, Mahathir's grip on power seems just about absolute. It is clear to even his worst enemies that only the hand of God can remove this louse-filled dictator.

The truth is that what Mahathir has done exceeds even the machinations of Suharto, Marcos and Milosevic. None of the three fallen dictators could have claimed a home press that was as slavish and knee-bending as the Malaysian press is today; none were able to impose the sort of conformity and fear on their party as Mahathir has done to the whole of Barisan Nasional. And none of course had a judiciary kowtowing low enough to kiss the dictator's jackboots while perverting justice in every possible way. None would have been able to equal Mahathir's command performance in destroying Anwar Ibrahim, let alone go on to win a general election with the most convincing of majorities.

While much may be made of Mahathir's repressive methods, the passivity and complacency of the Malaysian people cannot go uncriticised. Reformasi protests were never very large even at its height and, for the masses, the desire to make money far outweighs concerns about justice, freedom and democracy. In Malaysia, the racial divide is such that the politics of fear can be effectively utilised on a section of the population. And so, it may be safely said that Mahathir will never go the way of Milosevic.

It was the sort of cronyism that would have warned the cockles of Suharto's heart: Halim Saad, whose reputation as a great businessman rests solely on his closeness to Mahathir, loses RM3 Billion in an imprudent takeover of the Philippine National Steel. However, the four Malaysian banks, from whom he borrowed the money are prevented from pursuing this Big Loser for repayment, despite the fact that Halim would have billions in his personal treasury. The banks, in fact, recovered only RM4 of the loan by selling it to Danaharta for that token amount.

These are the banks who think nothing of bankrupting debtors for a few thousand dollars, hence, it is clear that they were bludgeoned into accepting the gargantuan write-off. Only one person in Malaysia would have sufficient power to bully-beat the banks into such timid submission.

We are used to thinking of corruption, cronyism and nepotism as a benign disease that simply greases the machinery of government. We may imagine that we are nowhere near the cesspool into which Suharto drowned himself and his cronies, but the figures speak for themselves. The Perwaja Steel debacle cost taxpayers RM11 billion but Mahathir has never allowed his crony, Eric Chia, to be brought to justice. Billions more were spent in bailing out Mahathir's son's ailing shipping line during the height of the Asian crisis. We are also familiar with the billions in dirt money that shit-covers Ling Liong Sik and his eldest son, and the billions that flowed over the failed Bakun Dam.

Few of us can have any conception of how large one billion ringgit is. If you spent one million ringgit every month, how long do you think you will need to get through 1 billion? Even with no interest calculations, it will take a long 83 years. Three billion, if kept in the bank at 5% interest, will generate 150 million every year. Imagine what can be done for the hardcore poor with this amount of money. Imagine how the taxpayers of Malaysia have been looted by corruption, cronyism and nepotism as they shell out money for road tolls and crony-run hospitals, water and public transport. Your money goes into the pockets of greedy cronies so that BN can remain in power to further rip you off. It is an insidious spiral whereby the loss of grassroots support means that even more mony has to be disbursed to cronies to maintain the power structure. This means further privatisation and useless mega projects to generate the vast amount of lucre need to fill the bloated stomachs of the likes of Halim Saad, Ling Liong Sik and Samy Vellu. You pay more and more for increasingly miserable service. It may be hell for the ordinary taxpayer, but it sure is Crony Heaven.

MCA President Ling Liong Sik, while offering no comments himself regarding Mahathir's National Day attack on Suiqiu -- in which the PM likened the innocuous organisation to communists and Al Ma'unah -- nevertheless offered the interesting observation that the PM "had been misquoted." Given the fact that Mahathir's speech had been nationally televised, this piece of horseshit is incredible even by the abysmally low standards of Ling Liong Sik himself.

It is well known that this "ding-a-ling" will think nothing of spewing lies and misinformation to suit his purpose and that of the moribund organisation that he leads. But you would have thought that even he would have sufficient intelligence not to betray his propensity for lying and his toadying to Mahathir in so convincing and so concise a manner. It will be pointless to ask this "ding-a-ling" how Mahathir can possibly be "misquoted" when millions heard these remarks on national television. You would only risk getting an even more moronic reply. It will be a waste of energy reminding him that the MCA accepted Suiqiu's 17-point appeal before the Elections in November. Selective amnesia is one of his many illnesses.

This is the quality of the person who is the putative head of the Chinese community: a person who not only refuses to speak up for the community when it is subject to verbal attacks, but goes beyond the pale in trying to cover up for the attacker. Ling's action may be compared to that of a father who, while ignoring the cries of his raped daughter, prefers to lend a hand to the rapist to get him back on his feet.

Ling Liong Sik offers us the spectacle of a man who has so prostituted honour and principles that he virtually crawls to lick his master's boots. But what is the secret of Mahathir's power over this slave of his? It is no secret, for Ling's corruption and that of his billionaire son has already been well-publicised. There are, indeed, well over a billion reasons why Ling would want to stay in Mahathir's good books. Otherwise, not only will his license to cheat be withdrawn, but the man will also be called to account for all his past misdeeds. It is by this same threat of prosecution that Mahathir ensures the loyalty of his other worthless minions. As long as you continue to carry the dictator's balls, you can feather your nest with ungodly billions, allocate shares to your relatives, rape a child or bash a handcuffed prisoner nearly to death with complete immunity from prosecution.