It was supposed to have been an Asian first -- a skydiving jump over the geographical South Pole to celebrate the new millenium in the spirit of "Malaysia Boleh". The jump was successfully executed, they claimed, and PM Mahathir was asked to welcome them home in style. In fact, the jump was made not over the South Pole, but at Patriots Hill in Antartica, 1,800 km away.
The deception was exposed when a splinter group lodged a police report claiming that the jump never took place. The plot unravelled quickly when the Russian organizers and other international participants were contacted. The Malaysian team, it appeared, knew that the polar jump had been cancelled even before they left the country. Yet they and their local organizer were purposeful in trying to deceive the nation.
But in true "Malaysia Boleh" spirit, their failure has been blamed on foreigners, in this case, the Russian organizers of the expedition.