Shaykh Muhammad Hisham Kabbani, after his astounding "revelation" of a former cabinet minister providing US$10 million to funding Islamic organisations in the US with links to terrorist groups, is now unsure if he did the right thing. He would not name the ex-minister, is upset, according to the Star today (16 Feb 2002), at this fuss. But he sticks to his allegations. He has no choice. The Malaysian government accepted it at face value. No one else does. Should it, in the light of the connexion between the Shaykh and forces wholly favourable to the government?

So, not surprisingly, my friend, Mr Shamsul Akmar, in his column in the New Straits Times today (16 Feb 2002), demands to know who the ex-minister is. This man, he contends, is a Trojan horse for American interests, and should be exposed. He arrives at this conclusion by way of how Britain established a beachhead in Malaysia by deciding upon Raja Abdullah as the Sultan of Perak from amongst feuding Malay chieftains, and kept Malay in British colonial domination. In other words, no one knows if the ex-minister is guilty, let us pillory him anyway!

He tries too hard. He misreads history. What the Greeks did was a brilliant subterfuge in a war that was ten years. It was brilliant generalship that won that war. To say this "ex-minister" is the Trojan horse of an unnamed power of economic and military strength is laughable at best. If Dato' Seri Anwar Ibrahim is a Trojan horse of the United States, as the Government likes us to believe, the government must act swiftly: the US ambassador be declared persona non grata and expelled, and Dato' Seri Anwar charged with treason. When the integrity of the nation is at stake, there is no compromise. The Malay rulers of the 19th century slept to allow the British to take control. We cannot have the 21st century Malay leaders sleep to allow the United States take control of this country, could we?

So, as usual, the Malaysian government swings at anything that could stick to paint everyone but itself for the wrongs the country faces. It desparately wants Malaysians to accept that the jailed former deputy prime minister is an anti-national and a traitor to boot. And a supporter of terrorist organisations to boot. It wants PAS declared a terrorist supporter, but its credentials is what causes the doubt. It has, after all, the high moral ground.

Mr Shamsul says President George W. Bush obtained only 50 per cent in an election in which only 50 per cent of those eligible voted, and the courts interfered in his favour to make him president. Therefore, Mr Shamsul argues, what he does is questionable. But President Bush takes the moral high ground in his quest for electoral respectability. He wants his presidency secure and declares war on terror for short-term respectability and is now mired in his own difficulties. His war on terror is in trouble. He wants to expand it, but his allies baulk at it. He is mired in the Enron scandal.

Now, let us look at Malaysia's Dato' Seri Mahathir Mohamed and his war on terror in which, like President Bush, he takes the high moral ground and for the same reason: to buttress his and his government's political standing which is not what they think it should be. He could not make it stick either. And like Mr Bush, Dr Mahathir gets the backlash.

Malaysia is now described as a terrorist and militant nation, those involved in the terrorist attacks in the United States did their planning here, and it now threatens to sink him. The US wants Mr Yazid Sifaat extradited to Washington for his role in this planning. Malaysia refused. When the Taliban in Kabul refused to hand over Mr Osama bin Laden and his cohorts, the US bombed Afghanistan. What could Malaysia do if the US decides it wants Mr Yazid so badly that it bombs Malaysia as surely as she did Afghanistan?

Will the world come to Malaysia's aid? I doubt it. The world media would just take that as proof of Malaysia's guilt as it did of the Taliban. So, the government should stop playing games and name the ex-minister. That would unleash forces the deputy prime minister, Dato' Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, warns of today. So, why raise the spectre of a treacherous ex-minister and then back off when asked to name him?

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