THE SUPER-CRONY & HIS BOSS! What is KGNS compared to the 'Bukit Tinggi Casino':

REPRINT THERE IS MORE TO THE BUKIT TINGGI CASINO than is known. And puts the National Front (BN) and UMNO in a spot. Every time its leaders talk of it - so far only the Prime Minister, Dato' Seri Mahathir Mohamed, and the Pahang mentri besar, Dato' Seri Adnan Yaakub, have - more evidence of wrongdoing and outright lying is revealed.

The Prime Minister revoked the gaming licence at the casino but the Bukit Tinggi resort, since it is owned by the super-crony, Tan Sri Vincent Tan, insists it can renegotiate it. Others who breach the conditions are fined heavily and the licences revoked. But not Tan Sri Vincent Tan. No whitewashing can convert this elaborate casino complex costing, in the end, RM1,000 million and more, to attract gamblers from all over the world into the social club Dr Mahathir insists it is. Even Tan Sri Vincent does not believe him. But the government expects us to.

The Bukit Tinggi resort now wants to renegotiate the licence. The finance ministry cannot help him overcome a political decision. The second finance minister, Dato' Seri Jamaluddin Jarjis, who approved the licence, cannot either. Only the first finance minister can. He is, the last time I checked, also prime minister. If he was not retiring in October, the year was 1998, if general elections was not next year under his successor, he could have helped. Not now.

The licence was issued in secrecy, without even the cabinet aware, Tan Sri Vincent's decision to open the casino in May, conspired to sink it. All the Opposition did was to turn it into the political hot potato it is. Tan Sri Vincent and the government cannot now accuse the Opposition of politicising it. It is a political issue. Any decision to restore the licence would ensure BN more election losses - and even states.

Related Story: SLOT MACHINES ABUSE: Will Najib really dare to act against BN cronies?

Frightened, no one in the Cabinet wanted to get involved

The BN, and UMNO, is frightened. Its leaders do not want to enter the fray. Only the Prime Minister can. The man at the centre of the storm, the irrepressible Dato' Seri Adnan, is press ganged into it. No wonder he tells friends he wants to retire from politics because PAS has made so much inroads into West Pahang, where he comes from, he does not believe he can be returned.

Especially when he does not visit his constituency as often as he should and PAS works overtime there. So with a brave front, he marches into battle, not as Hang Tuah but as Don Quixote. The Pahang state investment subsidiary, Pasdec Corporation, has 45.546 million shares in the Bukit Tinggi resort. The mentri besar now claims Pasdec sold its stake two years ago, when the resort decided to have slot machines on its purpose.

This is easy to check. The registrar of companies must be told if major parcels of shares in companies changed hands, and the resort's annual report should show the change. If it does not, it can be charged and fined. The resort must come clean and say who its shareholders are. Since Pasdec claims it sold its stake, the Tan Sri Vincent Tan point-man in the cabinet, Tengku Adnan Mansor, must now say what his is, and if he revealed his interest when he lobbied for the casino licence. And if he, like Pasdec, sold the shares when he found to his horror that the Bukit Tinggi resort was to have gaming machines. Or when he joined the government. Nothing less will do.

No one in the cabinet wants to be involved in this matter. The deputy prime minister, Dato' Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, left last night for a week's holiday in Perth. Two ministers I asked for a response asked me I wanted to kill them politically. Dato' Seri Jamaluddin is strangely silent. He is caught amidst his own political problem. An erstwhile ally of Dato' Seri Najib Tun Razak, he has decided the grass is greener across the river bank, and midway to it - the Abdullah Badawi camp - the boat leaks badly, taking on more water than can be pumped out. The Najib camp ignore him and the Pak Lak camp keeps its distance. Few forget he was once close to that invisible ogre in Malaysian politics, Dato' Seri Anwar Ibrahim. But JJ, as he prefers to be known, has only three major interests in life, a mutual friend told me somewhat cruelly, "JJ, Dr Jamaluddin Jarjis, and Dato' Seri Jamaluddin Jarjis". He is so focussed on his irrelevant self that he gets nowhere. A financial sleight of hand in Tenaga Nasional Berhad pleased Dr Mahathir no end that he rewarded him with the finance ministry. And he would probably pay the price for that.

The MSM killed the story but the Opposition refused to give up

Every one from the Prime Minister down is less than honest. The newspapers, as usual, ignore it, reporting a garbled view of the government response, which raises more questions. Nothing short of a full statement would now suffice. But the BN would not do that. Look at how the financial stimulus package was announced. It was not to Parliament, as it should have, with days of debate on it. It was released, as an imperial edict from Putra Jaya, based on hope than reality. In most times, it works. When it does not, the BN is diffused, frightened, disorganised. And dissembles. It does not want to be second-guessed. It alone has the people's interests at heart. The Opposition does not. So it had better shut up.

But shut up it would not. This imperial insistence on being obeyed without question is its worst enemy. It is not one boy, but thousands, now crying the emperor has no clothes. And the emperor's bodyguards either sit quietly on the sidelines or do their duty with treason and regicide in their hearts. The Prime Minister deserves a proper send-off. He should not be brought to book on this sordid affair. But he can only if he cuts his links. This super-crony of his has damaged him more than he knows. He is the only one who has been helped from the edge of bankruptcy several times.

Just a few would suffice: The RM6 billion sewage privatiation, which he bungled; The two RM1 billion lifelines, in 1991 and in 1998; the Monorail system which he bungled: he promised it would be ready for the 1998 Commonwealth Games; with luck it would be, deeply in debt, this year. And now this casino licence. Each time, like Oliver, he asked for more. Unlike Charles Dicken's character, the Master always did. Now he cannot. He must not. What option is left for Tan Sri Vincent Tan: he should sue the Prime Minister for being denied his licence to mint money as he once did the man who is now President of Taiwan. And for the same reason. Otherwise, he is also history.