In spite of an earlier announcement that there will be a surprised announcement during the UMNO Convention last weekend, the event proved to be predictable. The usually haranguing of Anwar, villifying of PAS and the ulama, and making a bogey of foreign threat is about the only things Mahathir and his stooges seem capable of doing these days. And ah yes, there's the revelation of Anwar's so called cronies. 

An informed observer would be able to tell of the discrepancies of the names listed as Anwar's cronies. As a start, many of projects awarded were not even within Anwar's jurisdiction as the then minister of finance. Privatization projects in particular, falls under the jurisdiction of the EPU. The letter of award is then issued by the relevant ministry but the decision is made at EPU. For instance, the letter of award for hospital projects are issued by the ministry of health. The vetting of the bids is done by EPU. Who decides at EPU? No other than Mahathir and Daim Al Belit. Even before returning to the cabinet Daim Al Belit was the goverment's economic advisor and sat on the EPU. 

Some decisions are in fact made at a much higher level, i.e. the cabinet itself. One such project is the express rail link from KL to KLIA. Again, it is Mahathir who presides over these decisions. 

Another major omission in the list of the so-called cronies are the exact owners of the companies involved. Among the names that frequently appeared were Khalid Ahmad, Anuar Othman and Nazri Ahmad. These three sit on the board of Malaysian Resources Corporation Bhd (MRCB). The projects that they won were basically on behalf of MRCB. Interestingly enough, Kadir Jasin , a strong Mahathir ally and also a member of MRCB's board, was conveniently excluded from mention. The fact that MRCB is actually owned by Real Mild, which is an UMNO owned company, was also not mentioned. 

Equally interesting is the fact that only one name was mentioned as the beneficiary of some of the projects. Even a simpleton will know large corporations dont have a board of director of one person. A case in point is the Express Rail Link project which is said to have been awarded to Abd Rahim Ghouse who was with Abrar. The truth is very different. The project was awarded to a consortium of three companies consisting of YTL, Tabung Haji and Abrar. YTL and Tabung Haji both each holds 40% of the project and Abrar had only a 20% interest. However, Francis Yeo's (of YTL) name was conveniently omitted from the list. As mentioned earlier, the decision on this project  was made by the cabinet and not the ministry of finance. 

The same can be seen in the case of the Linear City project which is said to have been awarded to Kamaruddin Jaafar. The fact that Vincent Tan has a major stake in the project was not mentioned. 

No less perplexing is the mix-up in the dates of some of the awards. An example is  a project awarded to Pasca Baru, a company associated with Rustam Sani. The award itself was given by the EPU, not the ministry of finance, almost two months after Anwar was expelled from the government. Yet, Mahathir would like the public to believe that Anwar was responsible for awarding the project. This blunder seems familiar and resembles Mohtar's mix-up of the sodomy date at Tivolli Villa. 

The fact that Mahathir spends so much time attacking Anwar simply illustrates how vulnerable he feels. Anwar is one person that has inflicted unto Mahathir really serious damages.  The obsession with villifying Anwar has gone to extremes. In fact the UMNO convention was turned into somewhat of a circus with a speaker's corner held in the hall of PWTC. Like any other circus, the show would not be complete without a good monkey. In UMNO's case, the monkey was no other than Ibrahim Ali. Ibrahim stood up and arrogantly declared that Anwar was lucky it was Rahim Noor who beat him up. If it had been him, Ibrahim, Anwar would not have survived. 

The obsession with  Anwar shows that Anwar is still a force to be reckoned with. At the same time, many Malaysians have become disgusted with what they have seen in UMNO. For many, they now see the true colour of UMNO. Many UMNO delegates left the convention quietly and those who remained clapped very mildy. 

Mahathir and his stooges may take pleasure in all the villification of Anwar they had done during the UMNO convention. But deep inside, the Anwar bogey will continue to haunt them. After the convention is over, Mahathir and his stooges know that they are returning home to more sleepless nights...and more nightmare. 
 

Ibn Fansuri