Hurray! The Perwaja boss is finally nabbed and charged in court! So, the Anti-Corruption Agency is exonerated, the attorney-general is exonerated, and the new premier Abdullah Ahmad Badawi is also exonerated of the accusation of being a leader of words but not action! What a masterstroke by Barisan Nasional to herald in the election!

But before we get carried away with this "good news", just pause for a moment to answer a few simple questions.

What exactly is alleged culprit Eric Chia (former managing director of Perwaja Steel) charged for?

Answer: For dishonestly authorising a payment of RM76 million.

How much is the loss inflicted on the government in the entire Perwaja fiasco?

Answer: Well in excess of RM10 billion.

How long had Perwaja been incurring losses?

Answer: 20 years.

How long had Eric Chia been running Perwaja?

Answer: Seven years (1988 - 1995).

How long has ACA been investigating the Perwaja scandal?

Answer: Eight years (since 1996).

When will Eric Chia be tried?

Answer: August, 2004.

What has gone wrong with Perwaja Steel? Former deputy prime minister and finance minister Anwar Ibrahim reported to Parliament in 1996 that Perwaja was insolvent with colossal losses due to mismanagement and large questionable payments. Former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad admitted during a dialogue with students in London in February 2002 that Perwaja's downfall was due to mismanagement and frauds.

Reflecting on these data, it should not be difficult to surmise that the Perwaja fiasco is a grand scam of astronomical scale entailing many dubious multi-million ringgit deals that necessitate the complicity of many people. And Eric Chia couldn't possibly have perpetuated such fraudulent management for so many years unhindered, if he had not received sanction and protection from the very top hierarchy.

From that point of view, the present charge on Eric Chia as the end all and be all of the entire Perwaja scandal looks ridiculously inadequate, as the quantum involved in this case constitutes only a fraction of the total damage done, and no other fishes are netted besides Chia, particularly the big ones.

So all these years we have been led on a red herring chase, as the authorities have been talking nothing but this RM76 million fraudulent payment whenever the subject of Perwaja is raised in public.

Does the Barisan Nasional leadership really wants us to believe that the ACA, whose strength boasts thousands of men, could not find any misdeed other than this charge on Chia after eight long years of search from the mountain of filth and frauds accumulated over decades of mismanagement? Are ACA men's visions so blurred that they could see no evil other than Chia?

And even for this present charge on Chia, questions abound as to its adequacy. Chia is only charged for dishonestly approving the payment, not for pocketing the money. Who have pocketed the money? Surely ACA must know the identities of the beneficial recipients of these funds by now, after chasing these for eight years from Japan to Hong Kong to Switzerland where it has admittedly unlocked two secret bank accounts with highly publicised cooperation from the Swiss government (a Swiss government statement disclosed that details of the relevant accounts were conveyed to the Malaysian authority in May 2001).

Why hasn't the attorney-general charged the recipients of these ill-gotten goods? Why must he be contended with the lesser charge of illegally approving payment? Is he not trying to avoid treading on raw nerves that may lead to opening of the Pandora's box?

By confining its focus to only this RM76 million fund, the government is already telling the people to look at only the tree but not the woods. Now, even the authenticity of this tree is questionable.

Though this RM76 million is a relatively small sum in the sea of massive scams known as the Perwaja scandal, the larger context within which this fraud has taken place nevertheless offers a useful glimpse into a modus operandi of how funds were siphoned off from this company. The background as well as the intricate details surrounding this payment were reported by the Asian Wall Street Journal on May 14, 2002 and Feb 11, 2004.

In 1993, a subsidiary of Perwaja Steel awarded a 76 billion yen (US$805 then) contract to a Itochu-led consortium to build a specialised steel plant. Following this award, the consortium gave a loan of US$196 million to the Perwaja subsidiary, ostensibly for the purpose of acquiring spare parts and technical services for the new steel plant. But the loan was "fully utilised for other purposes", including the US$30.6 (RM76 million then) payment made in early 1994 to a bogus company, Frilsham Enterprise Inc. in Hong Kong. This payment is now the subject matter of the Eric Chia trial. Immediately upon receipt of this payment, Frilsham transferred the money to three different parties, the bulk of which to Borneo Enterprises Inc.

Needless to say, the honesty of the contract price, the purpose of the US$196 loan and the various payments emanating therefrom are all questionable. Thus, through the award of one contract, hundreds of millions of ringgit are siphoned off from the company.

Over the past years, many police reports on various aspects of misconduct by Perwaja have been made by members of opposition parties, the most important of which is one made by Anwar Ibrahim back on July 22, 1999 (No19625/1999). I quote from part of this report as follows:

"Eric Chia in fact repeatedly claimed that his actions had the support and under the direction of Prime Minister Dr Mahathir. And this is further substantiated with letters written by the prime minister himself. With the so-called mandate, the board was sidelined, tender procedures were blatantly ignored and there were questionable, unsatisfactory payments made to certain parties."

This report should suffice to explain why the authorities have been acting so impotently on this biggest financial scandal of all in our history.

Even with the change of guard of leadership to Abdullah, it looks set that the real crimes associated with this fiasco will remain buried, as evidenced from the present charge on Eric Chia. Immediately after Eric is charged in court, Anwar accused the authorities of attempting to shield high profile figures associated with this scandal.

How could the authorities refute Anwar's accusation when such an important source of information as Anwar himself was not interviewed for a statement? How can we convince the people that Abdullah's administration is doing an honest and sincere job to tackle the Perwaja issue when the pinnacle of the scandal Mahathir himself was not interrogated by the ACA?

Some may suggest that when Chia is put on trial, the truth may emerge. I wouldn't be on that. I do not think the change of leadership to Abdullah has brought any semblance of restoration of integrity to our judiciary, after seeing the savagery displayed recently by the Court of Appeal in dealing with Anwar's application for bail and for review of the court's earlier judgment on the sodomy case.

We can't even be sure that Chia's trial will be heard in the foreseeable future, after seeing how Anwar's appeal on the sodomy sentence could be delayed for years without any explanation. What we are certain is that the curtain on the Perwaja saga will be down safely in due course without scratching the entrenched power, with or without a court case.

On reflection, one must congratulate Abdullah's team for having come up with this superb tactical move of shooting three birds with one stone on the eve of an election.

First, it will remove the Perwaja scourge from the radar screen, as minister Dr Rais Yatim already advised taboo on this subject pending court hearing, on ground that public comments may prejudice future court judgments.

Second, it will give BN ammunition to counter accusation that Abdullah's war cry on corruption is all words and no action, without having to pay the price of unsettling the BN power structure.

Third, it enables BN to put a full stop to this long running nightmare.