The Malaysian government could have done without the year 2004.

Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi has dramatically lost ground with each setback the general election and Umno election; and Umno bete noire Anwar Ibrahim's unexpected release from prison to turn the party into a battleground for political control.

This in turn has undercut the Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition in office. With Umno leaders at one another's throats and party warlords on the march, all it could do was to cling to office, duck the bullets, protect its leaders, and pray they would not be pawns in this fight.

The bald, uncomfortable truth is that no one is in charge, and that the government is drifting uncontrollably. But little of this seeps out because everything is being fought out within the accepted code of feudal fealty.