We have recently seen how Malacca and Pahang broke their own records in awarding the most number of Datukships and other state awards this year. The fact that this happened following the triennial Umno supreme council election is certainly more than a coincidence.

The upset victories by some senior leaders and a stronger endorsement in the form of higher majorities for others during the Umno polls certainly means, in the tradition of Umno, that a lot of money must have changed hands.

And to sustain the loyalty of other senior supporters, it has now become necessary to honour them with awards such as Datukships.

The money spent during the Umno triennial election now needs to be replenished or repaid. For this, government contracts will continue to be given to cronies and proxies. As always, these cronies will only do the preliminary part of the contracts, after which they will subsequently sub-contract them out.

The cronies easily collect at least 15 percent of the value of the contract as profit from the sub-contractors - just by being brokers .

For the financial year 2005, honest downstream contractors are very much aware that there will not be very many big government contracts. As such, they do not have much choice but to live with the above-mentioned sub-contract works.

Braving the risk of increasing material costs and violent movements in foreign exchange, they have no choice but to be high-risk takers.

It is sad that while senior Umno members declare openly that they know who are involved in the party's crippling money politics, they are unwilling to reveal who these culprits are nor make any police reports. This despite them holding very senior government positions which warrant them to enforce the law of the country.

In any other country where the rule of law is better respected, such a blatant contempt of the law would have seen them being charged in court for obstructing the due process of law. They would have had to vacate their positions in the government besides being denounced by their own political party.

But this will never happen in Malaysia, Pak Lah or no Pak Lah. This sad situation will continue to be perpetuated by Umno unless and until a major reform is made.