Of all the almost 400 columns I have written for Malaysiakini , the one that I recall as receiving the most critical reader comments was my July 14, 2010 effort entitled, ‘How about Maliesia?’

Many apparently misread it as a gratuitous slur on the ‘good’ name of Malaysia, when on the contrary it was a tongue-in-cheek attempt to make the blindingly obvious point that Umno-BN had given the nation a bad name.

Such a bad name as a result of chronic, systematic lying, falsehood and fraud by the ruling regime, that the country might as well be called "Maliesia". Or alternatively, in recognition of the regime’s anal obsessiveness in its persecution of opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim - "Malarsia".

Considering how many hackles were raised and cages rattled by these name-change proposals way back when I first made them, I can’t wait for the reaction this time around.

Because here we are five years later, waiting breathlessly for yet another verdict in the trials of Anwar ( right ) by the same old, same old regime that has made Malaysia look - for all the world - like some dangerously deranged Malarsia.

And Umno-BN’s perversion of Malaysia into Maliesia is as prevalent and pernicious as ever, as perfectly portrayed this past week by the pack of lies following the Facebook post by Agriculture and Agro-based Industries Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob, urging Malays to boycott Chinese traders who refuse to sell their goods cheaper despite reduced fuel prices.

When public outrage followed this blatantly racist urging, Ismail Sabri started in typical BN regime fashion, first claiming that he had only meant “stubborn” Chinese traders, and then denying that he had intentionally singled-out Chinese traders at all.

In a television interview aired on the regime-compliant RTM , he claimed that his boycott urging had not been Chinese-specific, but “a general statement”.

“I hope that those who cannot accept what I said, who are sensitive and see it as an attack against a certain community, should see the bigger picture,” he went on.

'The heart of Maliesia'

But apparently, many of his BN colleagues were delighted to see it as an attack against a ‘certain’ community, as a gang of them gathered at the Riverside Cafe - an Umno hangout at the Putra World Trade Centre - to treat Ismail Sabri to a ‘hero’s welcome’, complete with a standing ovation, cries of ‘Hidup Melayu’, ‘Hidup Umno’, and placards proclaiming that ‘We are all Ismail Sabri’.

As indeed, to Malaysia’s considerable cost and shame, they all are.

Meanwhile, Defence Minister Hishammuddin Hussein, asked by a reporter from Sin Chew Daily following a cabinet meeting on whether Ismail Sabri would be asked to retract his original anti-Chinese urging, said that “since (Ismail’s) statement was not meant at [sic] calling on the Malays to boycott traders,” there was “nothing to retract.”

Similarly, the Prime Minister’s Office stated that Ismail Sabri’s boycott urging had been “aimed at all traders and not traders of any particular race,” and added that “Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak had stressed that the BN government will continue to defend and safeguard the interests of all races.”

Mention of the prime minister inevitably takes us to the very heart of Maliesia, and thus to such a monstrous tangle of mendacity as to boggle the mind and bedevil all understanding.

How, for example, does the president of a monoracial, monoreligious party like Umno - as Najib is - imagine he is remotely credible as a PM claiming to be devoted to defending and safeguarding the interests of all races?

The two tasks are a contradiction in terms, as graphically illustrated by the fantasy of 1Malaysia on the one hand, and Umno’s incessantly-avowed determination to ‘defend’ the Malay race and Muslim religion.

Of course this latter is a pathological lie, as the self-styled Umno ‘elite’ or so-called Umnoputras are so clearly in business for themselves and their cronies, and ordinary, unconnected Malays can go hang along with the Chinese, Indians and those insultingly identified as lain-lain, or ‘others’.

In fact, this lie goes from pathological - as to the defence of race - to literally patheological in terms of religion, considering Umno’s woefully un-Islamic record of corruption and countless other species of criminality in addition to its habitual lying.

Nothing in Najib’s 1Malaysia, or rather '1Maliesia', makes sense or rings true. And every pack of lies is designed to conceal or divert attention from others.

More distractions

For example, Ismail Sabri’s racist attack on Chinese traders is clearly designed to support the regime lie that it cares for the economic well-being of ‘ordinary’ Malays, and to blame the regime’s economic plunders and blunders on the Chinese.

The entire farrago of falsehood has been faked as a distraction from other, more threatening crimes and lying cover-ups like the never-ending case of the Altantuya Shaariibuu murder, the looming scandal surrounding the 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB), the highly suspicious support of an alleged criminal in US custody by Home Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, and of course the possible repeated unjust jailing of Anwar Ibrahim.

Just as PM Najib’s international pose as a Muslim ‘moderate’ is intended as a cover for his domestic message to Umno to ‘emulate the spirit’ of the Middle East’s murderous Islamic State, and his broken promises to repeal repressive Malaysian laws like the Sedition Act.

And just as his blatant lies that he is determined to make Malaysia the ‘world’s best democracy’ with “news media Malaysia can be proud of” and to show “zero tolerance of corruption” are nothing but camouflage for the fake elections he falsely swore would be clean and fair, fraudulent mainstream news media that routinely lie in support of the regime, and the rampant corruption and organised crime that are the very life-blood of Umno-BN.

But thanks to the sheer incredibility of Najib and his fellow Umno-BN misleaders, a great many more Malaysians are aware of the perfidy and perjury behind the regime’s fake veneer of piety than they were when I first jokingly proposed the name 'Maliesia' five years ago.

And since then, of course, others have made similar suggestions - like Moolaysia, for example, as I recall when the RM250 million National Feedlot Corporation (NFC) scam was big news, and MASlaysia in recognition of the regime’s incompetence, callousness, secrecy and confusion in its alleged “loss” of flight MH370.

So I’m not expecting quite so much flak from my ‘Maliesia’ proposal this time around. Unless, of course, Najib’s minders unleash the pack of cyber-curs they pay to yap on his behalf in the online news media, but whose idiocy and illiteracy only serve to make his lies look even more ridiculous.

DEAN JOHNS, after many years in Asia, currently lives with his Malaysian-born wife and daughter in Sydney, where he coaches and mentors writers and authors and practises as a writing therapist. Published books of his columns for Malaysiakini include ‘Mad about Malaysia', ‘Even Madder about Malaysia', ‘Missing Malaysia', ‘1Malaysia.con’ and ‘Malaysia Mania’.