Two hundred thousand Malaysians and others, so we are told, thronged the Putra World Trade Centre in Kuala Lumpur for Aidil Fitri for six hours to greet the prime minister, Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, and his cabinet. In normal years, it would have been the prime minister's show; this year, Pak Lah brought them in as co-hosts.

For a good reason: for the first time this year, and after the fractious Umno elections, talk was in the air of several cabinet ministers being boycotted for the occasion. But it raised another: did 200,000 come by; could a fifth of a million people gather in the confined space where 20,000 at an Umno general assembly leaves no standing room? But reality matters not when spin doctors take over.

The crowds work out at 35,000 an hour, or 10 a second. Let us put it another way: if this crowd were to march in military formation 10 abreast through the PWTC at a second a line, only 36,000 would clear it every hour, or about six hours for the 200,000 to march through. Enough said.

Contrast this with the crowds of the man of the moment, Anwar Ibrahim. A special branch officer among the guests, and no doubt on duty, thought 12,500 were at the open house, and possibly 20,000 the day. Even that is an exaggeration. it was crowded, but there was not the space to accommodate even the official estimates to prove it a failure. The toilet room joke of big is better is now anchored in politics.

The rulers must be shown to be popular at any cost. This is done, in Malaysia, by exaggerating the good deeds of the government and ignoring those of its opponents, with unbelievable crowds in one but not the other. Soon this leads into the world of make-belief.

The National Front and the Umno which leads it are caught in this dilemma, from which escape and hope is well nigh possible. None in power would untangle the Gordian knot it tied. Power corrupts, as Lord Acton said, absolute power corrupting absolutely. The signs have been there for at least two decades, but papered over with the usual mixture of bravado, make-belief, the nay-sayers made traitors, dissent banned.