According to news reports, the chairman of the Islamic Supreme Council of America, Shaykh Muhammad Hisham Kabbani said that a former Malaysian cabinet minister had been funding organisations in the United States which may have links with certain extremist groups elsewhere.

He claimed that he had been told by one of the organisations that his institution had received US$10mil (RM38mil) from the former minister.

Deputy Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi fired the first salvo dissociating Malaysia and the government from the actions of this former leader of the country and his financial assistance given to the organisations in his personal capacity.

We can only guess who is this ex-cabinet minister who was of a stature to be described as a "former leader" now that mainstream newspapers are running reports on it with alacrity.

Coming from US sources (Shaykh Muhammad Hisham Kabbani and/or the FBI) the information is significant because it negates the element of a government concoction.

The funding of extremist groups is, in the aftermath of Sept 11, extremely negative to the perpetrator's image and political agenda if any, and the availability of funds of that magnitude is a cause for a probe by the Anti-Corruption Agency.

When the identity of this former leader is disclosed, which I am sure it will be in due course (probably when the Prime Minister returns from his Antartica holidaycruise), I bet it will have significant repercussions on the political equation of this country.