DAP chairman Lim Kit Siang lamented that the "Malaysia Boleh" campaign had gone overboard in light of the near million-ringgit South Pole parachute jump fiasco.

"The Cabinet must take a serious view of the South Pole parachute jump scandal for it has sullied not only Malaysia's name, flag and honour, but showed that all is not good and right with the 'Malaysia Boleh' frenzy," Lim said.

The Malaysian public was on Jan 13 misled into believing that eight Malaysian skydivers were the first Asians to jump over the South Pole from an altitude of 6,400m.

The group which had planned a Millennium Jump 2000 never did it as it was revealed two days ago that the only jump made by the Malaysians was on Jan 1 at Patriot Hills in Chile, some 1,800km from the geographical South Pole.

Doubts surfaced after a member of the group, Dr Kamaruddin M. Isa, lodged a police report that the claims were false.

After being pressed by journalists, Fikiran Syndicate's G. Siva Kumar, the jump organiser, was forced to admit upon arrival at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport on Tuesday that the jump never took place.

Kamaruddin said that the international organiser, 45th Russian Expedition, had told them that no delegation was given a permit to jump at the South Pole as the bad weather made the attempt too dangerous. He added that they knew there would be no skydive even before they left the country on Dec 26.

"If the millennium skydivers had been told even before they left for the South Pole that there would be no jump, then there was a fraudulent conspiracy to mislead the government, people and nation, which must be taken seriously by the authorities," Lim said.

The fiasco, however, has led Youth and Sports Minister Hishammuddin Hussein to concede that the government would now be more stringent with proposals to create a first for the nation. The scandal, he added, was a lesson for everybody.

The minister has also called for an in-depth investigation into the scandal and is awaiting official reports from those involved.

According to Lim, the South Pole parachute jump fiasco has raised disturbing questions as to whether all other national feats like the North Pole parachute free-fall in April 1998 had been above board "with no hanky-panky whatsoever".

He added that the Ministry of Youth and Sports cannot distance itself from the jump as the Malaysian Millennium Jump 2000 was jointly organised by the Ministry and Fikiran Syndicate with a loan of RM780,000.

Meanwhile, attempts to create a first for the nation in the fashion of "Malaysia Boleh" did not subside despite the South Pole scandal.

Malaysians will soon have the opportunity to join a mega-shampoo-a-thon event when Proctor & Gamble attempts to make it into the Guinness Book of World Records for the most number of washed heads at the Sunway Pyramid shopping centre.

It has even caught on the opposition coalition. The Barisan Alternatif announced on Jan 17 that it would produce the "longest" petition and protest message in the world as part of its boycott campaign against three media establishments. Members of BA will begin collecting protest signatures from the public when they launch the boycott of New Straits Times , Utusan Malaysia and TV3 news next Tuesday.

"We hope to enter into the Guinness Book of Records and make Malaysia proud in the spirit of 'Malaysia Boleh'," BA spokesperson Rustam Sani told malaysiakini .