Scandalous politicians are a dime a dozen in most parts of the world, and Malaysia too has its fair share of such characters who make its hall of fame look more like a rogues' gallery. The trouble with this country is, as long as that politician "behaves himself" and continues to pledge loyalty to the powers-that-be, these "indiscretions" will conveniently be swept under the carpet.

Someone close to the prime minister once told me that all these cases are filed and kept in the prime minister's drawer as a constant reminder to these people that, at any time, the files can be brought out again. If any individual ever makes the mistake of entertaining visions of challenging the prime minister, this file will be used against him.

A very ingenious form of blackmail and for keeping the people around the prime minister in check!

Maybe we should now open the closet and let all these political skeletons of years gone-by pop out for the nation to see. Some were reported in the newspapers while others were just brushed off as mere rumours. Rumours or not, they make juicy reading, and as they say - there's no smoke without fire.

Anyway, Terengganu has just set up a commission to flush out all the old skeletons from the state closet. It will be most interesting to see, over these next few months, what pops out. I hear many people are not sleeping well nowadays - afraid of what secrets are going to emerge.

While on the subject of Terengganu, do you remember the case of a certain Pejabat Ugama official - the husband of an Umno senator - who made a police report of being raped by four women? It seems, according to the Bahasa Malaysia newspaper at that time, he was driving along when he saw a young woman hitchhiking. He stopped to give her a lift and she invited him home. Once home, she and three other women pounced on him, tied him up, and took turns to gang rape him - the poor man.

He eventually managed to escape and made a police report. The police, however, could not press charges against the four young women due to lack of evidence. I believe the incriminating mattress had disappeared.

Then there was this case of the chief minister of another state secretly marrying one of the sultan's daughters. The chief minister flatly denied any such thing but the sultan felt that the child they bore was proof enough. The sultan was visibly upset about the whole matter and asked for the chief minister's removal from office.

Umno Youth jumped to the defense of the chief minister and demonstrated their support for him. Why they wanted to get involved in a domestic affair between a father-in-law and a son-in-law is beyond me. Eventually, of course, the truth came out, especially when they publicly quarreled for the whole world to see - and in a very physical manner on top of that.

The marriage did not last long and they soon divorced. According to sources close to the palace, the sultan made a photostat copy of the RM12 million divorce settlement cheque which he waved in front of the Prime Minister's face at the height of the Constitutional crisis.

The sultan demanded an explanation from the Prime Minister how the chief minister could afford such a large sum of money on the salary he was receiving but the Prime Minister, for once, was at a loss for words.

Then there was this case of the minister who was caught for khalwat in a hotel room in a certain beach resort. Luckily for him, the people who caught him were from the army dakwah corp. They only had jurisdiction over army personnel and since the minister was a civilian they could not touch him.

They did, however, refer the case to the Pejabat Ugama who felt it was like a hot potato landing on their lap. They "wisely" decided though, since they did not actually catch the minister with his pants down (pun intended), they could not bring him up for any charges.

The news was so "hot" at that time that the Pejabat Ugama had to come out with a public announcement that they did not arrest any minister for khalwat as reported and that it was mere rumours. I suppose they were telling the truth since it was not they who caught the minister but the army.

Then there was this case of a chief minister of an East coast state who had awarded RM118 million in government contracts to a company that was owned by two Malays and one Chinese Dato'. None of the contracts were tendered but were awarded based on negotiations.

The Malay Dato' eventually went on to become the state secretary of that state. The Malay Chamber of Commerce managed to get their hands on the details and confronted the state secretary with it. The state secretary claimed that he had no choice but to award all those contracts to the company since he received instructions from the palace. He also said that the chief minister was fully aware of this and had in fact instructed the contracts to be given to this company.

Quite perturbed with this revelation, the Malay Chamber then confronted the chief minister who flatly denied he had ever received any instructions from the palace to award the contracts to the company concerned. He also said that all the contracts were tendered and awarded to the lowest bidder and that none had been awarded based on negotiations.

The state secretary was then instructed to make a public announcement on TV denying he had earlier said that the state had received instructions from the palace. The state secretary was "retired" soon after for his "blunder".

There is another story of a certain CEO of a government owned steel factory who summoned all the bankers for a meeting. The bankers were summoned the way a monarch would his subjects. At the meeting the CEO told the bankers he needed a certain sum of money. The amount was stated and the bankers were told to decide which bank would take up which portion.

When the bankers asked what the money was for the CEO flew off the handle. He threw the phone at them and asked them to phone the prime minister if they needed to ask any questions. When asked what was the collateral and whether there were any financial papers they could see, he again offered them the phone so that they could speak to the prime minister.

The CEO then stood up, told the bankers he would give them half an hour to decide how they would "share out" the loan, and walked out the door, but not before telling them that they had better have their answer ready by the time he returned. The arrogance of this man, but then all in the room knew that he had a "blank cheque" from the prime minister so who would dare say no?

The list goes on and we would need a whole book to document everything. Suffice to say that the Mahathir regime is plagued with scandals and infested with scandalous people. Maybe it is time, after all, that this regime be changed.

RAJA PETRA KAMARUDIN wrote a cycling column for The Star's Weekender for more than six years. He had been politically active both in PAS and Umno, and is currently the coordinator of the media department in KeADILan.