Truth is so precious a bodyguard of lies must protect it. Winston Churchill said so to destabilise Germany during World War Two. This important principle in psychological warfare Malaysia used to great effect to break, with limited success, the Malayan Communist Party resolve during the Emergency.

It needs superhuman effort, clearly defined aims, resoluteness, confidence, subtlety, commonsense. Arrogance, superciliousness, anger, tantrums is dangerous. A government should not use it against its own peoples. What can defeat an enemy could not your own side.

In Malaysia, it does impudently, so patently mangled and self-serving that it defies belief. It does not know or care what it wants to say, and puts its foot into its mouth as often. With this comes an arrogance that cannot be justified. So the corporate world, with its defamation actions to prevent the truth, such as it is, is being discovered. Now that both are in need of help, no one comes to help.

When politicians and corporate tycoons have to tell the truth, they tell lies instead. The prime minister, Dr Mahathir Mohamed, is so dismissive of reporters that he pokes fun at them instead of answering the question. His son, Mokhzani, withdrew from the corporate world and can only fall flat on his face.

Dr Mahathir angrily asked reporters in August 1998 if he should kiss his then deputy prime minister, Anwar Ibrahim, to show all is well. Six days later, Anwar was dismissed in a confrontation that Dr Mahathir must wish never happened. So, now his issue is with his finance minister, Daim Zainuddin. He says all is well.

Highly strung

Malaysians and others rely on rumours to keep them informed. Did the Inspector-General of Police grievously assault Anwar after his arrest under the Internal Security? No, said the government. Yes, said the rumours. He did.

When cabinet ministers and politicians speak untruths, or suggest that those who ask such questions should have their heads examined, especially if it is to confirm rumours that turn out true, it makes them look stupid. Dr Mahathir's hold on the government loosens with every statement he makes. He is his own worst enemy when he utters his carefully chosen but ill-advised words to pour scorn or assume he talks to idiots.

Daim says he is the victim of rumours. When a government spews half-truths and downright lies, rumours would fill the vacuum of information.

Nature abhors a vacuum. If the government would not fill it with verifiable information and take people into its confidence especially in between general elections, what it wants to say, however important, would be disbelieved.

When it ignores the truth when it should not, the government loses ground. First, it was economical with the truth about Anwar Ibrahim's medical problems. Then it got highly strung when his wife briefed diplomats about it.

It got angry, and the foreign minister, no less, briefs the ambassadors. That was not enough. The foreign and health ministers, along with 14 medical specialists, then briefed the diplomats again.

Fresh charges

The government is caught in this mess because its right hand does not know what its left hand does. It wants to keep the foreigners, not Malaysians, informed of Anwar's medical condition. A series of miscues by the Anwar bandwagon diverted attention from the man to his illness. It was too good a chance for the government to force the issue back to Anwar.

Inexplicably, he is to be charged afresh on further sodomy and corruption charges. That was to have been on April 28, but is now postponed to May 12 because Anwar is ill. But the spectacle of Anwar in a wheelchair would have an impact as effective as his infamous black eye.

Now, with the government warning him that if he does not undergo an operation at the Hospital Kuala Lumpur he would be sent back to prison for conservative treatment. And brings the focus back on the man himself.

What we see is the outcome of this view that the government alone has the answers, and all others are idiots and so treated. This need to lie - or to put it genteelly, not to tell the truth - is what makes it defensive. Anything it touches turns to ash. When it is disbelieved in what it says, what it does is also questioned.

But it does not change. Which is why few are bothered about how serious the quarrel between Dr Mahathir and Daim is; for all they care, it is the kettle calling the pot black. Truth, therefore, is its most important casualty.