While the Barisan Nasional (BN) government perseveres in its policy of dealing with most internal criticism by lying, denying or 'shooting the messenger', there are small signs of its becoming slightly more responsive to international pressure.

After the prime minister pledged last month not to indiscriminately approve logging licences, citing a pious and previously well-concealed concern for endangered species and tribal communities, the deputy prime minister revealed the real rationale behind the move.

"At the international level, illegal logging portrays a negative image of our country," AFP quoted him as saying.

"The timber industry produces RM23 billion worth of wood-based products a year," he reportedly added, explaining that if developed countries in Europe and the US were to take action, it could "adversely affect" Malaysia's economy.

In other words, when money talks, BN listens. Not that it necessarily acts, of course. Indiscriminate approval of logging licences will no doubt continue unabated, just like illegal logging will, until customer-countries actually put their mouths where their money is and ban imports of Malaysian timber and derived products.

After all, the US State Department's putting Malaysia on its people-trafficking 'watch list' hasn't appeared to clean things up any, to judge by the recent stranding of thousands of unfortunate Bangladeshi workers at KLIA. But at least being listed as a suspect has reminded the Abdullah government that the world is observing its performance in the flesh-trade, and action could well eventually follow, with economic consequences.

The BN government must also be uncomfortably aware that the world, or at least a very powerful segment of it, is closely monitoring Malaysia's support for Iran, both politically and as a suspected trans-shipment hub for weapons parts and nuclear-processing equipment.

And it will only take a US or international investigation of Russian and French arms deals to reveal what many suspect to be the sordid truth behind the Malaysian defence ministry's acquisition of Sukoi fighter-jets and Scorpene submarines.

Speaking of arms deals, of course the ongoing circus posing as the 'trial' of suspects of the killing of the Mongolian woman who interpreted in some of these shady negotiations has also attracted a good deal of international attention to Malaysia, with lots more to come if the verdict turns out to be as eccentric as many of us expect.

In any case, Malaysia's reputation in global legal circles has become even more of a laughing stock than after former deputy premier Anwar Ibrahim's sodomy conviction, with his release of a videotape apparently revealing the political fixing of judicial appointments.

The government has only compounded the felony by targeting the whistleblowers instead of the culprits and making ridiculous statements on the matter per medium of its mockery of a de facto law minister Mohd Nazri Abdul Aziz.

Serious warning

Another area of potential embarrassment lies in the controversy concerning the wholesale destruction of rainforests for the establishment of oil palm plantations. If the opponents of bio-fuels prevail in their protests that the production of feedstock does more harm to the environment than good, then Malaysia's plantation barons and their BN sponsors are going to look like a pack of total bio-fools.

This debate and the global-warming discussion in general is set to hot-up a great deal following the awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize jointly to Al Gore and the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

Mr Gore, having already shamed the US, Australia and many other environmentally-unfriendly countries with his Oscar-winning documentary 'An Inconvenient Truth', also told a business and political gathering in Sydney several weeks ago that "my country and yours are the Bonnie and Clyde of the global environment".

And in light of revelations of logging even in the catchment area of the Bakun Dam, Malaysia is bound to be in the spotlight along with other prominent eco-rapists like Indonesia at the global climate change conference scheduled for Bali in December. Of course there have been ample indications in the past that, financial considerations aside, the BN government couldn't give a fig for what the world thinks of its nefarious activities.

Its utter contempt for critics could be no better symbolised than by dubiously-sited, suspiciously-funded 16-bedroom, 21-bathroom mansion 'Istana Impian' unveiled by Umno stalwart Zakaria Mat Deros just before Hari Raya.

Or maybe it just shows how well-advised other Malaysian politicians and their cronies would be to emulate Zakaria's example and invest inexplicably-acquired funds domestically rather than exporting them offshore. Because the best idea I've heard of for a very long time is an initiative by the UN and the World Bank called Stolen Asset Recovery, or StAR, to help developing nations to recover the proceeds of theft by corrupt leaders.

Assets so far targeted for recovery include those stolen by Muhamed Suharto of Indonesia (estimated at between US$15-35 billion), Ferdinand Marcos (Philippines, $5-10 billion), Mobuto Sese Seko (Zaire, $5 billion), Slobodan Milosevic (Yugoslavia, $1 billion), Jean-Claude Duvalier (Haiti, $0.3-0.8 billion), Alberto Fujimori (Peru, $0.6 billion), Pavio Lazarenko (Ukraine, $0.114-0.2 billion), Arnoldo Aleman (Nicaragua, $0.1 billion) and Joseph Estrada (Philippines, $0.07-0.08 billion, photo).

As I understand the StAR system, proceedings can at this stage be instigated only by the current government of plundered countries. So unless and until Malaysia achieves a change of ruling regime, we're unlikely to see a BN leader on the StAR hit-list.

But at least the mechanism is in place, and the process is underway, and perhaps someday complaints against kleptocratic governments will be accepted from opposition parties and citizens.

But meanwhile, even if it won't stop leaders who shrug off bad local and international publicity in every sphere you can think of, from robbing their people of human rights to corruptly contributing to global warming, it might prevent some from outright stealing, or at least give them a serious global warning.