Letter from Malaysia:When visiting Malaysia as a correspondent during the 1990s, I would drop into the book-lined office of Abdul Razak Baginda in the capital, Kuala Lumpur, to seek his analysis of the political and economic situation in the country.
As head of a think tank called the Malaysian Strategic Research Centre he was close to the government, but he was frank in his assessments of what was going on.
I recall Baginda telling me back in 1998, when there were allegations of corruption under the then prime minister, Mahathir Mohamad, that the only difference between Indonesia and Malaysia in nepotism and cronyism was in terms of scale.
On a recent visit to Kuala Lumpur I was unable make my usual call on Baginda. He had been arrested in that same office and taken to prison to await trial for aiding and abetting the gruesome murder of his Mongolian mistress, a beautiful model called Altantuya Shaaribuu. Baginda, who is married, admitted that he wanted the model out of his life after she demanded money. She was kidnapped by men outside his house when she tried to confront him. Two police officers have since been charged with shooting the woman and then blowing her to smithereens using C3 explosives.
The murder sent shock waves through Malaysian society, not least because in recent years Baginda had become a close aide to the deputy prime minister, Najib Razak. Last week the family of the murdered model announced that it intends to sue the Malaysian government for complicity, as the police officers were members of its elite special action force.
The case involving Baginda, if proven, would be a sensational example of the use of rogue elements of the state to accommodate a well-connected political figure. The last politically charged trial in Malaysia involved the then deputy prime minister, Anwar Ibrahim, although his "crime" was to threaten to expose corruption in high places. A champion of the poor, Anwar was charged with corruption and sodomy - luridly outlined in court - and in April 1999 he was sentenced to six years in solitary confinement, leading to riots in the streets.
Malaysia's image as a democracy suffered during the trial when Anwar was photographed with a black eye after being badly beaten in prison by the chief of police. Anwar's wife, Wan Azizah Ismail, maintained that the charges were a set-up by prime minister Mahathir's allies to get rid of a dangerous rival - a claim backed by Amnesty International - and she founded the People's Justice Party, known as Keadilan, to promote reformasi (reform).
Wan Azizah had no political background. She trained as an ophthalmologist at the Royal College of Surgeons in Dublin and lived in Ireland for six years in the 1970s, during which time she was sometimes mistaken for a nun because of her Muslim headscarf. She maintained that the anger of common folk at repressive laws transcended race among the Malays, Chinese and Indians who make up Malaysia's 24 million population.
When I accompanied Wan Azizah to a rally in a Kuala Lumpur suburb before the May 1999 general election we were engulfed by enthusiastic crowds shouting "Reformasi". But the party could never prevail against the established order, and in March 2004 it got only 1 per cent of the vote against 90 per cent for the coalition National Front.
Anwar was released from prison in 2004 when his sodomy conviction was thrown out by the supreme court, and since then he has lectured at Oxford and Georgetown universities. He is honorary president of AccountAbility, a London-based non-profit organisation which advocates transparency in business and government dealings.
Although banned from political activity in Malaysia until April 2008, Anwar is now planning to make a political comeback. He has just announced that next month he will seek election as president of the People's Justice Party, an act which could revitalise the fragmented opposition to the ruling elite.
His popularity, and the potential for instability, has encouraged speculation that the prime minister, Abdullah Badawi, might call an early election this year while Anwar can still legally be prevented from standing for parliament.
Some Malaysians I met while in Kuala Lumpur last week to attend a literary festival expressed foreboding about the future. There are tensions built into Malaysian society, where a quota system favours the majority Muslim Malays over the minority Chinese and Indian populations, and in two of the 13 states, Terengganu and Kelantan, fundamentalist legislators have imposed versions of sharia law.
On the plus side, this tropical middle-income country is prospering. The growth rate is running at more than 5 per cent, and as an oil and gas exporter Malaysia has profited from higher world energy prices.
Prosperity brings familiar problems. The biggest obstacle for any politician campaigning in the next election will be getting through the traffic jams that clog Kuala Lumpur's streets every day.