Vision in Malaysia, like the ceiling of visibility at the new KLIA airport, is said to be 20 to 30 years. The bills, however, are overdue.

Development in Malaysia means reinforced concrete. Concrete requires cement, sand, gravel and water. These must be mixed in the correct proportion and delivered to the site in special trucks, where it is pumped, craned, and poured around reinforcing steel surrounded by wooden forms. All this means profit for those companies in this economic chain.

Concrete, concrete, concrete. Concrete everywhere. It is in the condominiums and the low-cost housing; in the skyscrapers, in the roads, in the dams, in the airports, in the docks, in the generating plants ... in the government complex at Putrajaya and Cyberjaya ... and in the new formula one track.

In most of these mega-projects it is possible to find the means by which the public is expected to pay, either through rents, tolls, airport taxes, or from the general treasury funds. For the formula one track, however, the means for repayment has not been clear. The few race events which are held each year do not bring in enough to pay operating and maintenance costs.

Over the past few weeks, the means have become more clear. Ticket sales have been slower than the tourist trickle. The PM is surrounded by sycophants scurrying about protecting him from any direct view of his more glaring follies.

DESOLATE MONUMENT

The PM has supervised the construction of the formula one track, complete with covered stands, pit stops and storage sheds for the cars, and adequate parking for the millennium. The track itself is an impressive layout, giving an appearance on a hot day of another airport, but one in which the plans had somehow been left in the rain.

For most of the year the track is a desolate monument to big boys and their expensive toys, dotted with a blown newspaper or two which serve as targets for the odd bird on bombing maneuvers. But on race day there is excitement and plenty of noise in the air.

Never have so many been so agitated by so few. But there are accidents to break the hot afternoon dullness, and all are cheered up that they were there to witness. None admit to having an expectation fulfilled.

The financial results are announced. Attendance is up over last year. The head of promotion has not disappointed the PM. The treasury is to be richer by RM1 billion plus. It is important to make this announcement. The justification for the frivolity must be in economic terms. For this, there must be a mega-event. The track and its cost is the mega-project. The justification is the mega-event.

It is announced that attendance is 90,000. The implication is that 90,000 tickets have been sold to individuals, mostly foreigners bringing desperately needed foreign currency. The cameras only scan the seats which appear filled, and carefully avoid the many sections that are scanty. Just as the seats of auditoriums where the PM speaks must be filled, so the racetrack seats must be filled. Any live body will do. But there are a lot of seats to fill at the racetrack, and many are open to the hot tropical sun.

DONATING COMPANIES

Ticket sales have been slow. If tickets cannot be sold to foreign tourists, then perhaps they can be sold to locals, independent buyers, using their own money. An intense TV campaign has brought in everyone who could be enticed, but still there were lots of empty seats. An idea struck. Maybe the tickets could be given away. Surely people would come out if they got free tickets. And the price of the tickets could be charged to the donating companies. The pinch was on.

How many tickets at RM1,000 and above were distributed is a closely held secret, but it is certain that the public companies will quietly pass the expense to the taxpayers through rate increases. The minority shareholders will not be told, and if they find out there is nothing they can do. Their complaints will not be aired, other than a minor mention on the Internet.

A pattern emerges ... first the mega-project, then the mega-event. The mega-project is to improve the financial standing of the ministers, their families and their friends. The mega-event is where the public queues up to pay the bill. For the roads, the queue is at the toll booths. For the dams, the queue is at the water company window. For the space needle, it is at the telephone company window. For the twin towers office complex, it is at the petrol pump. At the airport it is hidden in each ticket as an "airport tax".

NO ACCOUNTING

Most of these are not overly objectionable, but the use of public money to support the recreation of the ministers at an annual Asian Ascot is rankling. There will be no accounting. The companies will not be allowed to say how many tickets they were forced to buy, nor who made them spend the money. They will not say who the expensive tickets were given to, other than "employees and customers".

Malasia has a problem. The ministers have lost all sense of priority. All contact with the public has been lost. As a result there is a total loss of credibility. The PM seems not to notice. No one can tell him. The people must pay, and pay, and pay. They will continue to pay for the PM's vanity long after he has departed.