TUN DAIM ZAINUDDIN (synopsis of a forth-coming book)

Books have been written about Tun Daim Zainuddin, but not many people know who the real Daim is.

He is famous for being taciturn. Everyone knows that Daim is the silent type; so silent, in fact, that the victims of his scheming and conniving have fallen like ten pins without ever knowing what hit them.

He has, on the quiet, made a career of shooting poison darts, laying booby traps. and knifing friend or foe in the back. His hand is never seen, but his mark is everywhere. Truth to tell, he has been at the root of many national crises, but his name has never been smudged, thanks to the wealth he wields and his bond of friendship with Dr. Mahathir.

Most members of Umno's new generation are aware that Daim is an acquisitive millionaire and a macho man with a taste of young women, but they concede him these weaknesses because they see in him a clean and competent Economic Adviser to the Government.

But the generation of Harun Idris, Musa Hitam and Manan Othman to name just a few of the old hands - they are the ones to ask in order to discover who the real Daim is. It was Datuk Harun who plucked Daim up from the depths of failure in the salt business. Daim's wife, Mahani and Harun's wife, Salmah were good friends and an influential pair in the early 1970s.

It was wife power that moved Harun to give Daim 160 acres of prime Kampung Pandan land. And thus Syarikat Maluri was born.There is no use speculating over how much Daim paid Harun. After all, the two were fast friends. For the gory details, just ask Low Kiok Bow or Thamby Chik. They can relate how Daim cheated a land broker and greased Selangor state executive councillor and Mahathir's brother-in-law, Ahmad Razali for that piece of land.

Of course, Daim still had to pay for the land. In those days, it was not easy to borrow from a bank. Hence, he was forced to corrupt Bank Bumiputra. Lorraine Osman and Rais Saniman know how much he spent. Manan Othman can no doubt confirm the figure, he was so close to Daim that they tried to share a girl friend, with Manan often borrowing the bedroom at Daim's office in Taman Maluri.

Daim's elevation as Senator and, subsequently, Minister of Finance, was part of Mahathir's strategic plan. Mahathir's choice should surprise no one, after all the two were intimate friends from the same kampung in Seberang Perak, Alor Setar. Upon becoming Prime Minister on 16 July, 1981, the first thing on Mahathir's mind was how to sideline his archenemy, Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah.

Daim told everyone he had no interest in politics, but all the while he was confident of getting the Finance Minister's job after a stint with the Senate. A few months after joining the Senate, Daim became Chairman of Fleet, which owned the New Straits Times. In 1984, he finally got his dream job and became the third most important man in the Federal Cabinet, after the Prime Minister and his deputy.