Malaysia's former prime minister, Mahathir Mohamad, has always been outspoken. Even though his retirement after 22 years at the helm in October 2003 in favour of his deputy, Abdullah Badawi, took his views from centre stage, his mutterings from the wings have been constant.
This week, though, Dr Mahathir burst back into the spotlight with a theatrically charged swipe at his successor. His legacy, he thundered, was being thoughtlessly eroded, despite promises that it would be kept intact, and enough was enough. The performance was vintage Mahathir. In a voice quivering with betrayal and vehemence, the still-influential former leader had journalists crowding around for more on Wednesday, just like the good old days.
'Having chosen him as my successor, I expect a reasonable degree of gratefulness,' the 80-year-old said. 'I am in the habit of choosing the wrong people ... I have held many people up only to have them stab me in my back.'
With a Shakespearean flourish, he claimed he had stepped aside and handed over power only on the proviso that pet projects would be carried out and the ones he had worked so hard for maintained. Therein lay the nub of the outburst.
'But not only did the incoming government not do what was promised, in fact the incoming government reversed many of the decisions,' Dr Mahathir said. 'I have a right to comment ... I will have to stick my neck out to be chopped.'
Famously thick skinned when it comes to criticism, he said he had been hurt by suggestions that his policies had bankrupted the country. No such claims have come from the government and the former premier did not say where he had heard them.
