I refer to Adcin's advice for Dr Mahathir Mohamad to let go of the country so that others can get on with their lives. My response to that is that Mahathir cannot because he was the one who got us all so deep inside this mess.

Adcin quotes Proton, which, to me is only one of the many millstones tied around the necks of all Malaysians for many years to come. Mahathir's character is such that he always wants his way, and it has to be done without any objections.

If he feels that he is not succeeding, he will do all kinds of things to somehow to keep his projects afloat, at whatever cost. So you see, when Langkawi was not successful, he turned it into a duty-free area, and the so-called success of Langkawi is at the cost of uncollected revenue from duty.

He did the same for Proton, by imposing high duties on other cars which resulted in Proton now being unable to compete in the market. He forced Petronas to bankroll the Putrajaya project and then forced all government departments to move there.

The only parties that are not toeing the line are the foreign embassies which have so far refused to move to Putrajaya because they do not want to inconvenience the public. Mahathir wanted to build the Petronas Twin Towers so much that nothing could stop him as he bulldozed his way. Until today, we are still paying for the empty office space.

He made sure that the Kuala Lumpur City Centre is patronised by building a connection to it by road and rail. One may ask what's so special about KLCC that the government has to spend so much money to provide the infrastructure. Even MAS has to advertise KLCC on flights arrriving at KLIA.

Mahathir does not care for feasibility studies or reports and his judgement is always by hunch. When he saw that Tenaga Nasional Berhad was not up to the mark, he quickly appointed Independent Power Producers (IPP) which benefitted from fixed astronomical rates. Today, the IPPs are laughing all the way to the bank as we, the public, indirectly pay them for the next 30 years.

Mahathir's projects must not fail and woe betide any one who dares criticise him. Even newspapers (until today, I am told) are still not allowed to publish anything critical about his projects.

The bottom line is that if we were to tot up the success and failures of Mahathir's projects, we would be very deep in minus territory. I guess we will only know the actual amount when someone with guts dares to set up an inquiry.

Pak Lah? I don't think so.