I say baloney to Mustafa Ong's suggestion that Umno members rally behind the former prime minister in face of the impending suit for slander by Anwar Ibrahim. Why drag the party into this personal issue? As it is a private matter, it is best left to the courts to decide.

That is the problem with our politicians today; they do not know how to differentiate between loyalty to the party and nation or blind loyalty to the president of the party.

The problem with our former prime minister is that he thinks that he has the Almighty's mandate to condemn anybody be it the world's superpower, his own party members or those he dislikes personally.

He seems to have a big mouth but small ears when the tables are turned against him. Heaven knows how many people have been slandered by him during his 22 years in office. Those who dared go against the strongman would either be removed from office or a scandal will be created involving him with all the government apparatus and media hounding that person.

You can see why Mahathir remained in office for so long - other leaders had seen the folly of going against the former prime minister.

There is a Malay saying 'berani buat berani, tanggunglah'. Since Mahathir has to repeat his allegation that his former deputy premier is a sodomist, let him face his former deputy in an open court to prove his allegation.

After all, the rest of the nation had waited with a bated breath for him to appear in open court during the famous corruption case of Anwar but he did not show up. Let him now as a private citizen appear in court and let our judiciary judge his fate.

Anwar Ibrahim had been cleared by the courts on his alleged sodomist behaviour, the former IGP has apologised to him for giving him a black eye, the late author of 50 dalil kenapa Anwar tidak boleh menjadi PM was found guilty of slander and now I assume it is Mahathir's turn to face the music.

Poetic justice, don't you think?