I refer to your report You are out of line, gov't tells Dr M . By firing his latest salvo against the government, Dr Mahathir Mohamad has certainly gone berserk and is now running amok lamenting, harassing and pointing accusing fingers in all directions except at himself.

His grouses are obvious. His appointed successor Pak Lah has, for good reasons, certainly 'failed to live up' to his (Mahathir's) expectations and idiosyncrasies. Pak Lah was expected to be the torch bearer of the Mahathir tradition. Spending large amounts of money on mega-projects that are hardly relevant to the immediate needs of the people and the nation.

But contrary to these expectations, Pak Lah has instead been dismantling and frustrating many of these dream projects that Mahathir did not have the time to implement during his term. The 'scenic bridge' happens to be just one of such mega-project.

Mahathir's ultimate objective appears to be that he would like history to honour him with such a title as 'the Great' as in the case of Alexander the Great or Akbar the Great or 'the great age of Mahathir'. The ego of the man is certainly too great for an ex-leader of a small nation like Malaysia.

We could therefore appreciate his disappointment and disillusionment with Pak Lah and his cadre of followers. They have refused to defend the legacies of the Mahathir era; let alone complete his unfinished grandiose projects. Now we can appreciate why Mahathir cried when he recited his poem on the struggle yet to be completed - 'Perjuangan yang belum selesai' (The unfinished struggle).

At the end of the day we must never forget that leaders and their dreams and idiosyncrasies will come and go but it is the people and the nation that will pay a heavy toll.