The best thing Dr Mahathir Mohamad did before he retired was to appoint Abdullah Ahmad Badawi as prime minister to succeed him rather than continue the 'tradition' of nepotism, cronyism, corruption by his powerful allies, embarrassing the country through his periodic diatribes, promoting white elephant projects, vindictively silencing his critics (need I go on?), etc.

Abdullah has astutely steered a course of promoting a more transparent and democratic administration. For this, he is to be commended.

However, given his vindictive nature, it is unlikely that Mahathir will ever retire gracefully though his pathetic public outcries critical of the current government mostly fall on deaf ears. Dr M should come out of his state of denial and just retire gracefully.