I refer to the malaysiakini report Explosive feud damaging PM and Mahathir: analysts .

Opinions are funny things. Everyone has one about everything and it is always based on loosely available evidence that have been presented to the person. Hence, the media and propaganda play a big part in forming a person's opinion.

However, unverified evidence, when found in abundance, will form some semblance of truth - thus the adage, there's no smoke without fire. Hence, a person's opinion becomes stronger when you see a lot of smoke. And then, an opinion becomes fact to him or her.

In the recent spat between Dr Mahathir Mohamad and Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, many of us who sit in the gallery have already formed our opinions and deep inside, we have taken sides. However, we have no influence on the outcome - much like fans of a football game - and we merely voice (although done silently) our support for our team.

I daresay that my opinion is a good representation of the rest of Malaysians'. I have no evidence whatsoever against either side nor do I believe wholly anything that I hear or read. However, my opinion on the spat is based on other opinions that I have been exposed to: that Abdullah has a record of being Mr Clean, he is religious, he has never been greedy, he has never been implicated in any wrongdoing.

On the other hand, during his rule, Dr M has had many accusations thrown at him. He has been accused by his own people of nepotism, he had been accused by foreigners of being a dictator and more recently, he has been accused by a former ally, Tajudin Ramli, of having manipulated the entire MAS fiasco .

And unfortunately for Dr M, all the accusations he hurled at Abdullah were the same ones that he was subjected to before, ie the AP scandal, the nepotism, the corruption, the media blackout - except that there was more 'smoke' during his days. This has affected my opinion. Using the theory of deduction, I have deduced that Abdullah is more believable because Dr M has less credibility than Abdullah.

If my opinion as a relatively well-read but uninvolved Malaysian is a good representation of the majority of our people, then I'd say that Dr M has certainly got a steep task of winning over the peoples' hearts. No wonder he says that he's feeling down now.

I think that if the people had a choice, Dr M will never be allowed again to exert the type of influence he had when he was the PM. However, just like football fans, we do not influence the outcome of the game. The players of politics may yet execute a maneuver to score the unexpected goal. Then perhaps with the right amount of coaxing and propaganda, the pendulum of opinion may shift.