Former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad has apparently burnt his bridges with his hand-picked successor Abdullah Ahmad Badawi by calling him to quit his post.

"If we have a prime minister who sold the country, why wait for five years? We have to take early action," said Mahathir yesterday at a press conference at Universiti Teknologi Petronas in Tronoh, Perak.

"If he sold the country, there's no need to wait five years. We must not always say we support the prime minister."

This is the first time that the ex-Umno strongman has come out openly to demand Abdullah to quit despite previously saying that he had no intention of overthrowing the prime minister.

Mahathir has levelled a number of criticisms at his successor in recent weeks, including the scrapping of the 'crooked bridge' to Singapore.

He accused the government of 'kowtowing' to Singapore and failed to protect national interests.

Umno not the target

Mahathir, who was at the university to give a lecture on 'Challenges in running a country', also argued that he was not criticising ruling party Umno in his on-going spat with Abdullah.

"I've never criticise Umno in my speeches. I only criticised the leader who swayed away from the wishes of Umno," he said.

He said despite that past Umno leaders faced stringent criticisms, the party had remained strong

"I was challenged until I almost lost, yet Umno remained strong... We are not condemning Umno, we are condemning the leadership who are not following the party's principles and struggles."

Mahathir took another potshot at Abdullah's ambitious son-in-law, Umno Youth deputy chief Khairy Jamaluddin, who last week vowed to answer the allegations against him including his multi-million ringgit purchase of shares in boutique investment bank, ECM-Libra.

"What's there to answer? He's not answering. Where did he get RM9 million? He said he borrowed from friends. Who are his friends whom he can borrow as much as RM9 million? I, too, would like to borrow...

"There are some in Umno Youth who also would like to borrow RM9 million to buy ECM-Libra shares. Can they go and take a loan? Why did his friends give him the loan? Even if we want to get a loan from the bank, can we go borrow RM9 million to buy ECM-Libra shares?"

Dr M to be party delegate

He said that he would attend the Umno divisional meeting of Kubang Pasu - the constitutency which he represented in Parliament for almost three decades - if he was selected by party members.

"I have the right to be picked as a delegate. I'm going."

However, he said that he would not want to be a delegate at the Umno general assembly to be held later this year.

Even if I was a delegate, I would not be allowed to speak."

He argued that when he was challenged by his political rivals in Umno when he was prime minister, he had allowed them to go to the party grassroots to make speeches against him.

"I almost got ousted, only won with 43 votes. I did not jail them. Perhaps they could not remember because Malays can easily forget," he said referring to the contest between him and former vice-president Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah in 1987.

"Now I can't go close to former Umno members. Mubarak, which is an organisation of ex-parliamentary and state representatives, cannot...

Mahathir also warned that the Internet would be curbed soon by the government.

"Soon, the Internet will get it too... because we are an open society. Must censor the Internet. Only those (opinions) which support the government can be published...," he said in his trademark sarcasm.