I notice recently that Umno vice-president Muhammad Muhd Taib has been rather active in trying to re-enter the political mainstream of Umno and government. However, he will find the going difficult.

First, Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad is planning to groom Umno leaders below 40 to take over the party and government, thus bypassing all those above that age, except himself (Mahathir), Abdullah Ahmad Badawi and a small core group like Khalid Yaakob, Aziz Shamsuddin and Megat Junid.

The reason is simple: The younger Umno leaders, like Azalina Othman, Dr Mohd Khir Toyo and Hishammuddin Hussein have no grassroots support nor the political experience to challenge him and the core group in their 60s or above. They have to depend on him for political patronage.

On the contrary, Muhammad is not only politically experienced in Umno politics and government, he is felt to be too rich and possessing strong grassroots support. Also, unlike Azalina, Khir and Hishammuddin, Muhammad is not Western or professionally educated. Mahathir dislikes local graduates with only a generalist first degree taught in Malay.

It is time Muhammad stop wasting time, energy and money in Umno politics. He will never succeed given the grand design of Mahathir. The middle-aged generation of Umno leaders is a threat to both the grandfatherly core of Mahathir's age group, as well as the Young Turks mentioned above.