What can one say about Umno president Dr Mahathir Mohamad's speech when he opened the Umno/Pekembar 2003 General Assembly.

He said that he likes to call a spade a spade. So he spent more than an hour talking about perfidy, warmongering, foreign domination, and sexual deviance.

Hurling racist innuendos and other insults at all Europeans may result in hurting feelings of not only the Anglo-Saxon community. So much for calling a spade a spade.

The foreign press called his speech "astonishingly undiplomatic", politically incorrect", "Washington's wrath incurring" and "European race lashing". The local media was relatively silent on the western bashing and had only praise for the hard-hitting speech.

International Trade and Industry Minister Rafidah Aziz, to add insult to injury, said that Mahathir's remarks were true and could not hurt the Malaysian economy as the western businessmen based their actions only on profits. So what about those smart trade partnerships and foreign investments that she has been promoting? Was it just talking shop?

Mahathir will be leaving office in about four months and the fallout, as there surely will be, will affect him little. But the incoming PM and the rest of the country will have to bear with what may come. After October, Pak Lah will have his hands full, mending fences with not only the Americans and British, but all Europeans.

His hands will definitely be super-full, as Mahathir also wants to leave the Anwar problem for him. Is this what the 'My Way Man', or as The Star calls him, the 'Mission Done Man' wants to leave behind when he departs?