I agree and share Noh Majid's concerns about the recent conduct of NSTP Group editor-in-chief Abdullah Ahmad in the editorial pages of New Straits Times . It is plainly wrong for Abdullah to abuse his position to openly push for his favoured candidate as number two to Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi.

As a journalist, he has no business speculating on what is without question the sole prerogative of the sitting prime minister - that of selecting his deputy in government. It is also not his place to issue veiled threats on the consequences of not making Umno vice-president Najib Razak a deputy premier.

He has demonstrated such an utter lack of respect and political etiquette towards the fifth prime minister of Malaysia is unbecoming of such a learned man and quite frankly, a poor show of a Cambridge alumni.

Abdullah should remember that he wields the might of the pen at the pleasure of Umno. His first loyalty is to the party's president and that his ' amanah ' is to preserve, protect and defend Umno's interests as a whole and not that of a single vice-president.

By setting a cat among the pigeons - as he has done with his vulgar display of favouring one Umno veep over all others - he is clearly attempting to play kingmaker, a role which is disruptive to party unity, is neither welcomed by party members nor condoned by the party leadership.

Even Najib himself must be feeling uncomfortable with such Machiavellian manoeuverings. After all, let us not forget that Abdullah went from publicly damming Najib as "Mr Zigzag" only a little while ago, to now singing Najib's praises ad nausea in those same editorial pages.

Abdullah likes to remind his readers that he has walked the corridors of power alongside the great leaders of Malaysia's past. However, he fails, or refuses, to see that with this new generation of leaders, he is at best an uncomfortable reminder of the past, not a soothsayer of the future.

At worst, he is an example of the kind of leadership that Malaysia could do with less of - the kind of leader that does not know when to exit the stage gracefully after the curtain has finally closed and the cries of 'encore' have fallen silent.

Editor's note: Abdullah was sacked from his post last yesterday.