The 'good' do not need a defence. Why should Dr Mahathir Mohamad, a retired prime minister, appear so worried about his legacy and keep making press statements about 'this-and-that'? History will vindicate his legacy or exonerate his faults. One does not rush feverishly to defend one's records.

The ink has dried on his tenure and the records are now frozen in stone to be examined leisurely for posterity. One's 'goodness' does not lie in one's autobiography. One's records, and that of every leader, are best measured objectively.

The accounts that will endure in the memories and imaginations of the people will be those 'fly-on-the-wall' accounts; the detached, objective voices of people who are ordinary participants, observers, bystanders, people on the street, listeners, readers ... readers who also listen and evaluate. No matter how long you 'cap' the press (oh, say, even 22 years long), the truth has a way of oozing through the crevices and seeping through the cracks. The moral is that eventually the good that men do not need a defence.

Give credit where credit is due. Tun's decoration is a recognition of his exemplary and distinctive service to the nation. No one has (outwardly) questioned that. One forgets too easily that it was granted during the prime ministership of Abdullah Ahmad Badawi.

What then were Tun's greatest achievements? For someone who has been reading the papers every single day for the last 22 years, his greatest achievements and visionary hallmarks of those 22 years (half a generation, to be exact) are the Penang Bridge and the KL International Airport. He would have added the Scenic ('cynic') Bridge, if not for his 'abdication'.

The others, oh, those others. Perwaja , IPPs ... let's not discuss those. The nation knows next-to- nothing to be able to comment intelligently or logically. Leave those for the 'gloss' of autobiographers or authorised biographers if they deign or dare to write.

Other than those, let's give credit where credit is due. It may be a little hard to think of many. But certainly there will be some. Morsels and crumbs here and there. Fragments and a rare fluorescence here and there. Credit is due no less even if it is dismal for a 22-year span.

Pak Lah has few credits but he's only just begun That's not hard to understand. He's got barely 22 months under his belt. For starters, let's see his Ninth Malaysian Plan, the Green Earth Policy and his biotechnology campaign. Someone else had a longer experiment and spent mega-bucks on information technology. When he left the stage, we were still second-class.

There is a saying that even Parliament cannot legislate beyond the grave. This means Parliament, being a sovereign institution, is not bound by its predecessor and cannot bind its successor. Parliament can legislate to change laws, even when the laws are entrenched. If Parliament cannot bind future legislatures, why should a prime minister, who is a creature of convention, be able to bind a future or succeeding prime minister.

If at all, a succeeding prime minister can and often does adopt previous executive programmes (like the Vision 2020) as a matter of ministerial comity. As so many management gurus and wizards have put it, the surest way of survival today is not to follow a beaten path but to adapt to change in this modern, fast-paced world.

So Pak Lah cannot be fettered and chained. Since Tun has often said that the West has no monopoly on wisdom, the same can be equally said of the East. Pak Lah must be able to exercise his wisdom as the fresh pages of history unfold. He will now write his pages and when the ink dries and become encrusted in stone, so will he be similarly judged.

I will die if I don't add this epilogue. I have always had this nagging need to know why Tun M had to choose the other Tun D (Daim) to be the finance minister when there were plainly so many possible opportunities for conflicts of interest. Tun D with his myriad business and financial interests, it was like setting a rat into a house of cheese. The Metramac case seems to be another episode where the truth may yet be finally told after a decade of being 'capped'. The question is how many jars and urns of secrets are there in the cellars waiting for Ali Baba to 'open sesame'?

All the above is only a 'fly-on-the wall' opinion, a last gasp from a small fly like me after 22 years, just before I expire. I am just doing an Ani Arope before my extinguishment. And like (former Supreme Court judge) George Seah, 'history has exonerated him'.