The latest episode of MCA president Dr Ling Liong Sik wanting to resign from his cabinet post suggests that his relationship with Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad was more intricate than what the rank-and-file of both Umno and MCA had imagined.

Any decent Malaysian who had read, and believed, newspapers controlled by Umno and MCA over the past several months would, by now, be divided into two camps o­n the matter.

Umno supporters and sympathisers in particular think that their leader, Mahathir, was slowly building up pressure o­n Ling to go, in view of MCA's 'obstinacy' over the language-switch issue and the party's Penang state assembly members who breached the ruling coalition discipline.

The cue came o­n Tuesday when Ling himself announced after a Barisan Nasional supreme council meeting that he had submitted a resignation letter to Mahathir last August.

The following day, Utusan Malaysia and Berita Harian reported o­n their front-pages that 'Ling letak jawatan' (Ling resigns) without taking into consideration why Ling remains in his transport minister's post despite 'having resigned' months before.