On Saturday in Kuala Lumpur. J
ust before the curtain fell on the 59th Umno general assembly, the party's 83-year-old former president made a grand entrance with his wife in tow.
Looking debonair in a neatly-pressed deep purple stripped shirt and black slacks, Dr Mahathir Mohamad was given a rapturous welcome by the Umno leaders and delegates alike.
After all, Mahathir and his wife Dr Siti Hasmah Ali are the two pioneer party members bearing the respective membership numbers '000001' and '000002' of Umno Baru - the party born out of the 1987 crisis which saw the original Umno being declared illegal.
It was a night of love, apparently masterminded by newly-minted Umno president Najib Abdul Razak to bring his mentor and outgoing premier Abdullah Ahmad Badawi together.Mahathir, who looked the sharpest of the lot on stage, awkwardly embraced Abdullah whom he had been attacking incessantly since a year after he had handpicked him as his successor in 2003.
It was a scene that surely deserved an Oscar nomination and one that made headlines the next day. The hatchet had purportedly been buried.Overwhelmed with emotion, Najib said he hoped Mahathir and Abdullah would together guide him through his tenure at the helm and offer him ideas for his unenviable task of rebuilding the party.
Mahathir who quit Umno last May in protest of Abdullah's leadership also vowed to return to the fold soon.
Unfortunately, the dream was short-lived.
From London with spite
Fast forward to Monday in London. The former premier again let loose his stinging criticisms of his successor-turned-nemesis Abdullah.
In an interview with BBC, he shreds, rips and slams his successor for sullying his legacy.
"Everything went rotten" after Abdullah became prime minister, lamented Mahathir who refused to acknowledge any shortcomings on his part for the problems in Umno despite being asked several times.
Moving on to another one of his favourite targets, Mahathir fired several rounds at Abdullah's son-in-law and newly-elected Umno Youth chief Khairy Jamaluddin.
He said both father-in-law and son-in-law had worked together to hatch a new set of policies and "everything went wrong when Abdullah took over..."
Mahathir's vexation towards Khairy escalated last week when the latter defeated his son, Mukhriz, in the covetted Umno Youth chief contest.
However, Mahathir was magnanimous enough to concede in the BBC interview to having committed one mistake - picking Abdullah as his successor.
He said that in 22 years in office, Barisan Nasional always won two-thirds control in Parliament but the last polls saw the ruling coalition suffering its worst ever setback, by not only losing its two-third majority but also several states.
It is this which increased the pressure on the premier to relinquish the reins although his term does not end until 2013.
Ironically four years earlier, Abdullah secured the biggest ever mandate for BN, seizing control of 90 percent of the parliamentary seats.
Mahathir appeared to claim some credit for the historic mandate in 2004, noting that the general elections had come just after he stepped down as prime minister.
But observers had pointed out then that it was precisely Mahathir's exit coupled with his successor's reform pledges had led to the boost in support.
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