Sailing into the sunset

Or, knowing Dr Mahathir, perhaps not

It does not happen often that firmly established, all-powerful national leaders suddenly decide, for no apparent reason, to throw in the towel and sail off into the sunset.

But that is exactly the situation in Malaysia where the prime minister, Mahathir Mohamad, shocked his party's annual congress and the nation with an announcement that he was standing down.

Dr Mahathir has been very much in charge in Kuala Lumpur for more than two decades, making him Asia's longest-serving leader. He is credited with an economic and industrial success story that transcended the country's unpromising legacy of colonial rule, ethnic and religious divisions and communist insurgency.

Many Malaysians have difficulty imagining life without him. But it seems they may have to. Dr Mahathir, aged 76, is not ill. The next election is not due until 2004. Nor has he been under any unusual pressure to step aside.

Government insiders say he may simply have had enough, that he had been considering the move for some time. After dropping his bombshell, Dr Mahathir took off for Naples for a spot of sailing.

How refreshing that a man renowned for his autocratic tendencies, his chauvinistic defences of Asian values and his zero tolerance of criticism, particularly western human rights criticism, should decide to go with such unaccustomed grace.

This is the same man, after all, who humiliated his able deputy, Anwar Ibrahim, and saw him jailed on trumped-up charges; the same man who behaved so unhelpfully when Australian and British troops intervened in East Timor; the man who has encouraged the expansion of the US "war on terror" into Asia.

Some might think his departure overdue. But there is a snag. He may not actually be departing, at least not any time soon. All the talk now is of a "lengthy transition" and "phased handover". That could take years - assuming that he does not change his mind again. As we said at the beginning, it does not happen often.
(picked from http://www.guardian.co.uk/theguardian/2002/jun/25/guardianleaders by Leader The Guardian, Tuesday June 25 2002)