The Prime Minister feeling the heat? Why did the Prime Minister lash out at his predecessor during an interview with the Bangkok Post? Why is Tun still getting under the Prime Minister's skin, if the old man, as the official UMNO line keeps insisting that the old man is finished and outwitted by the "dynamic" leadership currently running the country? What has caught my attention is that Tun remains deeply in the shadows in the last couple of weeks, unlike his earlier visibility. Indeed, he has lost his oldest sister recently and he is not a young seventy-year-old anymore. The Prime Minister losing his cool can only point to one conclusion; that the anti-Abdullah Badawi faction, while small, continues to attack him from the grass root levels. A Prime Minister, content with his grip on power, would not throw a tantrum unbecoming of his position, like what he did recently.

UMNO has never been a docile political party in all its years of existence. The UMNO president who is also the Prime Minister has always had to content with factions that don't agree with his leadership. Even during the 22-year-long reign of Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, when dissent were suppressed effectively, UMNO was still wracked by infighting in 1987 and 1998, two major events which sufficiently shook the party to its foundations. Under the current leadership, with the shadow of his son-in-law following the man everywhere, dissent will inevitably rise and i believe it will grow stronger, if the economy continues to go around in circles, coupled with toll hikes, rising inflation and the general feel-good factor fast disappearing amongst Malaysians and UMNO grass roots. The silence of Tun in recent times could also mean that the master politician is working behind the scenes to make life difficult for this administration. Perhaps this latest outburst by the Prime Minister had something to do with this.  ¶ 10:49 PM