From Clement Stanley

Seasons come and go. Nothing stays forever, though there may be times when Dr Mahathir Mohamad wished otherwise.

Take the aura and power he enjoyed for instance. Undoubtedly, he was the only prime minister to have yielded such authority and lorded over both the common man and the nobility.

He has done his fair share for the nation and will always be remembered for one thing or the other. There will not be a better time than now for him to take his final bow.

At times he was admired and loved, and at others, mocked and hated.

Time catches up with everyone. There is no room or time left for any more hatred or bitterness against anyone be it Najib Razak, Muhyiddin Yassin, Anwar Ibrahim or Lim Kit Siang.

The more Mahathir goes for Najib’s jugular, the more he contributes to Najib’s stock, perhaps even at the expense of his son, Mukhriz, and his party, Pejuang.

It wasn’t more obvious than at the recently completed Johor elections. Pejuang was completely whitewashed as every candidate forfeited their deposits.

Whether you like it or not, Najib is the man at the moment. No matter what anyone says about him, no matter how much he is criticised, no one seems to care in this country. All his “sins” seemingly mean nothing any more.

So why flog a dead horse?

Although Najib could be viewed as a pariah internationally, he is riding a wave of popularity locally and enjoying hero status. He has a stranglehold on Umno and the man on the street.

Someday, when momentum breaks and people wake up to reality, things will change. They always do. Nothing will last forever and all good things will end someday. Nature has a strange way of playing tricks on us.

Mahathir should take that final bow and do it with grace and decorum, and leave everything else to fate. And the rest, as they say, will be history.

Clement Stanley is an FMT reader.

The views expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of FMT.