Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad wanted to resign but was not allowed to do so by many of his people and the country thanks him for his willingness to retract that decision. Our beacon of light has been restored. That is what the media is telling people. I don't think that is right, and what transpired yesterday should worry a lot of Malaysians.

If a prime minister wants to step down after 21 years, he should be allowed to. I do not know if the whole thing was staged, but what follows was scary. After 45 years of independence, to assume that the nation would fall apart or just stop to be successful because Mahathir wants to leave his position is preposterous.

But if I am wrong about our progress in the last 45 years as a country, then all we have achieved is produce an exceptional politician.

There are enough capable hands at our disposal and to argue that he is indispensable is to dismiss the ability and talent that reside within Malaysia. If now is not the time, when then? If he cannot decide when he can leave, who should?

The Barisan Nasional is not expected to fall in the next three general elections at least, and with the power structure and tradition that permeate Umno and BN, Mahathir cannot be ejected from power in his lifetime, unless he decides to leave.

That is the quandary that the country faces now, and frankly I am disappointed with Deputy Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi for not letting Mahathir finish his speech. If Pak Lah feels that he is incapable of filling the position then he must pass the role to someone else. It is not his place to decide that Mahathir is above reproach and the country paralysed without him. Leaders must be leaders, if not let those who are willing to lead, lead.

The repercussion of yesterday's drama is that Mahathir makes the country feel beholden to him, because he is forced to perform his duty past the point where he is willing to. It is we who are demanding this statesperson to stay, and therefore we reduce our moral right to demand or criticise between now and his eventual departure. He also wins the psychological battle of not needing to defend his 21-year rule, because it is not by choice that he is extending his stay in power.

The closing speech of the Umno president did no harm to the nation; it is the fiasco that followed that does, and it marks clearly the debilitating sense of reduced confidence Malaysians generally experience.

If Mahathir made the decision to quit with much deliberation, choosing to retract so quickly after the announcement also reflects badly on him. If the argument to be made by his confidantes that he was emotional when he made that decision, a man who decides to leave his position as the leader of the country on an emotional high or low, perhaps is a man we can do without in that office.

The fact is, it is an end of an era, and ends are seldom expected or predictable, but surely politicians more than most must appreciate the volatility, as that is expected and predictable in politics. The prime minister has said that he wants to leave, and therefore he should. When he comes back from his holiday, he has to announce his definite departure from all political positions.

The rest of us just have to pick up and move on with the programme. No one is indispensable, however this great country should thank Mahathir for leading the country for so long, confer on him all the deserving accolades and honour and keep him in our minds and hearts.

The wrong thing is to think that there is no more greatness to be scaled by this nation led by others. And the future might as well begin today, I'd say; let us move on.