Whether or not it was a wayang kulit (shadow play) at the Putra World Trade Centre at the close of the Umno general assembly on Saturday evening remains to be seen. More important than that, it has finally come, although in not a very dignified way, both for Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad and those who rushed to him to plead with him to change his mind. I guess those that pleaded the most are the ones that will stand to lose the most.

It has finally dawned on the man that he has not succeeded in his mission, and he blames everyone but himself. We can talk about the small Malay contractor who sub-contracts to a non-Malay or the stall licensee who rents his licence to an Indonesian hawker, but the bigger ones are the ones that have caused so much damage to Dr M's vision.

He himself has inflicted a heavy financial toll on the country, with Putrajaya, Proton, Perwaja, Twin Towers, etc. and unlike some other mistakes, these edifices will remain there, as a stark reminder to the citizens — present and future — of misplaced ambitions.

To be fair to Mahathir, I think he is also a poor judge of character and these cronies ripped him off big time with all kinds of promises that were never kept. His so-called trusted leftenants went round bullying government officials who were too scared to check back whether he actually sanctioned their demands and they terrorised every one simply by saying "PM suruh" (PM's orders).

Even in jail these 'leftenants' could demand water beds and jaunts outside prison walls. They brushed aside local rules and regulations much to the chagrin of helpless district officers who were left to explain to the public why so and so could do things that they were not allowed to.

Dr M had to defend why shares were purchased at double the market price by the government, when he actually was not informed about it. He put on a brave front and gallantly fought back criticisms with the gusto that he is known for.

But in the end, he can take no more, because much to his dismay, even when the economic cake was getting smaller because of the Asian financial crisis, the demands from those within his own party were actually getting bigger, each one demanding to be paid for loyalty and the loss that they have to bear because of the very crisis that the country was fighting off.

For all his achievements (and they are not few), he will retire a frustrated man.