Now it becomes increasingly clear why the indefatigable Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad wants to voluntarily step down. And it is not only because it is as good a time as any to go. Nor his age at 76. Political leaders like Winston Churchill, Deng Hsiao Peng, Mao Tze-Tung, Ronald Reagan, Fidel Castro were as old if not older when they continued serving as leaders.

The simple truth is that the premier is a little bored in playing helmsman for a small stage like Malaysia for so long. It represents no more personal challenge. Whatever problems facing the country (examples PAS' encroachment, poor English, etc) these "nitty-gritty" problems take time to resolve and can be handled by successors under his guidance.

Mahathir now dreams beyond domestic mega projects like the Multimedia Super Corridor, World's tallest Petronas Twin Towers, futuristic KLIA to global mega projects like that of the proposed formation of the Islamic Union that he is presently discussing with Iranian President Mohammad Khatami.

The proposed Islamic Union will give Islamic countries a strong voice in global affairs and a united front against US hegemonic and divide-and-rule policies like, for example, the current American campaign to target Iraq for military action with the prospect of Khatami's Iran being next (not necessarily war bombs but destabilising influx of Iraqis refugees, should that happen).

That Khatami should confer with Mahathir on how to avert this scenario is testimony of PM's perceived influence on Americans based on his credential as an Islamic ally committed in the US war against terrorism.

Besides improving the image, position, and stature of Islam worldwide, the proposed Islamic Union can change the nature of the Muslim world's competition with the Christians over past two centuries from that of holy war (jihad) to that of healthy economic competition for prosperity.

In this multi-polar world, only a united Islamic union can counter the regional cartels of the EEC, Nafta, Apec, Afta; only the Islamic currency (Dinah) from the oil wells of Middle East and South East Asia could in combination counter the Euro Dollah and US Greenback — or the Chinese Reminbi.

Mahathir's promotion of a global Islamic union is pretty visionary when one looks at it from these perspectives:-

One of the major threats to global economic prosperity is the continued sporadic attacks by 'terrorists' with the likes of Osama bin Laden.

This natural antipathy of the many Osama(s) in the Islamic World against the US and western allies arises from their perception of the latter's hegemonic interference in Islamic affairs and territories (eg propping up Saudi Arabia or Israel, bombing Afghanistan). This hegemony stems from Western technological and economic superiority. The perception of gap between Western progress and Muslim backwardness is the cause of rampant anger among young idealists that turns them into 'human bombs' and spawns global terrorism.

The trick is to narrow this gap by identifying its root cause which is correctly identified as the inability of Islamic world in general to grapple with the challenges of modernity.

To thus so grapple, the first step is to encourage ijtihad (loosely translated it means interpretation) developed through discussions in various international and domestic forums.

Ijtihad is essential for an Islamic reformation, a movement to take Islamic discourse away from strictures and literal interpretation of sacred text, abstract the fundamental and universal principles from the wisdom of Islam for adaptation and application to realities of the Information Age. (This is the opposite to PAS' literal approach of following 14th century religious injunctions that promise to take society backward instead of forward).

It is also interesting that Mahathir counters the domestic problem of PAS' approach by waging ijtihad on an international scale and it is hoped that we will not have an ironical situation of his failing in this bold approach on the domestic stage what he succeeds at the international stage.

Ijtihad is the route to modernity and Islamic progress and Malaysia under Mahathir can lead the way on the global stage through this Islamic Union.

Unlike the East Asia Economic Union that Japan balked under US' pressure, there is no reason, this time around, for US to similarly oppose.

In spite of Islamic Union's potential competition against (say) EEC and Nafta, the US, this time around, is not so likely to obstruct because when the Islamic Union seeks to close the gap between the West and the Islamic world by addressing issues of how to promote ijtihad and collaborate economically for the prosperity of Islamic countries, it, in fact, addresses the root cause of Islamic alienation and, by extension terrorism, that strikes at the heart of American security!

Whenever Mahathir thinks and dreams, it is likely to be very big and many people get worried that like so many other mega projects, it may run into troubles.

This is, however, a little difference here. Whilst Malaysia suffers when PM''s mega domestic projects fail, the same is not true if his mega global projects (like Islamic Union) not succeed or take a longer time to succeed. The proposed Islamic Union can be formulated on a grandiloquent basis: to herald Islamic reformation, promote economic prosperity and sharing between Muslim countries, keep American bully in check, bargain against international economic caucuses, narrow technological and economic gap between Middle East and the West, weed out the root cause of international terrorism and mitigate inter-civilizational conflict between the Islamic world and the secular.

Succeed or fail, Malaysia, amid the hullabaloo and hype, will gain an international stature and most important reap the massive inflow of Islamic funds in our role as Asian 'Dinah' currency center or Islamic banking center — take your pick!

So for Mahathir, the challenge is no more in leading Malaysia through the Barisan Nasional coalition but a Global Coalition of the Islamic Union covering a broad swathe of several Islamic countries and sections of continents.

His vision has gone beyond the mundane to the stratospheric, his stage has moved from national to global.

What is a position of a prime minister of Malaysia — and even the senior minister post of Lee Kuan Yew when compared to that of a benefactor and intellectual leader of the Islamic world and an Islamic global coalition, and in that position, a mediator of inter-civilisational conflict and a doctor of global plague of terrorism as well? It seems, by comparison, paltry.