The call by the prime minister's political secretary Dusuki Ahmad that colleges should introduce courses on the thoughts of Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad may sound hilarious at first, but then again why not? Perhaps we have much to learn by trying to understand the inner workings of a man who has driven Malaysia to the brink of disaster.

We should study the true intentions of a man driven to build huge, economically senseless mega-projects such as the Petronas Twin Towers and Bakun dam. A flawed economic vision or a tribute to his megalomania?

We should try to come to terms with Mahathir's concept of privatisation when public utilities are slogged off to become private monopolies with escalation of costs for the consumer without any improvement in efficiency or service.

We should study how Mahathir hopes to nurture world-class Malaysian entrepreneurs who can compete in a globalised economy when failed crony businessmen are constantly bailed out with public funds instead of having to suffer the brunt of their mismanagement.

Perhaps there will be time to study why Proton is touted as a huge success story when its effect has been to hold the Malaysian public hostage to shoddily-built, over-priced cars while the said manufacturer is still unable to wean off government protection in the foreseeable future.

We should find it interesting to examine Mahathir's xenophobic outbursts when the country is sorely in need of foreign investment and goodwill. We must really get to the bottom of the incongruity between his crusade against money politics in Umno on one hand and his protection of corrupt individuals on the other.

We should scrutinise the thinking of a man who is willing to use repulsive racial politics to maintain his hold on power despite the obvious danger of inflaming a country which depends on peaceful co-existence between the races.

Last but not least, we should try to determine why Mahathir treats the public as fools who could not understand the workings of a public trial and then wonders why people are not believing the guilty verdict on his ex-deputy.

I am sure the above are just a tiny sample of the many interesting and intriguing issues for academic research when one studies the thoughts of Dr Mahathir Mohamad.