KUALA LUMPUR: Former Malaysian premier Mahathir Mohamad is a political street-fighter with a score to settle with his handpicked successor, and he is about to punch where it can hurt most.

Mahathir, burning with a sense of betrayal, wants to take his attack on Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi to the main ruling party, the United Malays National Organisation (UMNO), the seat of power and the political vehicle for majority ethnic Malays.

“The Malays still look up to Mahathir and I’m afraid this could cause the Malays to split again,” said one political analyst who declined to be named.

Mahathir has spent the past four months sniping at Abdullah’s government from public meetings, impromptu press conferences and even the pages of an independent website he had once shunned.

He has accused the government of lacking “guts”, of selling out Malaysian sovereignty and generally shelving some key state projects that he had hoped would continue into his retirement.

Abdullah has fended off the attacks by using his ministers to carefully rebut all of them and by staying above the fray himself, but now Mahathir wants to explain his criticism to UMNO, a move that threatens to sow doubt and undermine Abdullah’s leadership.

The government and its party stalwarts have sensed the danger and UMNO’s leadership has already delivered a veiled warning to its almost 200 divisions not to invite Mahathir to speak at their meetings.

“UMNO divisions should avoid breaching party rules such as inviting individuals who are not permitted to open division meetings,” UMNO’s information chief Muhammad Muhammad Taib said.

One least one division in the northern state of Perlis has defied the order and invited Mahathir to speak. “He will be addressing a meeting on Aug 26,” said Zahidi Zainul Abidin, UMNO divisional chief for that area, told Reuters.

No one seriously expects Mahathir, 80, to make a political comeback so late in life but political analysts say he could bring any latent dissent and dissatisfaction with Abdullah out into the open, perhaps at the next UMNO general assembly in November.

With political pundits tipping an early election sometime next year, that is a disturbing prospect for the government.

But Mahathir’s move is not without its own risks, analysts say.

There is no obvious leadership challenger waiting in the wings, ready to seize on any party dissent Mahathir might flush out.

Abdullah led United Malays National Organisation to a thumping general election victory in early 2004.—Reuters