  At 5:56 PM yesterday, the nation was sent into shock when Datuk Seri Dr. Mahathir Mohamad announced his resignation from all UMNO and Barisan National Posts. - "Jolt From PM", Sunday Star, 23 June 2002 i just saw the paper, and my heart turned over. apparently his resignation was unanimously rejected by the UMNO assembly, but there were a few hairy moments.
no one saw it coming; as soon as he announced it, the deputy prime minister ran to the microphone and begged him to reconsider. the heads of the women and youth wings rushed to him; rafidah was overheard saying "no, no ... why? " before she pushed the microphones away so they could confer privately. the whole nation went into cardiac arrest, i imagine ... this was being broadcast live over one of their major television stations. he retracted the decision an hour or so later, after an intense private conference with his closest aides. the entire UMNO assembly remained glued to their seats, insisting that they were not going to leave until they were sure that mahathir had rescinded his decision. there's a photo of him on the front page, with a look of utter weariness and frustration on his face ... more than anyone, this is mahathir's country, something he's invested his entire life in. i suppose that logically, everyone knows he's mortal and that he's going to have to step down sometime, but no one's really been thinking about it. this decision just kind of forced everyone to take a good look at the tenuousness of the situation, how the stability and prosperity of an entire nation has been balanced on one man's shoulders.
it's too much, and it always has been, but mahathir has never complained and never backed down. this brings me to the question: if he steps down, what then? life in asia - a perpetual transition. we all live on the edge of hope, clinging to family and traditions because they're all that's sane in a world that changes by the minute. huntington wrote "The Clash of Civilizations" aeons ago, and some parts of what he wrote is already obsolete, of course.
but sometimes the world still feels frighteningly bipolar, a standoff between east and west, two worlds coexisting on the same planet. the west is frustrated by our dependence on our governments, and our paradoxical mistrust of them; we are mystified by their confidence in a world that we have never learned to trust fully. when are we ever going to learn to speak each other's languages? 
