COMMENT | If Malaysian politics is a fairy tale, then Dr Mahathir Mohamad is the vindictive stepmother who cannot bear the thought of the mirror uttering another name or one that he has not sanctioned.

In a more seasonal tale, he would be a Machiavellian-Dickensian Ebenezer Scrooge who would refuse to heed the warnings of the three spirits of Christmas and remain unrepentant.

If set in the 1980s, he would have locked them up together...