Is Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi a liability, a loose cannon or Najib Abdul Razak's loyal henchman? It is never a proud moment when one scores an own goal, so what was Zahid thinking, when he attacked the lineage of the former PM, Dr Mahathir Mohamad?

In one fell swoop, Zahid undermined his boss Najib's "1Malaysia" pledge of a diverse nation. On the other hand, many Malaysians feel that Zahid may have done them a favour by inadvertently airing the sensitive issue of "ethnicity".

In the past, Malay nationalists have taken pot shots at the non-Malays, and told the Chinese to "balik Tongsan" and the Indians, to "balik India". Now, the Malaysians of Indonesian stock can be told to "balik Indon".

More importantly, when Zahid commented upon Mahathir's Indian heritage, he attracted jibes of "The pot calling the kettle black" because of Zahid's Indonesian origins.

With that attack backfiring, Zahid then criticised Mahathir for his role in the Memali massacre of 1985. This may damage Zahid more than it will Mahathir.

Zahid has grabbed the wrong end of the stick. Eye-witness accounts allege that Umno Kedah had warned Mahathir that the charismatic and influential PAS ustaz, Ibrahim "Libya" Mahmood, was their greatest threat in the (then) upcoming general election of 1986. They predicted that Umno Kedah would lose to PAS.

Musa Hitam has already said that Mahathir was in KL and not in Beijing on the day of the incident. The critical question is, why 32 years later, PAS and its leader, Abdul Hadi Awang, are aligning themselves with Umno-Baru? Mahathir once said, "Melayu mudah lupa". Zahid should question PAS' allegiance with Umno-Baru after the betrayal.

Does Zahid's personal staff enjoy the schadenfreude of seeing him make public gaffes? His speech, in English, at the United Nations, made Malaysians squirm with embarrassment. Even my grandparents' generation, living in the kampung, speak better English. Zahid's speech writer probably over-estimated Zahid's proficiency in English.

When Zahid was the defence minister, in 2012, the English version of Mindef's official website became a Twitter and Facebook sensation. His humiliation was made complete when he closed down the site and admitted that his staff had relied on the free online services of Google Translate. A similar Manglish caption was also used to welcome former President Barack Obama to Malaysia...