As a political tactician Dr Mahathir Mohamad never fails to surprise or disappoint. We had speculated yesterday that he would use an array of weapons in his arsenal to unseat Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, including playing the Malay race card. But we never expected him to use resignation as a weapon!

His strategy for undermining Abdullah has been at two levels. He has attacked Abdullah at the national-leadership level by asking Umno leaders to pressure him to step down or to contest against him in the Umno general assembly, scheduled for December. He has also attacked Abdullah at the grassroots level by trying to instigate disenchanted Umno members to rebel against Abdullah.