When Tengku Razaleigh, one-time foe of Dr Mahathir Mohamad, formed his own political party after being kicked out of UMNO, he said, even if he died and was reborn, he would never rejoin UMNO.

That's known as burning your bridges behind you. What this means, basically, there is no going back. You move forward or you die.

Tengku Razaleigh DID turn back though. Now he is back in UMNO and a spent political force. The Malays have a phrase for this. They call it licking back one's own spit - a most apt phrase if ever I did hear one.

Was he foe turned ally? I doubt it! Tengku Razaleigh saw that he could not beat Mahathir from the outside. Two general elections had shown him this. So he thought it best to now try from the inside - the only way Mahathir could be brought down. But it did not happen, as Tengku Razaleigh developed a bad case of eleventh hour cold feet.

Mahathir, however, never regarded Razaleigh as the prodigal son returning. To him Razaleigh was still as venomous as when they first parted company in the late 1980s. Mahathir was about to make his move on Anwar Ibrahim and he did not want Razaleigh on the outside where he could team up with Anwar and form a potent opposition. Mahathir's sentiments are simple - keep your friends close and your enemies even closer.

In fact, this was the very reason Mahathir brought Anwar into the government in the first place. On the outside Anwar posed a very serious threat to him. Inside the government Anwar could do little harm. That was, until Anwar decided to clean up the country and allow the deadwood to drift. That's when Mahathir had to remove Anwar lest all Mahathir's family and friends get "drifted off".

I suppose this shows one thing - Mahathir is surrounded by deadwood. You would imagine, for a leader of Mahathir's caliber he would know how to find better friends, though there is little one can do about one's family. But then, if he did, would Mahathir be surrounded by the likes of Abdullah Ang, Tan Sri Ibrahim, Tan Koon Swan, Eric Chia, and so on - personalities faced with charges of bad faith when it comes to money?

Razaleigh is not the only one who burns his bridges behind them. Mahathir does this too.

When Mahathir lost the state of Kelantan to the opposition in 1990, he took it out on the Sultan who was known to have openly supported the opposition. The Sultan's wife is, in fact, a cousin of Tengku Razaleigh.

This backfired badly as it antagonised the people of Kelantan even more. At one stage, during a standoff between the Sultan and the Federal government over some alleged unpaid customs duties on an imported car, the people started a collection drive to pay the government the three million Ringgit being demanded.

It is not that the Sultan did not have the three million, mind you. It is just that the people of Kelantan wanted to show the government they are behind their Sultan. After all, with a population of more than one million Kelantanese, all it required was three Ringgit per person to make up the amount. And the Kelantanese are known to be quite wealthy due to their enterprising nature.

That totally destroyed any relationship the Federal government may have had with the state. From then on it was downhill all the way for UMNO in Kelantan.

Then Mahathir did the same with Anwar. He moved in on Anwar with such brutality that it divided the Malays quite badly. In fact, the Malays are worse than divided, as more are on the other side than the government's side. This made the ruling coalition very dependent on the non-Malays.

Mahathir made the gap wider when he accused the Malays of being emotional and he called the Chinese pragmatic. Then he said there would be no Malay academicians if not for the New Economic Policy, and this made the Malay Professors very angry. They had just been told they are where they are because of the government and not because they are any good.

Instead of bringing the Malays back, Mahathir was sending them farther away. Mahathir was antagonising the Malays more and more every time he opened his mouth.

One thing that gave Mahathir sleepless nights was the thought of losing the state of Terengganu. Kelantan was okay. That state had no money, and all the government had to do was squeeze the state by holding back any money due to it. And they did - though this only made the Kelantanese hate the Federal government more.

Terengganu State, however, was rich. On the 5% oil royalty it was getting it was earning between 600 to 800 million Ringgit a year. While the opposition could not develop Kelantan properly in the ten years they were in power, they could do wonders in Terengganu, especially if they manage their resources better than the last government had.

But Mahathir was not about to let Terengganu enjoy this money. If the people wanted the opposition to rule the state fine, but they would have to do it without any money.

One thing Mahathir fails to realise is, the opposition would not have made such inroads in Terengganu if not for the fact that more than 90% of the civil servants are with the opposition. Holding back the state's oil royalty will not frighten them into coming back to the ruling party. It will only push them farther away.

What Mahathir is doing to the state of Terengganu is the last straw. That would mean UMNO is finished for good, just like in the state of Kelantan. This would pose a danger to UMNO in the other "Malay states" like Pahang, Kedah and Perlis, and, maybe, Johor too.

Mahathir's policy is, if I cannot win your support then I will destroy you. He did it to Kelantan. He did it to Anwar Ibrahim. He is now doing it to Terengganu. But one thing that Mahathir may not have figured out in all this is he may be doing it to the Malays as well.

One must not forget that there is a common denominator in all this, and that is the Malays. Kelantan is Malay. Terengganu is Malay. And Anwar is Malay.

Maybe Mahathir HAS figured this out. That is probably why, after wooing the Chinese and condemning the Malays, Mahathir has suddenly turned around and put the Chinese in a spot. For once, since 1969, the Chinese do not know how to react.

The Chinese know Mahathir is using them to regain Malay support. But it is being done in a dangerous manner, as there may be a backlash if Malay sentiments are raised too high and get out of control.

Mahathir runs a great risk here. He has lost the Malays. Now he risks losing the Chinese as well. But that is okay if, in the process, he wins back the Malays. What may happen is, he loses the Chinese but still does not win back the Malays. This way he loses both.

Maybe Mahathir has been burning too many bridges behind him. After awhile there are no more bridges left. Mahathir needs a change of strategy. Instead of burning bridges he should try crossing them instead. But that's not Mahathir. He is too proud a man for that. If not, would he resist admitting he was wrong in the Anwar case? 

This may be what eventually brings Mahathir down - his pride. But then, is this not also what has brought other greater men than Mahathir down before this?

The next eighteen months are going to be exciting times for Malaysia. Stayed tuned for more from this small country of 22 million that acts like a superpower.

RAJA PETRA KAMARUDIN