Mahathir - does he understand the meaning of appology?

When ALP formed Government of Australia, taking over from the Liberal/National Coalition long term administration, one of the first acts of Prime Minister Rudd was to appologise to the Indigenious communities by improper government handling of the past...
extract of his words were "....To the Stolen Generations, I say the following: as Prime Minister of Australia, I am sorry. On behalf of the Government of Australia, I am sorry. On behalf of the Parliament of Australia, I am sorry. And I offer you this apology without qualification. We apologise for the hurt, the pain and suffering we, the parliament, have caused you by the laws that previous parliaments have enacted. We apologise for the indignity, the degradation and the humiliation these laws embodied. We offer this apology to the mothers, the fathers, the brothers, the sisters, the families and the communities whose lives were ripped apart by the actions of successive governments under successive parliaments. In making this apology, I would also like to speak personally to the members of the Stolen Generation and their families: to those here today, so many of you; to those listening across the nation"

There were mixture of reactions, mostly applauding, some still standing by theme of principal - why should the present Government, and more importantly the current PM appologise for misdeeds of another era, another government, another parliament...

I originally felt the same sentiment of the latter group - why should the PM appologise for something he himself was never party to.

But I later realised, that as a leader of a country, you can't heal rifts if you don't heal wounds. You sometimes have to become humble and appologise for another, so you can start getting people to cool down before they loose their heads completely and further flame the issue causing severe damage in long run.

But Mahathir doesn't think so. Mahathir has become this aloof and irresponsible person who doesn't realise the mechanism of community, and how an unproductive comment from one person in an organisation could reflect on the organisation in whole.

In the case of the DPM and the PM appologising for someone of their party, under their leadership, who has uttered poorly constructed remarks, I commend them. I commend them because they have the right idea to first calm things down. They have the right idea to set the record straight that the sentiments uttered by this individual, is not one shared by them or the party/community in general. The appology was their personal offering, and of their party, and I find it amusing that Mahathir would continue to politicise anything and find "shit to stir for lack of better expression", especially when he has no respect for the august body that kept him President for 22+ years.

Mahathir has been ranting about everything that PM Abdullah gets involved in, and keeps harping on PM Abdullah's corruption. But the best is he has not come out to make an official complaint and report to support his accusations. What is the evidence he so makes these claims on then?

And I find it disgusting certain groups of Malaysians have jumped on this bandwagon, and rather ask Mahathir to declare those evidence, just blindly support him and criticise the PM.

So what say you - Should Mahathir put his money where his mouth is, or should he be allowed to continue his unproductive rantings?

(Ravi)