Drama behind former strongman's decline

THE sun has long set on the political career of Tun Taib Mahmud but who could have imagined that the final stage of the former Sarawak governor and chief minister's life journey would be playing out publicly in such a dramatic fashion?

Once the most powerful man in Sarawak – and arguably the richest too – Taib, 87, is lying helpless in a hospital bed, being treated for undisclosed ailments as rumours swirl about the feud between his biological children and his glamorous Syrian-born wife Toh Puan Raghad Kurdi Taib, 44.