Former Malaysian prime minister Mahathir Mohamad was stable and showing signs of impatience on Tuesday near the end of a crucial three-day period after surgery for a chest infection. Mahathir, 82, who ruled Malaysia for 22 years until 2003, went back into the operating theatre at Kuala LumpurÂ’s National Heart Institute around midnight last Saturday to have infected tissue cut out of his chest after a recent heart bypass. Despite his retirement, Mahathir remains an influential political figure, even though he has fallen out with his successor, Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, over policy changes made since his retirement. Mahathir underwent a quadruple bypass, his second heart operation, on Sept. 4 and was reported to be recovering well before he suddenly went back into intensive care in recent days. MahathirÂ’s Sept. 4 operation was his second since 1989, and followed two heart attacks over the past 10 months.