5 greatest rivalries of ALL TIME!

Something that surprised us all the other day: Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak and Opposition Leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim sitting down together in the MPs' Lounge in Parliament, for a friendly teh tarik and chit chat.

Apparently the PM and the PM-hopeful shared jokes and had "a jovial conversation about Najib's daughter". Rather congenial for bitter political rivals, eh?

While we applaud such gestures of compromise - even if they appear to be PR-motivated, with little real political outcomes - we think this a great opportunity to look at some of history's greatest rivalries:

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The Yalta Conference

This meeting, between Winston Churchill, Franklin D Roosevelt, and Josef Stalin, was held in the closing months of World War 2. In it, certain of victory, the Allies and Soviet Russia negotiated an agenda for governing post-war Germany.

Essentially, they were divvying up Europe at this tete-a-tete-a-tete, and preparing the world for a 45-year-long Cold War. It was the start of the definitive rivalry in all of human history.

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India versus Pakistan, in cricket

The rivalry between these two nationalist scions in a sport introduced to them by the British Raj is legendary.

After the partition of India, the two countries have fought over the disputed Kashmir region; their nuclear weapons programmes have little purpose but to one-up each other. Cricket, therefore, is a way for both to work off a little steam. But the matches are bitter, and defeat unacceptable to either side. Watching an India-Pakistan test is like watching war.

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Road Runner versus Wile E Coyote

Michael Maltese and Chuck Jones made "Fast and Furry-ous" in the late 1940s; it was a beginning of the skinny Coyote's endless, pathetic quest to catch the Road Runner, a quick and uncaring force of nature. You could see the cartoon shorts as a metaphor for humanity's hopeless striving against things it, ultimately, cannot control, if you were so inclined.

Apparently, Coyote's faced Bugs Bunny, too, in a short called "Operation: Bunny" in 1952.

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Muhammad Ali versus Joe Frazier

The third and final match between boxing legends Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier happened in Quezon City on 1 October 1975; the so-called Thrilla in Manila was the culmination of an intense rivalry between Ali and Smokin' Joe.

After their 1971 bout, in which Ali experienced the first defeat of his career, Ali began a continuous campaign of spite against Joe in the media, calling his opponent an "ugly dumb gorilla" and "Uncle Tom". Unfair, to say the least: Joe was raised in the deep South, and had faced racial discrimination to a degree which Ali wasn't familiar; further, Joe had been one of the main supporters of Ali's fight to have his boxing license restored, after it was suspended because Ali dodged the Vietnam War draft.

The Thrilla in Manila lasted an epic 14 rounds, permanently scarred both men, and inspired the fight scene in Rocky.

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Malaysian PMs versus Lee Kuan Yew

It began with Tunku Abdul Rahman, under whose Prime Minister-ship Lee Kuan Yew withdrew Singapore from the Malaysian federation. It was an issue of state-federal relations: Singapore was unhappy with the affirmative action of the Malay special rights; its burgeoning economic importance worried UMNOrites who foresaw political power shifting away from Kuala Lumpur. The Malaysian Parliament voted to expel Singapore in 1965 with a 126-to-zero vote.

It continued under Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad. Things were dandy, at the beginning. But after 1984, with Malaysia imposing levies on goods coming through Singapore, things began to go downhill. The Tanjong Pagar-Woodlands customs spat, the Crooked Bridge - it went all the way until Mahathir stepped down.

It's quite obvious that neither of the old men like each other, much, to this day.

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We know we've left out some notable ones: Karl Lagerfeld and Yves Saint Laurent; Tupac Shakur and Notorious B.I.G. Any more, people?

(Photos from One India and NY Daily News)