After maintaining his ‘elegant silence’ for a few days, Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi has announced that the “relevant ministries and agencies” would reply to the questions raised by former premier Dr Mahathir Mohamad in the latter’s public criticisms against him. This could be interpreted as another round of success for Mahathir.

Given his previous predicament of being blacked out or obscured by the mainstream media, Mahathir had succeeded last week in breaking out on the media front.

	Public accountability
	Abdullah’s fragile power base