The stakes are running high for the embattled minister of international trade and industry to come clean after her former mentor accused her publicly of being a liar and misleading the Umno general assembly with regards to who are the real beneficiaries of the AP goldmine .

Surely under Pak Lah's watch, where transparency and accountability are being preached, we cannot have a longstanding minister tell tall tales and lies to cover her tracks with regards to the approving of APs permits for a few individuals who then have raked in millions of ringgit by selling the same to the highest bidders to import foreign cars to our shores.

Even Rafidah Aziz's own party members didn't believe her when she was on the rostrum at the assembly defending her policy. She was heckled and booed. If your own kind doesn't believe you, why should the rest of the nation swallow what you say as the gospel truth?

This kind of betrayal is unpardonable as we are talking about national pride here, where our national car - which cost billions of ringgit to build - is under threat because of poor sales with foreign vehicles eating up its market share.

The war of words between a former mentor and one-time protge has opened a can of worms with regards to how people with connections can become rich and famous - not by hard work but by selling APs to third parties.

From the lists given so far, you can't find any ordinary Ahmad, Ah Chong or Muthu who are recipients; only those with connections are the privileged few who got the privileges.

Pak Lah now seems to be between the devil and the deep blue sea after he said he agreed with the removal of the former premier's blue-eyed boy Tengku Mahaleel Ariff as the Proton head.. The former premier says that even established giant automobile companies faced severe financial difficulties at one time.

What he forgot to mention were that these companies are private entities that do not depend on public funds to prop up their business. And if they close shop, only the shareholders and investors suffer a loss and not the public at large.

The former Proton chief was removed from office because he had stepped on too many 'top toes'. One can only wonder aloud if the international trade and industry minister will fall from her wagon and retire prematurely because of the AP controversy. We are all avidly tuned to the this real life reality show.