Before we rush out and distribute medals left, right and centre to Prime Minister Ahmad Abdullah Badawi for his recent truly magnanimous gesture in offering to apologise if he had erred in holding that his son had not won government contracts or other munificence for his company Scomi, let us remember what exactly the issue here is.

The question of whether the prime minister is suffering any lapses to his memory is not what the country is really concerned with, though of course we would grieve if he were to be afflicted with any deficiencies to his faculties.

What we would like to know is what the prime minister would do if it were discovered that he had indeed made a mistake and that his son's company had indeed enjoyed the government's generosity.

Would the prime minister then institute an enquiry as to whether contracts and other business that Scomi had received from the government were achieved through transparent 'arm's length' transactions?

And if they were not, what action would the PM take? Until then, the jury must stay out.