The tug of war on who has the final say over Approved Permits (AP) for importing automobiles has the Opposition Leader Lim Kit Siang seeing stars.

On Thursday, International Trade and Industry Minister Rafidah Aziz who was re-appointed to the same portfolio in a cabinet reshuffle on Monday re-asserted that she was "still in charge of (matters pertaining to) AP".

The next day, she was rebutted by Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi who clarified that it was a committee in the Prime Minister's Department chaired by his deputy Najib Tun Razak that is responsible for considering and deciding on polices relating to APs.

"I am utterly confused. I had originally directed my question on APs (for the coming parliamentary sitting) to the Prime Minister's Department, and had altered it to Miti after Rafidah's clarification. Should the question be now re-directed to the Prime Minister's Department?" asked Lim.

However, Lim believed that Rafidah is equally as confused as to who is really in charge of APs as he is.

"Was Rafidah being insufferably arrogant and contemptuous of the prime minister's prerogatives in publicly trying to hijack back her powers and responsibilities over APs for vehicles, or was she just confused as to what are her actual powers and responsibilities on the matter?" asked Lim.

Mutated parliamentary democracy

Last year, Rafidah received an intense shelling, from various quarters including her Umno counterparts, over how a large number of APs were given to only a handful of individuals .

In another development, Lim requested Abdullah to clarify the mechanism used for monitoring the performance of cabinet members.

He added that even though such a system would place the prime minister as the "first among equals" and allow him to wield a tighter grip on his cabinet ministers, the system would have to be carefully implemented.

"If Abdullah is serious about such a monitoring committee, Malaysia may be the first Commonwealth country with a system of parliamentary democracy under going such a mutation," he said.