Umno deputy youth head Khairy Jamaluddin declined to comment on any of the accusations levelled at him by Dr Mahathir Mohamad in his row with Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi and his administration.

"I'm sorry... I'm not granting any interviews to anybody right now," was all he would say when contacted by malaysiakini today.

Malaysiakini was keen to interview Khairy to seek his side of the story pertaining to allegations by Mahathir that the former was indirectly involved in the crisis between the former and present premiers.

Mahathir, in a dialogues session last Saturday at Taman Melawati, Hulu Kelang, said there were certain parties at the fourth floor of the Prime Minister's Department who were more powerful than the office of the prime minister itself.

Cynical references

Mahathir did not mention any names, but said the parties housed on the fourth floor were graduates of Oxford and Cambridge.

Dr Mahathir's cynical references to these Oxford and Cambridge graduates were made no less than five times during the question-and-answer session of the dialogue.

The said group was also alleged to be influential in the operations of government-linked-companies (GLC), where their advice had to be followed before any business-related decisions were made.

In the nearly two-hour dialogue, Mahathir insinuated that Abdullah had not made any important decisions for the nation but had depended on the advice of other parties - referring to Khairy and his group.