Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi was to deliver the knock-out blow in his on-going spat with former boss Dr Mahathir Mohamad in his highly billed television interview two days ago.

But Opposition Leader Lim Kit Siang was far from impressed with the prime minister's breaking of "his inelegant silence".

On Monday night, Abdullah went on air to defend charges of incompetency, corruption and nepotism by his critics, chief among whom was former premier Mahathir.

Lim was particularly ticked off by Abdullah's football analogy in the interview - which was also aired on state television RTM1 yesterday - in arguing that it was still too early to judge his three-year-old premiership.

In the interview, Abdullah said: "If I take the field in a football game, and after 10 minutes, I am judged for my performance, how can that be?"

Lim, who considered the analogy "most inappropriate", argued that in countries such as Australia, the term of office lasts for three years as general elections are held at least once every three years.

"Going by the football analogy, is Abdullah seriously suggesting that he should only be judged when the full 90 minutes of the football game had been played ... which is another 22 years and eight months?"

Half-time's up

He said that compared to the second and third prime ministers - Abdul Razak and Hussein Onn - Abdullah had already passed the half-time mark.

Abdul Razak served as prime minister for five years and five months from September 1970 to January 1976 when he died of leukaemia, and Hussein served for five years and seven months from January 1976 to July 1981 when he stepped down due to ill health.

"Abdullah cannot therefore credibly argue that it is too early for his premiership to be subject to scrutiny or to be judged as he had only been '10 minutes in a football game' unless he is claiming that he should be judged on a basis of a premiership which is even longer than Mahathir's 22 years three months!"

Lim said he was "shocked" that Abdullah had been so ill-advised as to use the football analogy, which could only be interpreted as an attempt to evade scrutiny and accountability.

More to fear

The veteran politician also argued that Abdullah should be answering not only the issues raised by Mahathir, but "even more important, the people's questions why he has failed to deliver his reform pledges of a clean, incorruptible, efficient, open, accountable and just government" despite winning by a landslide in the 2004 general election.

He added that Abdullah has more to fear from his sycophants than his critics.

"Those who had advised Abdullah for two months to keep to his 'elegant silence' ... and those who are telling him that he had fully and satisfactorily explained all that needs to be explained in his TV3 interview are doing the prime minister a great disservice."

Lim said that the spectacle of ministers, who one after another tried to convince Malaysians that "everything has been explained" and urge everyone to accept Abdullah's explanations, showed that there is a "grave credibility gap that has begun to haunt the Abdullah premiership".

The opposition leader described the taped interview, which was recorded last Friday in Abdullah's official residence in Putrajaya, as "tame".