Mustapha Ong's letter (' Give Pak Lah time to prove himself ') raises two interesting points, i.e, are we getting too excited with our new broom which promises to sweep clean and should we move on with regards to our former PM and be grateful for tender mercies and stop criticising him.

With regards to the first point, I would tend to lean towards Mustapha and give the benefit of the doubt to Pak Lah for now. After all, Rome was not built in a day and dismantling any 'corrupt' system built up over 20 odd years takes time. In justifying the need to change, shortcomings of the present way of doing things will inevitably be exposed and some degree of sensitivity in its handling is necessary.

While it is easy to be skeptical as Martin Jalleh is, what is still unclear is Pak Lah's sincerity and commitment to see things through. Perhaps it is just a 'show' with an eye for the coming elections, but then again one can also argue that it is not practical nor possible to change overnight. The fact is we will be kept guessing until after the elections and then it will be too late for some.

Pak Lah has made a good start in scrapping the RM14.5 billion double-tracking project and linking it to the importance of a balanced budget. However there are still projects such as the crooked bridge, incinerator, Bakun daml in the pipeline, and perhaps he needs the RM14 billion to finance projects such as these.

I feel there are two priority areas that Pak Lah can reform without waiting and will be strong pointers as to his sincerity in the long run. These are in the state of our police force and restoring our faith in the independence of the judiciary. Suffice to say, we do not have to tell him what to do and we will all know it when we see it.

As to the second point raised about leaving Mahathir alone, it is only through admitting our mistakes and shortcomings can we expect to improve, and I'm afraid Dr M is fair fodder at the moment in spite of the 'good things' that he has done for us.