When Chou En-Lai (China's premier under Mao Tze Tung) was once asked to comment on how successful the French Revolution (1789-1792) had been, he simply quipped "It's too early to tell."

Abdullah Ahmad Badawi began his third week in office yesterday. Nevertheless, there has been plenty of articles and commentary written both in malaysiakini and elsewhere (see Manjit Bhatia's 'Altered Stakes' in the Asia Times ) variously urging the PM to liberalise and carry out certain reforms, or criticising his failure to do so immediately upon assuming the office.

Let this be clear: there's no doubt that this tanah air of ours needs to be freed from the shackles which former premier Dr Mahathir Mohamad has put in place during his premiership. But also let us be pragmatic. The two most important things for Pak Lah to secure is a general election victory and the presidency of Umno.

Everything else is secondary at this stage. My guess is that's why no deputy prime minister has been appointed, no reshuffle has taken place in the cabinet, director-generalships in the civil service extended (but only for six months), the double tracking railway contract is still going to a Mahathir-favoured Umno-prenuer. The general message seems to be 'business as usual'.

Readers familiar with Mario Puzo's Godfather (or the movie version by Francis Ford Coppola) will understand that you keep your friends close to you, but your enemies, even closer. In the Art of War , Sun-Tzu very sensibly suggested that one should only fight battles that can be won.

The current prime minister is in no position to cast off his enemies when he has a general election on his hands. When he has achieved his two primary objectives, then we shall truly see whether the new emperor has any clothes.

Of course, I could simply be dead wrong. But I, like many of you, hope not. I take encouragement from the prime minister's little acts in the past fortnight. Just to recap: the reduction of bureaucracy in the civil service, the order to ensure that all government bills are paid within 30 days, the clear message to BN leaders to be honest, the order to stop kompangs , lion dances and garlands at government functions, and the appointment of an inspector-general of police who has never served with the special branch.

One can say this is gesture politics. They may be, but I do not want to be the one to tell that to any of the government's suppliers, who now no longer have to be an indeterminate interest free credit provider to the government anymore.

Also, if these were so meaningless, why didn't 22 years of the previous premiership do anything about it? In fact, the previous premiership began with a bang and the slogan ' Cekap, Bersih dan Amanah ' and lo! it has taken 22 years for his predecessor to implement the most basic form of that slogan. Let's hope the 'business as usual' slogan is equally as deceiving.

No, I do not predict a great premiership for Abdullah - the excesses of the Mahathir era would take more than one person to rectify (if at all). But he could have a credible one and in order to do that, he needs to get his mandate, from all of us as well as the kaki Umnos.

Whether you want him get that mandate or not is obviously another question. For fence sitters like myself, this man is worth a punt. After all, if the doomsayers are right, nothing will change anyway. So Pak Lah's report card should simply carry the remark: "It's too early to tell".