Abdullah Ahmad Badawi's tenure in office over the first 100 days seems to be on the right track. His fight against graft in the government sector appears to bear fruit judging by daily news reports on civil servants being charged with corruption.

The captains of industry are feeling the heat and hopefully the arrest of the Perwaja ex-boss will mark the beginning of other top guns being forced to account for their abuse of power while they were heading their respective companies. Let the fear of being charged in court send a chill down their spines as transparency and accountability seems to be the new mantra of the present government.

I am sure the majority of the Malaysian public support Abdullah's determination to fight graft as we do not want to be a nation which lacks values and character in our quest to be a first-class nation with a first-class infrastructure, a first-class civil service and a first-class private sector.

As the captain of the new ship, Abdullah should know that leadership quality and integrity should start from the top and if the top brass is clean, the rest will follow suit. Can we expect top politicians, who are not clean and live a lifestyle way beyond their means, to face the music too?

Let us hope that the premier has the strength of character not to shield those who are guilty of causing untold billions of public monies to go down the drain. This will show that our prime minister is willing to walk the talk and practise what he preaches, and let us pray that the Almighty will give him the best of health in order to lead us to a more modern and civilised nation that we aspire to be.

Pak Lah, keep up the good work in re-engineering the government service and to cut red tape and graft as it will ensure the common people will give you a strong mandate in the coming election.