Exactly three years ago, Abdullah Ahmad Badawi took over as prime minister and then went on to lead the Barisan Nasional (BN) to a landslide victory in the 2004 general election.

Malaysiakini asked several personalities to comment on his performance since then, by grading the impact of his tenure. Here is what they said.

Lim Kit Siang, Parliamentary Opposition leader

I don't think he has made the grade in terms of fulfilling his reform pledge during the general election. Although there is a greater sense of freedom and openness now compared to Dr Mahathir Mohamad's administration, by and large the basic institution and structures have not changed and things can still roll back.

Of course there is a difference in comparing the first three years of Pak Lah's tenure with Mahathir's last three years. In the first three years of Mahathir's tenure, greater openness, transparency and integrity were pledged and it all went to naught after a term. This could be a replay of a cycle and that would be a great disappointment.

He should have brought in institutional and structural changes. The worst that we saw in Mahathir's premiership can happen if the system is the same. So the system must be changed first, so that cannot happen.

I don't think I want to give him a grade because it's difficult to pinpoint the pass mark. So I would say he has not made it past the pass mark.

Zaid Ibrahim, Kota Bahru MP

There are many things to look at. The government has announced the need for transparency, accountability and openness. However, I wish he had taken a lot more action after those statements, policies and groundwork.

I think the spat with Mahathir has taken a toll on him and he has been kept busy. It is unfortunate when you have a crisis or a challenge, it detracts you from what you should be spending time on. There's nothing new with Pak Lah's replies to Mahathir, and Pak Lah should put it to rest by implementing those policies and not get distracted.

It is difficult to grade Pak Lah because he inherited a system that has been in place for many years. It's not easy being attacked and challenged in a formidable way by Mahathir. People, at the end of the day, want to see different ways in dealing with transparency, meritocracy, economy and so on.

This is what he needs to do and it's also what Mahathir wants him to do, so he should just do it. Pak Lah needs to respond by doing what he has set out to do in the first place, otherwise it would not change.

Sivarasa Rasiah, Parti Keadilan Rakyat vice-president

Well, it depends on what criteria I'm grading him on. Since he is a politician I will look at this from the promises he has made and his delivery of those promises.

In March 2004, he pledged many structural, legislative and institutional reforms and people supported BN then. However, actual reform - like reform of the police - did not happen. After two years we are still waiting for it.

He did see to changes he promised like court procedures and the Criminal Code which is good. But in terms of basic things like safeguarding our human rights under the constitution, we're still stuck under the repressive framework that Pak Lah inherited.

In short, he has failed to see through any real and substantive changes. We cannot measure changes by the slightly more open atmosphere in the country but by the changes in the system and laws. Hence I would fail him for not delivering his promises.

Professor Hamdan Adnan, former human rights commissioner

His campaign election to stamp out corruption is still problematic. That then affects our level of integrity as that has a lot to do with corruption as well. After three years, he still lags far behind in terms of achieving election promises. As for the economy, despite what Bank Negara says, business people still say the economy is sluggish.

On human rights, we can commend the government for giving RM100 million a year to the Orang Asli, but their plight is still bad and needs improvement. Overall, the Ninth Malaysia Plan is going to be his baby and we hope that he can work something out there.

We should support him because he needs it. He also needs to improve his PR because being nice is not enough. He needs to be assertive and not to be seen as compromising all the time. He should be seen as taking clear action. He gives out warnings but things are still not better, he needs to see it through and not pay lip service.

I would give him a B minus.