The unthinkable is happening in Malaysian politics. It is triggered by the deepest political crisis the country has ever known, at the centre of which is Prime Minister Najib Razak. Forced by a common desire to end the turmoil by unseating Najib, two bitter foes , former premier Mahathir Mohammad and his jailed former deputy Anwar Ibrahim , have joined hands in what was previously thought an impossible alliance.

Aptly described as a sea-change in Malaysian politics, never before have such sworn enemies buried the hatchet for a common cause , and never before has there been a joint cause celebre to sack a sitting prime minister. By launching his rainbow “core group” of politically diverse citizenry to “Save Malaysia”, Mahathir has once again thrust himself into the eye of the storm in a bid to redefine the political landscape. In the same vein, with Anwar in jail, all the disparate forces that have aligned themselves against Najib over the 1MDB investment fund scandal have finally found someone of stature to rally around. It is ironic that the man who crushed the opposition while in power has remade himself in retirement as the de facto leader of what in essence is a citizens’ revolt.

… Yang Razali Kassim is a senior fellow with the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS), Nanyang Technological University, Singapore.