In the early hours of yesterday, the opposition coalition called a joint press conference to announce a new leadership line-up. It sealed the growing Mahathir-Anwar alliance and capped the ground-moving reconciliation between the two former foes. It was a sensitively arranged “functional leadership” of compromise and mutual accommodation by all parties: Anwar was declared Ketua Umum or “de facto leader” of Pakatan Harapan, Dr Mahathir the chairman, and Anwar’s wife, Datuk Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail, the president.

Dr Mahathir has demonstrated once again that he remains shrewd and strategic in his moves despite his advancing age. He is single-minded and has been generating much buzz as he takes game-changing steps to achieve his ultimate goal of bringing down Datuk Seri Najib legitimately at the coming general election. He said in a blog post that he has made a U-turn on Umno because he has a mission to “destroy the demon” and in so doing, “found common ground with Anwar Ibrahim”.

… Yang Razali Kassim is Senior Fellow, S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore.