“Success sometimes may be defined as a disaster put on hold. Qualified. Has to be.”
– Nadine Gordimer, ‘Get a Life’

COMMENT | Opposition political operative Nazri Abdul Aziz’s contention that he does not foresee Umno coming into power anytime soon but that an alliance with PKR is possible is an interesting comment for a variety of reasons.

Nazri the brigand/politician understands the game far better than most Umno political operatives, and with the party now in a state of post-traumatic stress, his maverick nature goes unchecked while the rest of his ilk run around like headless chickens.

Part of it is because Nazri is just at adept as slaying Malay sacred cows as he is nurturing them. He understands that Umno was merely the gravy train, and his rhetoric now is that since the train was derailed, why not just commandeer a new one for the betterment of the mainstream Malay political class?

Could this be part of the psy-war that Bayan Baru MP Sim Tze Tzin claims are the recent moves by Umno to form alliances with PKR (among others), the perceived weak link of Harapan?

It could be, but the reality is that as long as the Malay vote, unlike the Chinese and Indian votes, is not secured by the Malay power structures in Harapan, there will always be plays by Umno to destabilise the coalition, or even better – align with an insecure power structure.

An old friend, who was an early supporter of Dr Mahathir Mohamad joining the opposition, made it very clear early on that the goal of removing then-prime minister Najib Abdul Razak was paramount. The old maverick had intentions of reforming the system, but not Malay politics – a system which, my friend claimed, was too far down the...