“The masses never revolt of their own accord, and they never revolt merely because they are oppressed. Indeed, so long as they are not permitted to have standards of comparison, they never even become aware that they are oppressed.”

- George Orwell, 1984

COMMENT | The recent by-election loss in Kimanis has brought out the usual platitudes from Pakatan Harapan. For the record, I believe that Sabah Umno played the “all politics is local” card better Warisan. We need to redouble our efforts, said embattled prime minister-in-waiting Anwar Ibrahim. Which begs the question, redouble Harapan’s efforts in doing what exactly?

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad said policies take time to implement, which has not stopped the Harapan political apparatus from engaging in all manner of subterfuges and chicanery to impede the process of reform in this country.

The reality is that Harapan has until the next general election in 2023 to demonstrate that they can manipulate the system to their advantage and leverage that for another term. This is the realpolitik of it...