MP SPEAKS | The change in government which took place in February was painful for many reasons. For one, it overturned the mandate given by the voters to Pakatan Harapan in the 14th general election.

It was also a major setback for democracy in the country as many of the reforms initiated by the Harapan government will likely be ignored or even reversed under the Perikatan Nasional (PN) government.

Personally, it was painful to see former colleagues whom we campaigned with during the 14th GE and who stood with us against the kleptocratic BN government now sitting on the other side with some of the very people they vehemently criticised before.

But one may say that those who betrayed Harapan were politicians who were largely looking after their own personal interests. We could still rely on the non-politicians, technocrats and activists who were appointed by the Harapan government and could not be easily removed by the PN government. Or so we thought.

The decision by Azhar Azizan Harun, better known as Art, to...