COMMENT | This is something everyone knows but no one wants to talk about: Pakatan Harapan is long dead. The coalition we know as Harapan today exists in name only; there are no substantive or strategic reasons to continue. After losing multiple by-elections by huge margins, and now, a state-wide election in Sabah, Harapan’s morale and support levels are at an all-time low.

Harapan’s mainstay is that they are victims of a treacherous act by a backdoor government. At the federal level and four state levels (Kedah, Melaka, Johor, Perak), the loose and informal Perikatan Nasional (PN) coalition has taken power from Harapan, mainly through a series of defections.

While the moral claim and justice hymns were certainly valid from Harapan, they were not appealing to voters. The by-elections and the Sabah state election seem to indicate this. Voters seem to express a sense of regret and loss for having chosen Harapan in the past; that is why they are returning to the stable coalition of PN (a variation of the former BN coalition).

If Harapan was a car, its exterior, interior, and the road ahead seems broken. There is not much to hope for and it is running on its final few miles before it is taken to the scrapyard...