COMMENT | When it comes to being popular and winning votes, no holds are barred. No, not the many empty promises that politicians make and will continue to make, but admissions of treachery, skullduggery, and callousness.

To some of them, it does not matter how they seek and gain power, even if it means literally sticking a dagger in the backs of their friends or foes.

When occupying the seat of power is the ultimate gain, principles, ideologies, morality, and even simple values elude and delude them.

Last week, like a gladiator who had slain his enemies, PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang said he was the prime mover behind the Sheraton Move political coup in 2020, which brought down the Pakatan Harapan government.

Shamelessly, he said he initiated the move to stop Harapan and discussed how to oust the coalition with Bersatu president Muhyiddin Yassin and later with Umno leaders.

“After three of us came to a consensus, Muhyiddin announced that Bersatu was leaving Harapan. That’s when I proposed that he be made the next prime minister,” HarakahDaily reported Hadi as saying at an ummah unity event in Kota Bharu, Kelantan.

But this is not the complete picture. There were...