COMMENT The background to the formation of the Pakatan Rakyat government in Perak in the initial days of uncertainty following the coalition’s slim plurality in the March 8, 2008, general election is not well known.

Generally, people with some knowledge of the events are not inclined to talk about them.

This is because the tumult of February the following year, when the Nizar Jamaluddin-led Pakatan government was deposed and replaced by a BN administration, cancelled out in importance the events of 11 months before...