COMMENT | The speculation that Bersatu chair Dr Mahathir Mohamad will be a candidate for opposition coalition Pakatan Harapan in the fast approaching 14th General Election (GE14) comes as no surprise.

In retrospect, the ease with which he gravitated to the No 1 position in the fledgling coalition would be startling only to those reluctant to credit steady purpose backed up by tenacity as factors explaining his success.

Few in Harapan's leadership cohort would dispute that their nonagenarian numero uno is the most industrious man in the coalition.

Several are belatedly aware that all that hard work is in the service of a steadiness of purpose which its author is not keen to expose prematurely, but who will instead allow to grow on the collective consciousness – like Japanese pellets that blossom into flowers after having lain under the surface of a cup of water.

A skilled deployer of Machiavellian courtcraft knows the value of surprise in keeping the attention of friend and foe alike fixed on the next move. A little disassembling helps in the achievement of that surprise.

That is how Mahathir went steadily and deliberately from being convenor of the Citizens' Declaration in March last year against Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak's alleged misrule, to leader of a four-party opposition coalition in July this year ranged against BN's evident misgovernance...