PENANG: Using legalist or technical language to explain Malaysian politics in the significant and tumultuous year of 2020 is not really going to capture the essence of what has been unfolding over the last eight months.
A longer historical vantage point, coupled with the immediate recognition that political opportunism is most rampant when a power structure is at the point of collapse, may be more illuminating.
Viewing Putrajaya intrigues as moves in a chess game may be more helpful; with the caveat that what we have been observing may look like end games but are really ones not meant so much to decide the winner as to keep the game going.
The question that begs to be asked then is, “What is that game?”
The ease with which the Pakatan Harapan (PH) government was brought down in February did not only showcase the heightened risk-taking propensity of Malaysian politicians whose future is in great doubt. It also acts as a stinging reminder that PH came into power 22 months earlier via a critical and compromising shift in its self-image.
Having gone from strength to strength since its surprising success in the 2008 elections, the reformist coalition did not however appear to have the energy or conviction to go all the way and actually topple Barisan Nasional (BN) on the strength of its credibility and its reform agenda.
At that point, the return of Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamed and his newly founded party, Bersatu, seemed to be the missing ingredient it needed.
And so, PH decided to work with - and to trust - Mahathir Mohamed. Especially for Anwar Ibrahim’s family, that move was a hard one to make, particularly when it also meant that Mahathir would again become Prime Minister.
