Did PAS GO SOLO?
The most recent addition to the rebellion cost against the Bersatu president may provoke PAS to reconsider the government’s continuity.
As soon as it acknowledges that the alliance partners no longer disadvantage them, PAS is accustomed to doing this, just like they did with UMNO under Muafakat Nasional in 2022 and with Pakatan Harapan under Muafakat Nasional in 2015.
The only thing keeping PAS from succeeding is whether it can bridge the command space with its leaders, such as Syahir Sulaiman and Ahmad Samsuri Mokhtar, to stop it from reverting to a regional party.
How PAS sees this alliance relationship working out, even if it was lost, was revealed by the new Nenggiri by-election.
Nenggiri was an incumbent Bersatu couch, but PAS parachuted its member and marginalized Bersatu’s suggested brands. It also dropped the PN symbol in favour of its brand green-and-white.
A weakened criticism would be the end result of a PN separation or dissolution, making a general election political turnover more difficult than it already is.
James Chai is a journalist, social scientist, and author of Sang Kancil for Penguin Random House.