COMMENT The idea of a shadow cabinet has been around for nearly as long as the opposition coalition, Pakatan Rakyat's, now seven-year existence.

This is too short a gestation period for this idea to be birthed: Pakatan's overall ideological incoherence and the factional tensions and fissures within two (PKR and PAS) of its three components prevent the coalition from attaining the critical mass that would make a shadow cabinet a logical step in its maturation.

We have only just got used to the idea that there can be an opposition coalition with enough popular support to successively deny the ruling coalition a two-thirds majority in Parliament.

We are now getting used to the experience that this coalition can fight among themselves and still hold credibly enough together to win a by-election in a seat where the state leadership of one of the component partners was hostile to the notion of supporting the candidate selected to defend the Pakatan-held ward...