COMMENT If Malaysia's politics is stalemated between an Umno-BN that is reflexively – though not monolithically – for Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak to continue in office and an opposition which knows that the longer he stays the more decrepit the system becomes, then the avenue is open to a compromise that will ease the country out of its present economic and political malaise.

Both sides must think anew and act anew for the stakes are no less than the pulling back of the country from the precipice on which it is precariously perched.

For cooperation between BN dissenters and an opposition united on renoving Najib, the two sides need to relent on core demands and meet halfway.