COMMENT | Earlier, on Jan 2, 2020, sensing that the temperature was worryingly high, Lim Kit Siang met PKR president Anwar Ibrahim and expressed DAP’s support for him to be prime minister.

However, Kit Siang also advised him not to push for the May date – two years of Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s premiership as the date for handover. There was never an agreement to commit to any date.

Kit Siang, instead, asked Anwar to create conditions for a successful transition after the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) summit. A smooth transition would ensure that Dr Mahathir’s camp would not feel left out in the government after he leaves.

As January progressed, more and more leading PKR figures beyond the usual suspects of Hassan Karim and Abdullah Sani were pushing for the May transition date.

Those in Mahathir’s camp admitted that they could tolerate Hassan and Abdullah, accepting Anwar’s explanation that he wasn’t able to control them. But when more of Anwar’s close aides came forward to push for the specific date in May, the more ‘evidence’ it gave the plotters to blame Anwar’s putsch, legitimising their ‘counter-coup’ of a Malay-government with 130 MPs.

The air was tense, and one could eerily feel that something would happen...