“The fall of one regime does not bring in a utopia. Rather, it opens the way for hard work and long efforts to build more just social, economic and political relationships and the eradication of other forms of injustices and oppression.”

- Gene Sharp, "From Dictatorship to Democracy"

COMMENT | A recently retired diplomat who worked for BN, Pakatan Harapan and limped along for Perikatan Nasional, posed the question which is the title of this piece.

We have to ask, who is doing the hoping, here? When Harapan political operatives talk about how Malaysians voted for “change” this was not really reflected in who the majority of Malaysians voted for.

However elections have consequences and the fact that Harapan could have carried out a reform agenda but chose not to, is now being framed as Harapan did not have much time or to blame Dr Mahathir Mohamad.

Keep in mind that Harapan political operatives were assuring everyone that they had methods to restrain the old maverick before the election. But you know what, and this is the dirty little secret, there were many Harapan non-Malay political operatives who actually approved of Mahathir and were skeptical of Anwar Ibrahim.

Harapan framed the dethroning of Umno/BN as some sort of apocalyptic showdown. When they were in power, they spent most of the time backtracking on their campaign promises and gaslighting the people who voted for them that all was kosher in the coalition...