COMMENT | On the eve of elections, the opposition Pakatan Harapan is being attacked – not because of PKR or Amanah - but strangely DAP, where questions are being raised over the possible dropping of so-called principled candidates, such as Ong Kian Ming and Charles Santiago, from MP seats.

The argument goes that such “cleansing” of MPs who might cause potential problems to the party leadership is necessary if DAP were to seek an alliance of sorts with Umno Baru/BN if that coalition does not get enough seats to form a government and Harapan too does not get a majority at the 15th general elections (GE15).

As far-fetched as such a scheme appears to reasonable people, far more incongruous alliances have been made in the past - witness that between Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s Bersatu then and Harapan which put bitter Mahathir foes, such as Anwar Ibrahim and Lim Kit Siang, on the same side as Mahathir.

We all know what happened later when the wily old fox played out the younger two and a whole lot of Malaysians were over-excited by the likely alliance - so impossible that any impartial observer had to conclude that a chance of break-up was very high. After all, Mahathir is not in the habit of playing second fiddle.

The current situation in DAP is of course different but not completely dissimilar - if reports are to be believed, the dalliance with Umno is not being discounted. DAP’s new supremo, Anthony Loke, did not deny the possibility...