COMMENT | How to explain the late-developing surge in the popularity of Pakatan Harapan?

The crowds at Harapan ceramah, the ones headlined by reformasi’s indefatigable Pied Piper, Anwar Ibrahim, portend a strength that should carry his coalition to Putrajaya and the premiership of the country.

The tide in favour of Harapan seems strong enough that both goals - Harapan’s occupation of Putrajaya and Anwar’s claim to the prime minister’s post - could well be achieved outright, perhaps even without negotiations with rival coalitions.

Observers say the present mood resembles that felt at the Han Chiang private school in Ayer Itam in Penang on the evening of March 6, 2008, at the opposition’s final ceramah before polling two days later in GE12.

Then, at the conclusion of a mammoth rally on the ample grounds of the school, the mood was rife with the expectation that incumbents BN were going to be swept out of power...