COMMENT | Pundits, apprehensive about the “green wave” that swept the north and northeast in the 15th general election, appear to have forgotten a lesson from the past on how to tackle this wave.

There is a useful antecedent for GE15’s most significant development - the surge that saw PAS emerge with 44 parliamentary seats, up from the 18 seats it garnered at GE14, which was itself a good performance in the polls of May 2018. This was the 27 seats that PAS won in GE10 in November 1999.

In that election, Malay voter resentment over the treatment meted out to Anwar Ibrahim by then prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad saw the Islamic party leverage to a hitherto unmatched haul of 27 seats.

That sizeable collection enabled PAS to...