Last week, Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim announced that the Pakatan Rakyat coalition would form a shadow cabinet in Parliament. The move is one year overdue, but it is better late than never.

The immediate reaction of the newly installed Deputy Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin was that this was a “power grab”, and “designed to topple the government”.

The DPM’s knee jerk reaction is a left-over of the old political narrative in our country. Its implied ramification is that the opposition parties and their shadow cabinet are like terrorist entities trying to topple the legitimate government of the day.