COMMENT Last week’s remarkable gathering of political and civil society leaders - along with the Citizens’ Declaration they signed - continue to reverberate across the political landscape.

That opposition and civil society leaders who participated in the gathering now feel obliged to justify, if not defend, their decision to join ex-premier Dr Mahathir Mohamad in his quest to oust Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak, says something about how controversial it has all become.

There is, of course, no argument that Najib has been disastrous for the nation. All but a few self-serving cronies and an assorted coterie of hangers-on are united in the view that Najib should be pressured through whatever democratic means available to step down as quickly as possible.