COMMENT | Pakatan Harapan, the fissiparous gathering of PKR, Bersatu, Amanah and Bersatu, can now cohere with all deliberate speed.

Hindrances to its cohesion, principally the absence of remorse by Dr Mahathir Mohamad over past misdeeds and Bersatu's insistence on him as the coalition's PM-designate, are now removed.

On social media, Mahathir has repented his repressive past and in an interview with The Guardian in England, he said he would back jailed opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim as the coalition's choice of prime minister once his legal trammels are erased.

This means Mahathir can be the coalition's interim PM-designate going into the next general election (GE14).

Mahathir's remorse and his endorsement of a legally untrammelled Anwar as Harapan's PM-designate clears the way for the coalition to settle on a leadership line-up, a common logo and manifesto for recognition as a political entity by the Registrar of Societies (ROS).

There remains the delicate matter of seat-sharing negotiations among Harapan components, but this is more malleable to resolution than Mahathir's incorrigibility and Bersatu's dissent on Anwar's designation as Harapan's choice of PM.

It's easier now for PKR, DAP and Amanah to come round to accepting Mahathir as interim PM-designate the better to lever the former PM's vaunted pull on the Malay vote to Harapan's advantage....