It would have been a coup de grace if former economic minister Azmin Ali had succeeded in delivering a Malay-majority coalition to the prime minister. But it had one major flaw; the coalition included leaders from Umno — the main Malay-based party — facing corruption charges. The PM put his foot down and did not endorse the coalition, the one thing he has always wanted – a united Malay front to lead the nation. He could not work with Umno en bloc, saying that political expediency could not be justified when it compromised principles.

He then resigned from the government and his party, Bersatu. Bersatu then left the ruling Pakatan Harapan (PH) which led to PH’s collapse.

Understandably, PH’s supporters are fuming but this is the political reality. Such things will happen in politics. The more important question is how do we deal with it when it happens? All the parties concerned should take a step back to view the situation from a distance in order to gain some clarity and objectivity so that they make the right decisions.

It is imperative that all the MPs and authorities concerned follow the rule of law and act within the ambit of the constitution. When PH collapsed, the first thing that Attorney-General Tommy Thomas said was to take the issue to the Dewan Rakyat. This was concurred with by the Prime Minister when he gave his reason for resigning in his message to the nation on Wednesday saying that the next step was the Dewan Rakyat.

Dewan Rakyat Speaker Tan Sri Dato Mohamad Ariff announced today that there will be no special convening of the Dewan Rakyat on Monday (requested by the interim prime minister) until the Agong officially calls for it as according to the constitution. He also said that the special sitting could only be held after the Agong had appointed a prime minister. The king is now planning to invite the political parties to nominate their candidate for PM.

Bersatu has nominated its president Muhyiddin Yassin as PM. Since he is open to working with Umno as a bloc, Umno looks set to be back in government. It will be deja vu and back to the old Umno politics!

This is politics. Hard to get used to it.

(The situation is still fluid. We’ll have to wait and see what happens next.)