Germany’s Iron Chancellor Otto von Bismarck was the formulator of the first maxim, and Edmund Burke, the Irish-born British parliamentarian, the author of the second. Would-be formators of the federal government, following the stalemate of GE15, ought to take a leaf from Bismarck and a page from Burke.

Pakatan Harapan, winner of the highest number of seats, would find the PAS component of the second highest procurer of GE15 seats, Perikatan Nasional, intolerable. And vice-versa.  By comparison, Harapan would find BN merely undesirable as a federal government partner: the differences between the two coalitions are not visceral, nor fundamental.

The differences are amenable to compromise as when BN, in its manifesto, favoured granting citizenship to the overseas-born children of Malaysian mothers. Earlier, Umno was cold to the proposition. The obstacles in the way of Harapan getting together with Umno-BN as partners in a federal government are formidable, but not insuperable.

Sure, the general assembly of Umno had made a decision in March that said “no Anwar, no DAP”.  But the previous December, Umno combined with Harapan representatives in the Perak state legislature to remove Ahmad Faizal Azumu, the menteri besar from Perikatan Nasional, on grounds of ineptitude.

In abjuring Anwar and DAP in March, Umno was yielding to emotion rather than rationality. Now, in the immediate aftermath of GE15, when the spectre of Islamic fundamentalism is no longer a looming possibility but a clear and present danger, Umno, a nationalist rather than a religious party, has to adjust its stance.

The latest news of Umno’s getting together with Harapan to form the Perak state government in Ipoh yesterday, in which Umno supplied the menteri besar, is another instance of rationality triumphing over emotion.

Umno’s aversions based on emotion would lead it up a cul-de-sac that would spell the death knell of the country inaugurated by the 1957 Federal Constitution.

Man on the Silver Mountain : Probably the positive we derived from recent elections is the gradual ushering of maturing democracy in the country. People face the reality of having to work together with parties or groups that they previously considered as unthinkable.

That’s a big hurdle to overcome no doubt, the emotion takes over the heart, but eventually they cannot escape the obvious. By the look of GE15 result, the different groupings simply just did not disappear but stubbornly persevered.

They will exist in years to come. Thus, various groups and parties need to find common ground to work together. They will eventually adjust themselves into category – rightist, centrist or even leftist. Perhaps may not as clear a demarcation as that but finding similarity they will, in order to survive. Right now, the barrier is still the emotion rather the objectivity.

However, in this, their true colour will show, whether it is just due to emotion or deep-seated political ideology. Case in point – the GPS in Sarawak. One needs to understand Sarawak peculiarity vis-à-vis the Peninsula. Unlike in Malaya, Sarawak’s ethnic grouping can be categorized into three main groups – the Dayaks, the largest, the Chinese and the Malay-Melanaus.

The former two are largely Christians, while the latter Muslims. Not all though. There are Christian Melanaus. With such diverse groupings, it is a ruler’s delight in ‘divide and rule’, pitting each group against each other. Whichever group the most coherent, they would be the winner. Today that group is the Malay-Melanau combo, perhaps as a result of being the minority.

They have more to lose if divided. GPS Abang Johari, from PBB (the Malay-Melanaus group) definitely sees their strength toward a greater polarization. To cement that, they would not mind having PAS doing the dirty job for them. So, reading Abang Jo’s action in supporting PAS entry into Sarawak, one can only derives into that conclusion.