COMMENT | The political dam of Umno and BN have burst. To a large degree, this is of their own doing by virtue of the arrogance and indifference which they had shown the people. Not only was corruption perpetuated in the billions of ringgit but they took to rendering Malaysia into a half-way house between their personal ambition and wealth accumulation.

The results are as obvious as they are inevitable: a volte farce from Malaysians from all walks of life. But this is where Pakatan Harapan (Harapan) has to understand the big game of how to "Save Malaysia", without which the elected representative defections that will come from a collapsing BN and Umno will drag Harapan into a systemic opprobrium.

First of all, Harapan is not in the business of inducing elected representative defections and should not be. Each defection is morally deleterious, coming as they are from a party or coalition that has been steeped in corruption, malfeasance and abuse of power. But Harapan must find ways to absorb them precisely because they are corrupt.

Consider this as the equivalent of receiving a cocaine addict, albeit one who promised to go cold turkey to wean her or himself from any further indulgence. The law of average will lead to a high rate of relapse the more there is a crossover of these defections. But then what is the alternative? If Harapan does not resort to absorbing the first wave of defections now, the second and third wave of defections will not come too.

Yet, the genuinely contrite detractors are likely to come from the third wave. Those who concede latest are those who, ironically, will demonstrate some semblance of political value or will. Therefore, almost ironically, unless the first wave is allowed to happen matter-a-factly, one will never know where are the potential hidden gems in Umno and BN who went into politics with the ideological zeal and will to serve their constituencies...