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A recent news report highlighted the growing strain between Pakatan Harapan (PH) and Barisan Nasional (BN). After contesting separately in the Johor state election, BN has now reached an electoral understanding with Perikatan Nasional (PN) for the Negeri Sembilan election, despite remaining a partner in the federal unity government.
Former Umno Youth chief Khairy Jamaluddin defended the move, saying BN was not trying to bring down the unity government or force an early general election. Instead, he said the cooperation with PN was simply meant to "send PH a signal" not to take Umno and BN for granted.
According to Khairy, many in Umno feel the government has not been sufficiently attentive to Malay concerns and has failed to fulfil several promises.
In other words, BN isn't ending the relationship - it's just sending its partner a message.
Forgive me, but is it just me, or is Malaysian politics becoming a love triangle?
Change BN, PH and PN into three people's names, and this stops sounding like a political report and starts sounding like the synopsis of tonight's Malay drama on TV3.
Imagine you're married...
One day your spouse says, "I still love you. I'm not leaving you. I don't want a divorce."
You breathe a sigh of relief.
Then your spouse continues, "But this weekend, I'm going to sleep with the neighbour."
"What?!"
"Relax. It's just to send you a signal. Don't take me for granted."
Apparently, this is now a legitimate conflict-resolution strategy.
That's pretty much where Malaysian politics is today.
BN insists it's staying in the unity government with PH. No plans to collapse the government. No plans for an early general election.
But in Negeri Sembilan, it has decided to partner with PN instead.
Why?
Not because the marriage is over.
Not because it has found a better partner.
Just... to send a message.
Imagine explaining this to your children.
"Abah isn't cheating because he loves Kak Kiah, the neighbour. Abah is cheating because Ibu wasn't paying enough attention to his feelings."
Somehow that's supposed to make everyone feel better.
Now, to be fair, every relationship has grievances. Maybe one partner feels ignored. Maybe promises were broken. Maybe they genuinely feel taken for granted.
Those are real issues.
But most healthy couples would probably try talking to each other before booking a romantic getaway with the neighbour.
The funniest part is that everyone involved insists they're still committed to the relationship.
"We're still together."
"We're just seeing other people during election season."
"It's political. Don't make it personal."
At this point, Malaysian coalitions resemble couples who keep changing their Facebook relationship status every other weekend.
Putrajaya: In a Relationship.
Johor: It's Complicated.
Negeri Sembilan: Seeing Someone Else.
And by the next election, who knows? Maybe everyone will get back together again and pretend none of this ever happened.
Because in Malaysian politics, today's betrayal is tomorrow's strategic partnership.
Meanwhile, the only ones trapped in this relationship are the voters. We thought we were electing a government. Turns out we were subscribing to a long-running political drama - and nobody gave us the remote control to change the channel.
Fa Abdul (fa.abdul.penang@gmail.com) is a content creator under the Newswav Creator programme, where you get to express yourself, be a citizen journalist, and at the same time monetize your content & reach millions of users on Newswav. Log in to creator.newswav.com and become a Newswav Creator now!
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