Following the acrimonious split of Pakatan Rakyat not so long ago, opposition politics has been stuck in a stalemate.

Despite the formation of Amanah, it is PAS’s tune that keeps time with the hearbeat of conservative Malaysia, and going to battle with PAS holds the risk that the Islamist party will be a dealbreaker that allows a third component, likely a BN candidate or one friendly to BN, to win by dividing the pro-opposition Malay vote.

Understandably, some opposition parties, notably PKR and PPBM, are loath to lose PAS’ electoral strength to a possible BN-friendly third coalition in the fiece battle for Malay votes.

The Islamist party, stung and angry, has spent the past year loudly denouncing DAP and Amanah for all to hear even as Abdul Hadi Awang’s raving descent into fundamentalist conservatism put off all moderates in earshot. Cozying up with Umno, playing up religious sentiments to strengthen the perception of a theocratic leadership, PAS is a dangerous element under Hadi, a driving force for hypernormalisation of conservative and fundamentalist rhetoric that many outside the rural heartland are wary of. Indeed, it is Hadi’s shift to confrontational fundamentalism that seems to have spurred Umno’s rightward turn towards similar rhetoric.

However, as it always is in politics, yesterday’s enemy may be tomorrow’s ally, and PKR and PPBM have been hard at work wooing the hardliners. Some analysts say Pakatan Harapan and PPBM, in joining forces for the election battle without actually formalising a coalition pact, are preparing warm waters for PAS to swim in. Any accord with PAS would then be with PPBM, not its mortal enemies Amanah and DAP. It is hard to argue this is not the case, but the other side of the story would be a wariness to fully engage with a party of Mahathir Mohamad’s making before its true character is shown.

Regardless, this business regarding PAS is less than appealing for many urban opposition supporters, who see the destruction of Pakatan Rakyat as the result of PAS’s treachery, rightly or wrongly. They don’t blame DAP because it was DAP that lowered its principles to promise urban voters that PAS was not some apocalyptic messenger of strict shariah law, promising that the coalition would guide and temper PAS’s ambitions.

It is hard to not sympathise with Pakatan and PPBM. Damned if they do and damned if they don’t. PAS is an essential piece of the puzzle if the opposition is to improve on its gains in 2008 and 2013. Without the firm network in the rural heartlands established by PAS, the opposition cannot rely on the rural vote to tip numbers over. Indeed, it faces the very real possibility of PAS being the spoiler of GE14 by splitting the opposition Malay vote.

Alas, dancing with the devil in the pale moonlight can only be a portent of ill, and it is doubtful that many urban supporters of the opposition expect good to come out of these overtures to PAS. Hadi has proven single-minded and ruthless in his singular crusade, and it is unlikely that the possibility of overthrowing PAS’ spiritual enemies in BN will tempt him to turn against Najib when he knows the possibility of realising his agenda lies in the Umno President’s hands.