This is evident in his offer to “play the mediator” in “what he perceives to be a stand-off” between Prime Minister Najib Razak and former premier Mahathir Mohamad, Aspan says in his latest blog article.

“Abu Hassan and Mubarak Selangor have not understood the real issue,” he writes. “There has been no stand-off between Mahathir and Najib. Instead the stand-off is between the rakyat and the Prime Minister.”

He describes the Citizens’ Declaration as an instrument through which citizens can voice their disenchantment with Najib.

“The people have conclusively believed that Najib is too dishonest to lead the nation,” he says. “A leader who has lost his believability as a leader should quit without delay. He and his Cabinet should leave Putrajaya as early as possible and not loiter around in the government any longer. They are failed leaders.”

Aspan hails the signing of the declaration as an “indication of political maturity in the making.”

He sees a narrowing of the divide between political parties with different ideologies and attributes this to their recognition that they face a “hazardous common enemy.”

“As the nation is facing the most exasperating time and facing the possibility of being devastated by the most irresponsible and undeserving PM that the country has ever come across, all warring political parties are now burying their differences to go for one ultimate motive, i.e. to save the nation from the continuous rule of the hungry plunderers and pillagers,” he says.