Kuala Lampur, July 4 -- Much has been written about the coming state elections in Johor and Negeri Sembilan. Analysts have focused on campaign strategies, electoral arithmetic, candidate selection, coalition arrangements and voter turnout projections.

Yet beneath these measurable variables lies an intangible dimension that may ultimately matter more than all others combined.

The rakyat's enduring search for institutional coherence.

Malaysia's electorate has changed fundamentally over the last two decades. Since the political watershed of 2008, when the ruling coalition lost its two-thirds parliamentary majority for the first time since independence, Malaysians have embarked upon a long and often difficult process of democratic recalibr...