Kuala Lampur, Aug. 10 -- The latest confusion over whether Bersatu remains inside Perikatan Nasional (PN) may appear to be another episode in Malaysia's endlessly fluid coalition politics. It is more serious than that.

PN chairman Ahmad Samsuri Mokhtar's clarification that Bersatu remains a component of PN exposes a fundamental problem of authority within the coalition: who actually decides what PN is?

This matters because PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang has repeatedly spoken as though PAS's political divorce from Bersatu can determine Bersatu's status in PN.

Yet the distinction between PAS terminating its cooperation with Bersatu and PN formally removing Bersatu is crucial.

Indeed, Hadi himself acknowledged in June that although PAS h...