In Kuala Lumpur
THE toppling of the Perak government 10 days ago has spooked Malaysian politicians so much that they are seeing shadows in every corner.
Rumours are so rife that they have become impossible to sort from fact. Any MP or assemblyman who can't be contacted immediately becomes a target of rumour.
This is, of course, because defections are necessarily a secret business.
From the experience of Perak, an MP or assemblyman's "disappearance" is the first alarm bell.
On Thursday, it was the Port Klang assemblyman Badrul Hisham Abdullah, from Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR), who had to call a press conference to explain that he had not defected.
"The allegations are not true and fabricated by the opposition to create chaos within the Pakatan Rakyat government in Selangor," he said.
Mr Badrul, 49, had been named by a TV station and online news portal as having gone missing due to domestic problems. They also claimed that he had been marginalised in the Selangor state government and only given minor duties.
He was said to be ready to defect to Umno.
But he denied all these. Accompanied by opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim's right-hand man Azmin Ali, he said it was a "technical problem" that he had reportedly not turned up at his service centre for a long time.
Mr Azmin also denied that Kulim assemblyman Lim Soo Nee, from PKR, will defect.
These rumours had sent scores of reporters waiting patiently outside the house of Selangor chief minister Khalid Ibrahim on Thursday night, as he held a meeting with his assemblymen.
The Pakatan Rakyat has 36 assemblymen to the Barisan Nasional's 20 in Selangor. This large majority of 16 makes it hard for Selangor to change hands. At least eight assemblymen must cross, and that's a very large number.
Besides Selangor, the PR also held Perak (which fell after four assemblymen defected), Kedah (eight-seat majority), Penang (18-seat majority), and Kelantan (33-seat majority).
Kedah is the riskiest because of its relatively small majority that would take four defectors to break. One of the PKR assemblymen V. Arumugam also resigned suddenly (and has since "disappeared"), prompting a by-election that will be held on April 7. Mr Arumugam, who is battling allegations of bigamy, claimed he had been threatened to get him to defect.
The fever had also spread to Negri Sembilan where the BN holds a six-seat majority, forcing its leaders to deny any potential defections.
Many analysts have pointed out that the defectors or potential defectors appear to be largely from the PKR. This is not surprising. PKR is the newest of the three opposition parties, and formed by breakaways from Umno in 1998 when Mr Anwar was sacked.
The DAP and Parti Islam SeMalaysia, on the other hand, are long established. Their members believe in the ideology of Malaysian Malaysia (DAP) and Islamic state (PAS).
This was why it was such a shock that a DAP assemblywoman Hee Yit Fong had jumped ship in Perak, after being in the party for 20 years.
PKR does not seem to have cemented a strong ideology or build up a good party network. In 2008, it was well known that it had to scramble to find hundreds of candidates to run in the seats that it contested.
The calibre of some was not entirely up to mark.
One of its candidates in a parliamentary seat in Johor caused a stir when he simply did not show up to file his papers, giving a walkover to the BN.
Even party insiders say the PKR needs to focus more on building up its internal strength and cohesion.
As a coalition, the PR has begun to meet more regularly to build cohesiveness, and to coordinate strategy. This Sunday, its MPs are meeting for a closed-door discussion to hammer out issues.
It's an exercise that has taken a long time to begin. And it'll take a while before the results are seen.
Until then, the fear of more defections is likely to remain, haunting PKR leaders - and keeping Malaysian politics uncertain.