Muhyiddin Yassin as the country’s new prime minister, dramatically upending expectations that the 94-year-old elder statesman Mahathir Mohamad would keep his job after cobbling together support at the eleventh hour following a fraught five days of leaderless turmoil and frantic horse-trading in the country.
In a statement, the palace said Sultan Abdullah Sultan Ahmad Shah had conducted interviews with all MPs last week and found that 72-year-old Muhyiddin – a top member of Mahathir’s Bersatu party – had the confidence of a majority of lawmakers, and hence was to be given the chance to form the next government.
He will be sworn in on Sunday.
This decision came just hours after it seemed certain that caretaker premier Mahathir, who resigned on Monday, would be reappointed to the position, after several major parties en bloc publicly threw their support behind him.
Under Malaysian law, the king must appoint as premier the individual he believes is able to command a majority in the country’s 222-seat lower lawmaking house.
Sources close to the matter have expressed surprise that Muhyiddin was selected, as it is still widely believed that Mahathir has a parliamentary majority, thanks to the support of ‘kingmaker’ parties from the East Malaysian states of Sabah and Sarawak.
If Muhyiddin is unable to command the confidence of parliament, which resumes on March 9, this could lead to a no-confidence motion being tabled by any lawmaker.
Earlier in the week support was split between Muhyiddin, Mahathir and People’s Justice Party president Anwar Ibrahim, who was originally slated to take over the premiership at some point before 2023. Dramatic developments on Friday saw Anwar’s Pakatan Harapan alliance reversing a decision to withdraw support for Mahathir and backing him once more as premier.
On Saturday morning, Mahathir announced he was putting himself forward as the candidate for the role of prime minister, insisting he could not support Muhyiddin’s prime ministerial ambitions due to the latter’s willingness to work with former ruling party the United Malays National Organisation, which led the country for over six decades before being toppled by the four-party Pakatan Harapan coalition in 2018.
Muhyiddin had turned to the corruption-tainted former Umno for support, a move that Mahathir had pushed back against, saying he was unwilling to allow the party to join the government due to its history of corruption.
Mahathir’s Bersatu party publicly revealed on Saturday that it was split into two as factions supporting either Mahathir or Muhyiddin bickered over whether Mahathir was still chairman of the party.
The week-long political impasse began last Sunday after a host of lawmakers met to ostensibly push a political coup, resulting in Mahathir resigning as chairman on Monday. Minutes later, Bersatu announced it would be exiting the Pakatan Harapan coalition.
What followed was a tense stand-off involving shifting support, scores of meetings and the looming potential of a snap election if no solution could be found.
Source: International Media
BDST: 1721 HRS, FEB 29, 2020
SMS
