PETALING JAYA: Malaysia may yet see another change of prime minister. Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin is expected to have an audience with the Yang di-Pertuan Agong Al-Sultan Abdullah Ri’ayatuddin Al-Mustafa Billah Shah today to tender his resignation.
While it is still unclear who will succeed him, three names have emerged as frontrunners. They are Muhyiddin’s deputy Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob, elder statesman and the country’s longest-serving MP, Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah, and PKR president Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim.
If this pans out, the nation will have its third prime minister in just over three years. When Pakatan Harapan (PH) unseated the Barisan Nasional (BN) government in the May 2018 general election, Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad made a comeback for his second stint as the nation’s chief executive.
But less than two years later, a series of crossovers led to the fall of his government and Muhyiddin emerged as the new prime minister in the Perikatan Nasional (PN) government.
However, Umno’s recent decision to withdraw its support has left him without a majority in the Dewan Rakyat.
In an announcement on Friday, Muhyiddin conceded that he no longer had the support of at least half the number of MPs, and to save his government, he appealed to the Opposition to back him in a confidence vote scheduled for the next Dewan Rakyat sitting next month.
Among others, he offered to table a Bill to amend the Federal Constitution to limit the tenure of the prime minister to two terms, and to introduce an
anti-party hopping law. However, PH has labelled his offer as “insincere” while Umno described his offer of funds to opposition MPs as “bribery”.
Umno vice-president Ismail Sabri, who was appointed deputy prime minister on July 7, unveiled a list of BN representatives on Aug 5 whom he said would continue to support Muhyiddin, going against an order by party president Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi for all its MPs to withdraw their support for Muhyiddin.
On the other hand, Razaleigh made clear his sentiment when he submitted a request on July 27 for a change of seat away from the government side of the aisle in the House.
Anwar, who did not hold any ministerial position in the PH government, is now the opposition leader.
Meanwhile, analysts have described Muhyiddin’s offer as both a “concession” and “bait”.
Political scientist at Sunway University Dr Wong Chin Huat told theSun that Muhyiddin’s main selling point was that the Opposition was unable to offer an alternative.
“If PH and the two factions in Umno cannot come up with a better offer, then Malaysia wins. Muhyiddin will have to deliver on the promises that PH failed to when it was the government,” he said.
Apart from the term limit and anti-party hopping law, he also offered to put more money into efforts to save lives, more opposition participation and even chairmanship of parliamentary committees, an immediate implementation of Undi18 and making the Opposition leader a senior minister.
Wong said a possible outcome today is for the King to appoint Muhyiddin as interim premier until his successor is found.
He agreed that apart from Ismail Sabri, Razaleigh and Anwar are also favourites to take the job, subject to the support each can garner.
However, political commentator Prof Mohd Tajuddin Mohd Rasdi said it was Muhyiddin’s way to flush out his enemies so he can figure out who his political friends are.
He implied that it is still too early to write Muhyiddin off.
“He has delayed the confidence vote, which is a clever move, so I would not count him out yet which perhaps makes me the only one to say this but I don’t believe he is going to resign,” Tajuddin told theSun.
“I think he’s looking to rope in Warisan and Pejuang or maybe he is waiting for Anwar’s move. Once he knows it then he will make his move,” he added.
