Published on 15-Mar-2020
Khushboo Razdan
Malaysia's political game of thrones
"The process to appoint the prime minister cannot be delayed because the country needs a government for the well-being of the people and the nation," a statement issued by Malaysia's Royal Palace read on March 1, appointing the little-known Muhyiddin Yassin as the eighth prime minister of the Southeast Asian nation.
The decision of the king, who is known as Yang di-Pertuan Agong, dashed hopes of the world's oldest political leader Mahathir Mohamad, 94, to come back to power for a third term. Mahathir had dramatically resigned from the premiership on February 24, triggering the biggest seismic political realignment in Malaysia's modern history.
His appointment comes just two years after Muhyiddin joined hands with Mahathir to form the Malaysian United Indigenous Party (PPBM) tie-up. During the stunning 2018 election, the PPBM engineered the Pakatan Harapan (PH) coalition, also called the Alliance of Hope. Three opposition parties including Mahathir's former political foe Anwar Ibrahim too were part of the grand set-up. They all managed to defeat graft-tainted Najib Razak's six-decade ruling party, the United Malays National Organization (UMNO).
Interestingly, Muhyiddin was never considered a contender for the top job since the power struggle was always between Mahathir and his rival-turned-ally Anwar Ibrahim, who was also Mahathir's agreed successor and PM-in-waiting.
"Mahathir played too big…he was in no hurry to handover the reigns to Anwar, he tried to reach across political drive to sideline Anwar," Oh Ei Sun, senior fellow at the Singapore Institute of International Affairs, told CGTN Digital, adding "First he promised to hand over power in one to two years, then he said two to three years, later he said not more than three years."