Malaysian Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin resigns

After a failed last attempt to get parliamentary support, PM Yassin handed his mandate back to king who had sought the reopening of parliament. The decision by UMNO, which ruled the country for 60 years, was a decisive factor, as was the PM’s poor handing of the pandemic.

Kuala Lumpur (AsiaNews) – The Malaysian government led by Muhyiddin Yassin has resigned.

This morning, the prime minister held a cabinet meeting before going to see King Abdullah Ri'ayatuddin who accepted his resignation and reappointed Muhyiddin Yassin as caretaker prime minister.

Malaysia’s political crisis has been dragging on for some time, but had intensified in the past month, showing not only the fragility of the ruling coalition but also of Malaysian politics in general, undermined by the need to balance too many elements.

The crisis has also highlighted the contrast between political leaders and the sovereign whose constitutional role is often poorly tolerated or taken into consideration.

The outgoing coalition government came into office on 1 March 2020. Its demise follows the decision of several parliamentarians from the United Malays National Organization (UMNO) to withdraw their support.

For sixty years since independence, UMNO ruled the country, but suffered major losses in recent years, forcing it to take part in a fragile coalition government.

Without UMNO support, the ruling coalition lost its narrow majority, opening a crisis that the outgoing prime minister did not want to acknowledge.

Initially, Muhyiddin Yassin tried to avoid the reopening of parliament in a special session requested by the king for this month of August; failing this, he decided to stake his legitimacy to govern by asking parliament for a vote of confidence.

This was a desperate move. In a televised appearance on Friday, he called for a non-partisan vote in his favour.

However, the main opposition party, Pakatan Harapan, asked for his immediate resignation, given the PM’s admission that he did not have the support of the majority of the members of the lower house.

UMNO once again rejected Muhyiddin, who heads Bersatu, the largest party in the ruling coalition, claiming that he no longer enjoyed legitimacy, and slamming his willingness to talk with the opposition as an open corruption attempt.

The PM’s poor handling of the pandemic dragged down his government, but so did his weakness as a compromise choice for head of government.

In a country weakened by crises, with 1.5 million coronavirus cases out of 32 million inhabitants and 12,500 deaths, Muhyiddin was not helped by setting off on a collision course with the sovereign who exercised his legal as well as moral authority.

• malaysia
• political crisis
• muhyiddin yassin
• resignation
• king abdullah ri'ayatuddin
• umno
• pakatan harapan