Malaysian Prime Minister (PM) Muhyiddin Yassin met the monarch, King Sultan Abdullah Ri’ayatuddin, on Monday to offer his resignation after losing his parliamentary majority. The political stand-off reached an impasse on Friday after anti-Muhyiddin lawmakers rejected his final proposal for concessions and polls by July 2022 in exchange for support in the September 7 vote of no confidence.
The Straits Times reported that Science, Technology and Innovation Minister Khairy Jamaluddin broke the news on his Instagram account after the PM’s last Cabinet meeting on Monday morning. “Thank you for the opportunity to, once again, serve the nation. May God bless Malaysia,” Minister Khairy said after the PM’s audience at the Palace.
After the King accepted the leader’s resignation, the Palace stated that Muhyiddin Yassin would remain as PM in a caretaker capacity until his successor is appointed.
However, it is not immediately clear who will form the next government, given that no single party or coalition holds a clear majority in the Parliament. Whether fresh polls will be held during the pandemic remains unclear, although rumours of a general election have been doing the rounds for the past two months. Two members of Muhyiddin’s Malaysian United Indigenous Party (MUIP) claimed in June that the 15th General Election (GE15) is likely to take place in the coming months.
Despite the speculation, it would be up to the constitutional monarch, King Sultan Abdullah Ahmad Shah, to decide the future.
Amid the uncertainty, Muhyiddin’s Perikatan Nasional (PN) coalition allies are scrambling to find an internal replacement for the coveted position to prevent the opposition from taking power. While leaders of the ruling coalition held a series of meetings late last night hoping to agree before the PM’s royal audience on Monday, Deputy PM Ismail Sabri Yaakob has reportedly been rallying support to succeed Muhyiddin.
PM Muhyiddin’s resignation brings an end to his tumultuous 17 months in office after a challenging few weeks of the opposition mounting pressure on him to resign by withdrawing support. A significant blow was served to the Muhyiddin cabinet two weeks ago when 11 United Malays National Organisation (UMNO) members, the biggest party supporting the ruling PN coalition, withdrew its support.
“This is excessive politicking during a pandemic. The actions of these people are regrettable. They should answer to the people of Malaysia for acting distastefully in causing an untimely collapse of a government,” Minister Mohammad Redzuan Yusof, who was part of the PM’s Department of Special Functions, said on Monday while referring to UMNO’s dissent that led to the ouster.
UMNO members and the opposition mounted pressure on the PM to reconvene the Parliament, which has not been in session since December due to COVID-19. However, after the PM decided to postpone the final day of a special parliamentary sitting earlier this month, calls for his resignation were renewed. Opposition leaders Mahathir Mohamad and Anwar Ibrahim put aside their long-running rivalry and joined forces, demanding the PM’s resignation.
Moreover, the PM lost the favour of the monarch after de facto Law Minister Takiyuddin Hassan announced last month that the government would not extend the months-long state of emergency beyond August 1. The Royal Palace expressed its displeasure at the announcement. It stated that the King did not consent to revocation of the country’s COVID-19 emergency ordinances, resulting in a clash with the embattled PM and those within his shaky coalition.
While Malaysia’s political scene has been in turmoil, with several factions fighting for power and withdrawing support from the ruling administration, the ouster is set to throw the nation into even more profound uncertainty.