KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia’s political crisis deepened on Saturday after94-year-old Mahathir Mohamad rejected a decision by the king to pick hisrival as the next prime minister, insisting he had enough backing to returnto the role.
Ex-interior minister Muhyiddin Yassin was earlier named for the job by themonarch, who appoints the country´s premiers after deciding who has backingfrom MPs, signalling a defeat for Mahathir and the return of ascandal-plagued party to power. It capped a week of turmoil that began whenMahathir´s “Pact of Hope” alliance collapsed and he resigned as primeminister following a bid by his rivals to form a new government and pushout leader-in-waiting Anwar Ibrahim. Their alliance stormed to a historicvictory in 2018 that broke the six-decade stranglehold on power of acorruption-riddled coalition, but it was riven by infighting over whoshould succeed the world´s oldest leader.
The victory of Muhyiddin and his coalition, which is dominated by thecountry´s ethnic Malay Muslim majority, was a shock as Mahathir hadappeared to be in the lead, and it sparked widespread public anger. Notonly does the win remove a democratically elected government but it alsosignals the return to power of the United Malays National Organisation(UMNO), the scandal-plagued party of disgraced ex-leader Najib Razak.
UMNO was the lynchpin of a long-ruling coalition toppled from power athistoric elections two years ago amid allegations Najib and his cronieslooted state fund 1MDB. Najib is now on trial for corruption.
The coalition also includes a hardline Muslim party pushing for tougherIslamic laws in Malaysia. Addressing supporters outside his Kuala Lumpurhouse, Muhyiddin said: “I urge all Malaysians to take the decision that hasbeen made by the palace today well.”
The palace earlier said the king believed Muhyiddin had enough support andhe would be sworn in Sunday.
But after meeting his political allies, Mahathir said he had received thebacking of 114 MPs to be prime minister — above the required number of 112– and released a statement listing their names.
Mahathir said he would send a letter to the king explaining this, and addedthe number of MPs that Muhyiddin claimed to have supporting him was “notaccurate”.
Anger was growing at the surprise decision to name Muhyiddin premier andallow UMNO back into power. The hashtag NotMyPM was trending on Twitter,and a small group of protesters gathered in downtown Kuala Lumpur.
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“These are not the people we voted for,” one protester, who only gave hersurname Soon, said, as chants of “long live the people, rise up” rang out.”These are not the people who were given the democratic mandate two yearsago.”
The political crisis began when a group of ruling coalition lawmakersjoined forces with opposition parties in a bid to form a new governmentwithout Anwar and stop him becoming premier.
After the government fell, Mahathir was appointed interim premier and heand Anwar initially launched separate bids for power, reviving their oldrivalry.
But as Muhyiddin´s bid quickly gained support and it became clear that hecould get into power with UMNO, Mahathir and Anwar did a volte-face andjoined forces again on Saturday.
A growing number of their allies threw their support behind Mahathir tobecome premier — but it was too little, too late.
The “Pact of Hope”, a ragtag band of opposition groups, was uneasy from thestart. It saw its popularity fall rapidly as it faced criticism it was notdoing enough to protect Muslims´ rights, and it lost a string of localelections. -APP/AFP
