Malaysian PM Muhyiddin Yassin blocks Mahathir Mohamad showdown

Malaysian PM Muhyiddin Yassin has been accused of using the pandemic as cover to avoid a showdown with his predecessor.

Muhyiddin Yassin, left, receives his mandate from King Abdullah Sultan Ahmad Shah in March. Picture: AFP

Malaysian Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin has been accused of using the coronavirus pandemic as cover to avoid a political showdown with his predecessor and former ally, Mahathir Mohamad, after blocking a no-confidence motion that was to be tabled in parliament next Monday.

The special one-day sitting — the first since the collapse of the Mahathir government in February — was to have debated extraordinary COVID-19 measures, including a stimulus package.

But five days after the Speaker said he would allow Dr Mahathir’s no-confidence motion to be debated, the Prime Minister cancelled all items other than the king’s speech, citing public health concerns even as he reopens the country after weeks of lockdown.

The decision has sparked accusations Mr Muhyiddin has breached parliamentary process by cynically using COVID-19 as an excuse for winding back the clock on when the lower house must by law sit for a full session.

That could now be as late as July, though some constitutional experts have argued any postponement beyond June 5 — six months from the date it last ­adjourned — would render the parliament legally dissolved.

Dr Mahathir, who has made it clear he would be prepared to return for a third prime ministerial tenure, hit back at Mr Muhyiddin in a video message in which he goaded his successor to prove his majority support on the floor of parliament. “How can this be called a government when MPs are not allowed to speak, even when there is a parliamentary sitting?” he said.

“This government is illegitimate. I think Muhyiddin is illegitimate as well. He took his oath saying that he had the support of the majority. I don’t know whether that majority exists. It must be determined whether he actually had the support of the majority or not when he took the oath.”

Mr Muhyiddin was sworn in on March 1, after leading a group of rebel government MPs to form the Perikatan Nasional coalition with the opposition United ­Malays National Organisation and the National Islamic Party.

The crisis was sparked by ongoing tensions over when Dr Mahathir should hand power to his presumptive successor Anwar Ibrahim, but came to a head in late February when he resigned in protest at talks between MPs from his Bersatu party and UMNO — the party that presided over the multi-billion-dollar 1Malaysia Development Berhad scandal before its defeat in May 2018.

That resignation led to defections that left the ruling coalition in a minority, and to the king appointing Mr Muhyiddin as eighth prime minister of Malaysia.

On Thursday, Mr Anwar too accused Mr Muhyiddin of using COVID-19 as cover to avoid a showdown he was not confident of winning on the parliamentary floor. “If COVID-19 is the reason, the seating arrangement has already been taken care of. The government does not have con­fidence that it has obtained the support of a majority of the MPs,” he said on Facebook Live.

Mr Muhyiddin, whose hold on power is tenuous at best, has spent weeks shoring up parliamentary support by replacing technocrats in key government positions, such as state-linked companies and banks, with sitting MPs.

But a slickly produced video featuring disgraced former prime minister Najib Razak, who lost power to the Mahathir-led ­coalition in 2018 on the back of the 1MDB scandal for which he now faces 42 corruption charges, suggests Mr Muhyiddin may face a challenge on a number of fronts.

In the 20-minute video released on Wednesday, Mr Najib appears to be making a case for a political comeback, claiming the “public misses my era” and that he has become an accidental “icon”.

The 66-year-old remains a powerful figure in UMNO despite his legal challenges. which many analysts have suggested can be overcome only by the immunity from prosecution that comes with a return to the prime ministership.

The odds of Mr Najib beating those charges, fantastic just a few months ago, improved markedly on Thursday after Malaysian prosecutors dropped a 1MDB-linked money laundering case against Mr Najib’s stepson and Hollywood film producer Riza Aziz in an out-of-court settlement that will see “several million ­ringgit” repaid to the government.