Najib verdict buys time for Malaysian leader Muhyiddin Yassin

By upholding the rule of law Muhyiddin Yassin may just have found the solution to the problem of stablising government and avoiding a snap poll sought by UMNO. Picture: AFP

No one could accuse Malaysian Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin of lacking a keen sense of timing.

Tuesday’s stunning guilty verdict on all seven counts of corruption against Najib Razak came five years to the day that the former prime minister and United Malays National Organisation (UMNO) powerbroker sacked Muhyiddin as his deputy for daring to question him over the growing 1MDB financial scandal that would eventually bring down his government.

A year later, Muhyiddin was dumped from the party that had ruled Malaysia since its independence, only to team up with two other ex-UMNO grandees, former prime minister Mahathir Mohamad and opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim, to form a new coalition that would eventually help toss Najib from office in 2018.

Who would have thought then that the two men would in just a few short years have traded places in such a karmic juxtaposition of fortunes?

That would be reason enough for Muhyiddin to quietly celebrate Najib’s spectacular fall, though Malaysia’s eighth prime minister was the picture of solemn magnanimity on Wednesday as he championed the ex-premier’s legal right to an appeal.

Najib’s hopes for a political comeback are in deep freeze — at least for a few years — as he fights an appeal to stave off prison. He also has three more corruption trials to contend with: one related to alleged interference with an independent auditor’s report into the misappropriation of $US4.5bn from the 1MDB state development fund, and allegations he received close to $US1bn of 1MDB funds into his own accounts.

But Muhyiddin has at least three other reasons to smile.

Tuesday’s guilty verdict against Najib — the first Malaysian prime minister to have been tried and convicted for criminal offences — has bought the shaky new premier time, options and greater popular support.

By simply allowing the law to take its course with such stunning effect, he has answered the justifiable cynicism of many Malaysians who believed Najib would never be brought to justice.

He has, in part at least, also redeemed himself in the eyes of the Pakatan Harapan coalition partners he betrayed just five months ago when he forced the collapse of their reformist government by leading a mass defection of MPs into the arms of the disgraced UMNO party and its Islamist allies.

With that verdict Muhyiddin has handed Anwar and Mahathir the political scalp they craved badly enough to set aside 20 years of enmity and join political forces, and thus reopened the possibility of a reunion with at least some of his former PH allies.

Will it be enough to spawn a detente?

Certainly there have been rumours of fresh negotiations between Muhyiddin and Anwar’s People’s Justice Party (PKR) in recent weeks towards a reconciliation.

Such an arrangement with PKR — which commands 40 seats — would allow Muhyiddin to cut ties with the deeply-factionalised UMNO party, currently the biggest partner (with 39 seats) in the loose Perikatan Nasional coalition which now holds power with the slimmest two-seat majority.

That opens a number of possible coalition configurations, any number of which could deliver Muhyiddin a greater government majority and a stronger grip on power, freed from the constant threat of an UMNO walkout that would trigger a snap poll.

Meanwhile, Najib’s conviction has deeply unsettled UMNO’s party leadership, among whom many of its most senior members are awaiting trial on 1MDB corruption charges.

The once-unassailable party is now wrestling with how to reconcile grassroots anger over Najib’s conviction and growing calls to abandon the PN coalition with the desire to remain in government — at least long enough to push for early elections that it believes it can win without Muhyiddin’s Bersatu Party.

By appointing “clean”, second-tier UMNO leaders to his cabinet, while deliberately overlooking those senior leaders most closely associated with the cronyism of the Najib era, Muhyiddin has deftly sown the seeds of disunity within the party.

Merdeka pollster Ben Suffian says Najib’s conviction on all seven counts appears to have taken many UMNO leaders by surprise, who seem to have been prepared for a guilty verdict on some but not all the charges.

“There’s a feeling rippling across UMNO that maybe other leaders who have cases against them may see the same treatment, and there’s concern that they won’t be able to cut a deal like they could in the old days,” he told The Australian.

“But there are also some UMNO leaders within the Muhyiddin administration who see this is an opportunity for the party to move on.”

Facing a potential second COVID19 wave, a tanking economy and growing regional instability, Muhyiddin’s immediate problem remains the need to stabilise government and avoid the snap poll UMNO is pushing so hard to see.

By upholding the rule of law he may just have found the solution.