Malaysia: PM Muhyiddin Yassin resigns as political crisis escalates

Malaysia's Muhyiddin Yassin has stepped down as prime minister after months of political turmoil culminated in the loss of his majority. Muhyidddin’s departure comes less than 18 months after taking office and will plunge the country into a fresh crisis amid a worsening pandemic. Political leaders have already begun to jostle for the top post, with his deputy Ismail Sabri rallying support to succeed Muhyiddin and keep the government intact.

Muhyiddin held a last cabinet meeting on Monday morning before going to the palace to tender his resignation to the king. Later, in a television address  Muhyiddin  said he had decided to step down because he had lost his majority in parliament and that he hoped that a new government would be formed soon. In his address, Muhyiddin said that he was not prepared to work with the corrupt, a reference to the graft trials facing the president and other prominent members of the United Malays National Organisation (UMNO), which was part of his ruling coalition, but whose regular threats of withdrawal led to the government’s eventual collapse.  Khairy Jamaluddin, the science minister who led the government’s COVID-19 vaccination programme, earlier confirmed the government was stepping down on Instagram.“That’s all for now,” he wrote in an Instagram story giving a final update on the mass vaccination campaign.

Muhyiddin has been under almost constant pressure since he came to power in March 2020 as head of a new Perikatan Nasional (PN) coalition after a power grab within the previous government. His resignation followed months of infighting within PN against a backdrop of increasing public anger over the political squabbling at a time when COVID-19 was surging. Nearly12,510 people have now died from the disease in Malaysia as overloaded government hospitals struggle to cope with the influx of patients. On Sunday, Malaysia recorded 20,546 cases on Sunday, its fourth successive day of more than 20,000 cases. In a statement, the palace said that Muhyiddin would remain as a ‘caretaker’ prime minister, adding that it was not appropriate to hold an election during the COVID-19 crisis.