KUALA LUMPUR — It's been a strange week for Malaysian Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin.

While the country saw climbing Covid-19 infections every day, Mr Muhyiddin was hospitalised last week, coming just after being told by the king for the second time to convene the Parliament.

Despite the bout of diarrhoea, the 74-year-old returned to work yesterday and announced two promotions from Umno.

The euphoria from two promotions, however, was short-lived as hours later Umno announced that it had withdrawn support from Muhyiddin immediately.

Nevertheless, political analysts expect the embattled Bersatu president to dig in amidst the loss of confidence.

“He will not resign,” Ilham Centre director Hisomuddin Bakar told The Malaysian Insight on Thursday (July 8).

“Although his predecessor, Dr Mahathir Mohamad resigned as prime minister after losing support, it’s unlikely Muhyiddin will follow suit,” said Mr Hisomuddin, who used to work in the Pakatan Harapan government before Mr Muhyiddin toppled the government last year.

Although the situation is still unclear, Mr Hisomuddin believes that the Muhyiddin camp will hang on as long as there are no direct orders from the king or has lost a no-confidence vote in the Parliament.

“He’ll hang on as long as he can, as he is shielded by the Emergency Order.”

In a long-awaited move, Umno announced on Wednesday that it had withdrawn support for Mr Muhyiddin.

The Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition, which is led by Umno, has the largest number of Members of Parliament (MPs), 42, in the Perikatan Nasional government, consisting of 38 from Umno, two from the Malaysian Chinese Association (MCA) and one each from the Malaysian Indian Congress (MIC) and Parti Bersatu Rakyat Sabah (PBRS).

With Umno and by extension BN’s withdrawal, Mr Muhyiddin only has 73 MPs backing him although Umno is known to be split on its support for the Bersatu president.

In the run-up to yesterday’s announcement, newly appointed Deputy PM Ismail Sabri Yaakob had led a group of more than 20 to state their support for Mr Muhyiddin last month.

That aside, Mr Hisomuddin said Mr Muhyiddin will not quit.

“Although the public knows that Muhyiddin has lost support, this has not played out in the Parliament yet. While the right thing to do is to begin the process of picking another PM, whether interim or till the next elections, I am not expecting this to happen,” said the political opinion pollster.

Earlier today, Umno veteran Shahrir Samad said Mr Muhyiddin had similarly pressured former PM Abdullah Ahmad Badawi to resign after the 12th General Election.

“(But) Muhyiddin continued to sit in the cabinet after calling Abdullah to resign as PM as soon as possible from the proposed one-year transition,” said Mr Shahrir, who was a minister in Abdullah’s cabinet in 2008.

NO-CONFIDENCE VOTE

Although the Westminster model of Parliament requires the PM to obtain or prove his support through Parliament, three former PMs have resigned without waiting for a vote of no-confidence to be taken in Parliament.

Among them include Malaysia’s founding father Tunku Abdul Rahman in 1970, Mr Abdullah in 2009 and Dr Mahathir in February 2020. Incidentally, Dr Mahathir said he quit after losing confidence from his party Bersatu, which was led by Mr Muhyiddin.

Dr Mahathir and several others were subsequently sacked from Bersatu for refusing to support Mr Muhyiddin.

But Universiti Malaya’s Professor Awang Azman Awang Pawi expects Mr Muhyiddin to wait till a no-confidence vote is taken in Parliament.

“If he doesn’t resign, Parliament has to table a no-confidence motion. As it is, I understand that he is meeting with the attorney-general and ministers to discuss this,” said the political scientist.

“After that, if he’s confident of his support, he will stay in office until he loses a no-confidence vote."

But again, Mr Hisomuddin is unsure if such a motion will see the light of day in Parliament.

“Although, Dr Mahathir had filed such a motion twice last year and a record of more than 25 MPs had also done so during the last Parliament sitting, the motion did not reach the floor,” said Mr Hisomuddin.

Citing Standing Orders 14(1), Dewan Rakyat speaker Azhar Azizan Harun, who was appointed after Mr Muhyiddin became PM, said that government business must come ahead of private MPs’ bills.

“Such a motion must be brought by the government’s law minister,” Mr Azhar told the MP for Gua Musang Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah.

But Mr Hisomuddin said this was a contradiction. Why would the de facto Law Minister Takiyuddin Hassan, who was appointed by Muhyiddin, allow such a motion to be tabled in Parliament?

“How then can Umno actualise their withdrawal of support?” asked Mr Hisomuddin.

Besides Umno and Mr Zahid, Mr Hisomuddin said the country will stand to lose if Mr Muhyiddin hangs on to power.

“He will not be able to resolve the political imbroglio if he stays and we will have to see this political tussle while the rest of us have to cope with the economic problems and Covid-19 pandemic.”

Mr Awang Azman also believes that the political issue surrounding Mr Muhyiddin and Umno cannot be resolved if the former doesn’t resign.

“Umno and Zahid will have to deal with different factions contesting the party’s decision and Muhyiddin will have to face this every week. But Umno is not going to back down. Not when the supreme council and the General Assembly have already spoken,” he said.

Earlier on Thursday, Attorney-General Idrus Harun said Mr Muhyiddin remains PM by law until and unless another MP can prove he or she has majority support of the Dewan Rakyat.

“As of now, the government does not have any clear evidence to show that the PM has lost the confidence of the majority of the Dewan Rakyat members," he said in a statement.

“Based on the Article 43(2)(1) of the federal constitution, the lawmaker who has the confidence of the majority of Dewan Rakyat members is determined by the lawmakers themselves and not through a statement of any political party or its leader." THE MALAYSIAN INSIGHT