Explainer | How Malaysia got its eighth Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin

After seven days of political skullduggery, Malaysia got a new prime minister on Sunday, March 1

But ex-premier Mahathir Mohamad and his now-ally Anwar Ibrahim say they, not Muhyiddin Yassin, have majority support from the 222-member parliament

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Malaysia's new Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin waving outside his residence before his inauguration on Sunday. Photo: Handout

Published: 2:57pm, 1 Mar 2020Updated: 9:00am, 20 May 2020

Malaysia’s King on Sunday swore in Muhyiddin Yassin – a low-lying political operator best known for his competence as a number two leader – as the country’s eighth prime minister.

The 72-year-old ardent Malay nationalist leader is assuming the position after seven days of teeth-clenching political turmoil triggered by the collapse of elder statesman Mahathir Mohamad’s Pakatan Harapan coalition last week.

The alliance imploded after internal plotters including Muhyiddin – Mahathir’s Home Minister – joined hands with a bipartisan caucus of predominantly Malay MPs to remake an administration that would omit the Chinese-centric Democratic Action Party (DAP) and the multiracialist democracy icon Anwar Ibrahim from government.

Malaysia's incoming Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin (left) receiving documents from Malaysia King Sultan Abdullah Sultan Ahmad Shah (right) before taking the oath as the country's new leader at the National Palace in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Photo: Handout

Mahathir, 94, rejected that plan and sought to build a new “non-partisan” coalition of his own that he said was open to all except corruption-tainted individuals like Najib Razak, the powerful former prime minister Pakatan Harapan audaciously defeated in 2018.

Anwar, the architect of the decades-old movement that became Pakatan Harapan rejected that idea.

Isolated, Mahathir and Anwar on Saturday sealed an eleventh hour rapprochement to crush at all costs the return of the mantle of power to so-called “kleptocrats” like Najib, who they had come together to overcome in the momentous general election on May 9, 2018. The two political titans initially said they had the support of 115 MPs in the 222-seat legislature, giving them a simple majority – though this number was later revised to 112 MPs on Sunday.

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