But in his statement, Zahid said working with Anwar’s Parti Keadilan Rakyat and its ally, the Democratic Action Party (DAP), was untenable.

Najib Razak, the scandal-tainted former prime minister and party grandee, was among those who suggested on Monday that Umno was open to cooperating with Anwar. He however drew a line on working with the DAP, a decades-long Umno rival that draws most of its support from the country’s minority Chinese community.

Coronavirus Malaysia: Muhyiddin said to ‘contemplate resignation’ after king rejects emergency plan

Zahid’s late-night statement upended political analysts’ predictions about the meeting’s outcome.

“The smart thing for Umno or indeed any other component party in the ruling coalition to do would be to at least abandon [Muhyiddin], if not his tattered and sinking ship, so that they would not be tainted by his increasingly dwindling image,” Oh Ei Sun, a senior fellow at the Singapore Institute of International Affairs, said before the meeting.

Malaysia’s king, Sultan Abdullah Sultan Ahmad Shah, on Sunday dismissed Muhyiddin’s proposal and said he saw no need for it at the moment, even though the government had claimed it needed the special powers to deal with the Covid-19 pandemic.

The opposition and civil activists had charged that the prime minister was seeking a state of emergency – and the suspension of the legislature – as an underhanded way to avoid an embarrassing defeat of his government in an upcoming vote on the budget proposal for 2021.

Why Malaysia needs a ‘confidence and supply’ government, not a state of emergency

In a further blow to Muhyiddin, a separate statement by the Conference of Rulers – comprising eight of the country’s nine Malay sultans, who were consulted by the constitutional monarch over the matter – gave rise to suggestions that the royals felt the request for a declaration of emergency might have been a stretch of executive power on the prime minister’s part.

The sultans said part of the king’s duty was to limit the abuse of power, with “membatasi”, the Malay word for “limiting”, highlighted in red in a two-page statement that was otherwise printed in black.

02:17

Malaysia sets up Covid-19 test zones in the capital to hunt for ‘hidden’ coronavirus cases

Malaysia sets up Covid-19 test zones in the capital to hunt for ‘hidden’ coronavirus cases

After 22 months in opposition, Umno returned to the government fold in March after Muhyiddin staged an internal coup within the Pakatan Harapan alliance to which he belonged at the time, triggering the collapse of that government.

Muhyiddin, a former Umno member himself, is president of Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia (PPBM), which has 31 MPs. PPBM left Pakatan Harapan to form the Perikatan Nasional alliance that currently governs the country, and Muhyiddin was later appointed prime minister with the backing of Umno.

Awang Azman Awang Pawi, a political scientist with the University of Malaya, said he believed Umno now had little choice but to withdraw from Perikatan Nasional given the huge public uproar over the failed emergency plan.

“If Umno does not withdraw, then the people may consider Umno to be in support of Muhyiddin’s emergency proposal,” he told This Week in Asia. “This will cause Umno’s reputation to decline at a time when it is recovering [from the 2018 defeat] and the new grass roots members are becoming confident about the party.”

Also being parsed by analysts were signals from Umno that it was not consulted by Muhyiddin before he proposed the state of emergency to the king on Friday.

In a statement late on Sunday, the party’s current chief Zahid – a one-time deputy prime minister – praised the king’s decision, but curiously pointed out that the fiasco was an important learning point that had highlighted how key government decisions needed to be taken only after a consensus was reached among parties in the ruling alliance.

Oh from the Singapore Institute of International Affairs said it was likely that “not more than a handful or two of close Muhyiddin associates were consulted on the drastic emergency move”.

Analysts predicted that the Umno Supreme Council would likely deliberate on alternative permutations for the government in the event it decided to pull out from Perikatan Nasional.

Anwar cries foul as embattled PM Muhyiddin said to eye bid for emergency powers

The 73-year-old opposition leader on September 23 said he had garnered support from enough MPs to form a new “strong, formidable, convincing” administration in place of the fragile ruling alliance.

The would-be defectors are widely believed to be Umno MPs, though party leaders have demurred over whether they are working with Anwar.

01:50

Coronavirus: Malaysia arrests hundreds of undocumented migrants ‘to curb Covid-19’

Coronavirus: Malaysia arrests hundreds of undocumented migrants ‘to curb Covid-19’

Azmil Tayeb, a political analyst with Universiti Sains Malaysia, suggested that if Umno ultimately chose to withdraw support for Muhyiddin, it would mean Anwar would be nominated as the next prime ministerial candidate, with Mohamad Hasan – Umno’s current deputy president – picked as the deputy prime minister.

Under Malaysia’s constitution, replacing the prime minister, and a recomposition of the government, requires the king’s assent.

The University of Malaya’s Awang Azman said following the king’s weekend decision on the emergency, there was greater confidence that the royal institution should be the ultimate arbiter of the seemingly relentless political struggle the country has endured this year, even as it battles the Covid-19 pandemic.

“Malaysians now feel more confident about the Malay royal institution that serves as a check and balance in the context of the constitutional monarchy,” Awang Azman said.

“The council of rulers stated on Sunday that their role is to advance justice and limit the abuse of political power. Muhyiddin as prime minister should be compliant with this order and act in the interest of the people and not hold on to power in an undemocratic way through an emergency.”