Muhyiddin rues Najib's unrivalled unpopularity in Malaysian history

Former Deputy Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin said the country had never seen a more unpopular prime minister than Najib Abdul Razak.

"Never in the political history of the country has the popularity of a prime minister plummet to 27 percent. Never.

"Even when Pak Lah's (popularity) did not fall that much, nor did Mahathir's. Our leaders in the early days received extraordinary support.

"But today it is on the decline," he told a ceramah to Umno grassroots members in Pengerang, Johor today.

Muhyiddin noted that traditionally, BN would always get between 55 percent to 60 percent of bumiputera votes, be it Muslim or non-Muslim.

"But based on studies last year, the percentage had slid to 30 percent," he said.

Likewise, he said BN's support from the Chinese community in the last general election was 11 percent but had fallen to five percent.

Muhyiddin did not mention the source of his information but the data appeared consistent with a Merdeka Centre survey last year which found Malay support for Najib's government to be at 31 percent while Chinese support was at five percent.

He said based on such reading, BN may lose in the next general election under Najib leadership, which was why he is pressing for Najib's exit.

"The question is why did his (Najib) popularity dive? It can't fall on its own. There has to be a reason. Why is the popularity not as good as in the past?" he said.

Muhyiddin said Najib cannot be dissociated from the 1MDB scandal and there was now a crisis of confidence in the government.

"It order to avoid us losing in the next general election, that is why I had voiced out.

"Unfortunately when I voiced out, I was seen as a traitor, accused of challenging the leadership.

"But if change does not happen, we will lose," he said.

He reiterated that he was not out to overthrow the government, pointing out that he had previously pressured former premier Abdullah Ahmad Badawi to step down but the BN government remained in power. -Mkini