Ever since Muhyiddin Yassin topped the vice-presidential sweepstakes in the Umno polls of 1993, he has had his eyes firmly fixed on becoming prime minister of Malaysia.
That year he caused a major surprise by beating Najib Abdul Razak to the top slot in the VP line-up.
Cabinet minister Najib, Johor Menteri Besar Muhyiddin and Selangor MB Muhammad Muhd Taib were the Wawasan candidates for the veep slots.
The Wawasan (Vision) trio was allied to then party deputy president Anwar Ibrahim.
They were regarded as shoo-ins for the posts; only the particular order of their eventual ranking was in doubt.
The findings of a pre-election survey of the delegates to the party’s elective assembly conducted by Mansor Othman, the incumbent Nibong Tebal MP who was then a Universiti Sains Malaysia academic associated with Anwar, were conveyed to the three contestants a couple of weeks before the conclave.
It had Muhyiddin topping the survey, with Najib in second place, and Muhd Taib third.
The survey turned out to be remarkably accurate.
Its lasting residue was that henceforth you could not put it out of Muhyiddin’s mind that the premiership was the coveted goal of his career.
Malaysia’s fifth prime minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi would come to rue his Mahathir-coerced choice of Najib as deputy prime minister in January 2004.
Abdullah had wanted to wait for Umno’s internal elections before deciding who was to be DPM after he had taken over from Mahathir in October 2003.
But Mahathir pressured him to choose Najib rather than allow him to wait for the Umno polls to decide the matter.
Muhyiddin was slighted by the choice of Najib.
He did not forgive Abdullah and piled on the pressure after a hapless Abdullah was left reeling as Umno president and Malaysia’s PM, following the opposition’s denial of BN’s supermajority in Parliament in the March 2008 general elections.
The Chinese bogey
How does one know that a politician from one of the major political parties is qualified to be prime minister of Malaysia?
Besides a capacity for leadership and a talent for organisation, coupled with English language proficiency of course, a PM aspirant must evince an ability to transcend the inherent limitations that come with being a stellar presence in his or her party.
For example, if that aspirant is from Umno, he or she must be able to articulate and defend Malay interests without suggesting that that espousal will gravely infringe non-Malay interests.
No doubt, this is difficult to bring off, but that is what it takes to be reckoned as prime ministerial timber.
Muhyiddin hasn’t been able to do so.
As deputy prime minister (April 2009 till July 2015) his insistence he is “Malay first” before being Malaysian was a telling reflection of his inability to balance the two identities.
From the time he was dropped as DPM in 2015 and subsequently sacked from Umno, through the gestation period of Bersatu - the Dr Mahathir Mohamad-initiated political vehicle for Malay anti-Najib forces - Muhyiddin was talking to the DAP.
His channel to DAP was party strategist Liew Chin Tong.
Liew had revealed in a series of articles following the Sheraton Move that had gained for Muhyiddin the PM’s post, the latter sought the DAP’s backing for his PM goal.
After Liew’s disclosures, circa 2020, DAP elder statesman Lim Kit Siang revealed earlier this year that Muhyiddin had sought his help in getting DAP’s backing for his goal of becoming PM.
There’s nothing wrong with these post-seeking manoeuvres by Muhyiddin except that, for him now, it is not alright when other Malay leaders, like Anwar, trod the same path.
Muhyiddin implies that a Malay leader backed by the DAP inevitably means he has to ingratiate himself with the Chinese-dominant party, thereby sacrificing Malay interests.
What’s hypocritical about this stirring of the Chinese bogey in Malay minds is that Muhyiddin would have no qualms about insisting he is “Malay first” when he knows he would readily parley with them to obtain and keep the top prize.
This is the kind of PM-covetousness the country does not need. - Mkini
TERENCE NETTO is a journalist with half a century's experience.
The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of MMKtT.
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