Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin leaves Istana Negara in Kuala Lumpur March 1, 2020. — Picture by Firdaus Latif
COMMENTARY, March 2 — As the dust of last week’s political impasse settles, Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin is staring at a long bumpy road ahead.
While trying to draft a new course for the country, Muhyiddin has to face two formidable opponents: Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad and Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim.
Mahathir, the man who triggered the political impasse last Monday when he resigned now leads the Opposition with the man he did not want to succeed him as prime minister — Anwar — by his side.
Working on fixing the country’s socio-economic problems may prove to be not as difficult for Muhyiddin as facing the political upheavals that will follow in the next few months.
Muhyiddin is experienced in governing given his years in government. His first priority is to have a capable and trustworthy Cabinet line-up.
He may be faced with demands from various parties in his loose coalition which includes parties in Sabah and Sarawak.
It is important that he puts the people’s interests on top of the agenda given that it was bread and butter issues that was the main grievance against the PH government.
Then he has to face the motion of no confidence in the first few days of Parliament’s next sitting.
However, this may not be a problem as Malaysians are known to support whoever is in power.
Muhyiddin may even have nearly two-thirds of MPs in Parliament raising their hands in support of him which will leave Mahathir and Anwar red-faced.
In the meantime, DAP may take a back seat and let the Malays and their leaders battle it out after all, the party will still survive as long as the country is divided between Malays and Chinese.