Last week, suspended Bersatu Supreme Council member Wan Ahmad Fayhsal Wan Ahmad Kamal made a startling claim — that Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin himself was the sole reason why Perikatan Nasional (PN) failed to form the government after GE15 in 2022.
For context, PN was the first coalition to claim it had the numbers to form the government, and even went so far as to publicly declare that it would do so. Yet, inexplicably, it was Anwar Ibrahim and Pakatan Harapan (PH) who were eventually invited to form the government.
For a long time, Malaysians have wondered what really happened behind those closed doors at the palace. Wan Fayhsal’s revelation seems to finally offer an answer.
According to him, Muhyiddin was indeed offered the chance to form the unity government first, but he declined the King’s proposal on his own accord — without consulting the PN Supreme Council, without deliberation, and without consensus. His reason? Simply because he did not wish to work with DAP.
Machang MP Wan Fayhsal said he was told by senior PAS and Bersatu leaders that Muhyiddin made the decision instantly, right before His Majesty Al-Sultan Abdullah, without seeking the views of either Bersatu or PAS leadership.
“In other words, the decision was made instantly, right before His Majesty,” Wan Fayhsal said during the Zaid Ibrahim Podcast.
He also revealed that there had been a proposal for a rotational premiership between Muhyiddin and Anwar, given that both PN and PH held strong positions post-GE15. But “perhaps on principle,” Wan Fayhsal said, Muhyiddin refused — either because of his long-standing dislike for DAP, or because he believed PN’s supposed 115 seats were enough to secure the government.
As a result of that unilateral decision, the King turned instead to Anwar Ibrahim — who succeeded in forming the unity government with support from Barisan Nasional (BN), Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS), Gabungan Rakyat Sabah (GRS), Warisan, and others.
Wan Fayhsal noted that this decision also marked the beginning of internal friction within Bersatu and PN. Many leaders felt the coalition should have taken more time to deliberate instead of rejecting the King’s proposal outright.
Unsurprisingly, Muhyiddin’s camp is dismissing Wan Fayhsal’s version of events as the rantings of a suspended member with an axe to grind. Marzuki Mohamad, Muhyiddin’s former principal private secretary, for instance, denied that the Bersatu president acted alone.
He claimed that PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang was also present during the audience with the King, saying:
“Did Muhyiddin act alone? No, he did not. Also present was Hadi. PAS, too, has a policy of not cooperating with DAP.”
But I find that line of defence weak. Marzuki could have simply said that Hadi himself rejected the King’s proposal — but he didn’t. Instead, he merely alluded to Hadi’s presence, as if expecting Malaysians to assume that Hadi silently agreed with Muhyiddin.
Personally, I find Wan Fayhsal’s version more believable because it aligns with my reading of Muhyiddin’s character.
Muhyiddin is not a winner. He’s not the kind of man who goes out to get what he wants. He’s the kind who waits for things to come to him — and when they don’t, he hides behind the excuse of being “principled.”
Weak people often act as if they are good and principled — not because they truly are, but because they believe that by being seen as “good,” the universe will reward them. A genuinely principled person on the other hand, is not weak. As a matter of fact, they are usually stronger than winners because even winners will hesitate to sacrifice themselves or accept defeat for the sake of their pursuit, but a principled person will be able to sacrifice themselves and accept defeat for the sake of the greater good or for the sake of their principles.
If Muhyiddin were truly principled, he would have stood up for his convictions regardless of the outcome. But according to Wan Fayhsal, he didn’t. He merely acted principled to get what he wanted — and when he didn’t get it, he simply gave up his principles, and lamented and complained instead.
That tells you all you need to know about Muhyiddin Yassin.
He is a weak leader — one who expects others to hand him victory because he cannot summon the strength, courage, and determination to seize it himself.
I’ve been saying this for years: one of Perikatan Nasional’s greatest curses is that it is led by a sheep like Muhyiddin.
It doesn’t matter if PN is an army of lions — if it is led by a sheep, it will still fail.
The fact that PN continues to struggle to remove a leader who has repeatedly snatched defeat from the jaws of victory, speaks volumes about how blur, weak, and impotent the coalition itself is.
I will put the terms bluntly to PN as it is.
The right way of looking at Muhyiddin is that he is weak, not that he is good or principled.
If you want to find somebody good and principled to lead you, that is all good and well, but if you can't, then the next best thing you should look for is for winner that is capable of getting what they want.
The worst mistake you can make is to confuse weakness for principle. When you do that, you end up admiring someone who isn’t noble — just helpless. Such a person isn’t guided by conviction, but by the delusion that the universe owes them a reward for merely appearing virtuous. And when that reward doesn’t come, they beat their chest, look to the heavens, and ask why the gods have forsaken them — never realising that the gods help only those who help themselves, not those who expect divine servants to deliver everything they desire simply because they have mastered the art of looking good.
The sooner that PN understands this, the better.
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