Sun 15 August 2021:
According to a minister, Malaysia’s embattled leader will offer his resignation to the king on Monday. His resignation would bring an end to his 17-month government and a new round of turbulence in the country.
Muhyiddin Yassin has come under pressure to step down since losing his parliamentary majority and also for his administration’s response to a worsening Coronavirus outbreak.
Making a last-ditch effort to hold on to power, on Friday he offered institutional reforms in exchange for support from the opposition. However, the offer was rejected.
Minister Mohamad Redzuan Yusof told AFP that Muhyiddin informed his party’s lawmakers about his resignation at a meeting Sunday in Kuala Lumpur. It would be up to King Mohammed to accept Muhyiddin’s resignation or not, he said at the meeting.
The prime minister will convene a final cabinet meeting on Monday; he will then present his resignation letter at the palace.
“We did try to convince him to stay on, but he said: ‘We do not have the number of MPs.’
In Malaysia, the constitutional monarch appoints the candidate he believes commands majority support in parliament as premier.
Muhyiddin took power in March 2020 after initiating the collapse of the former reformist government that won the 2018 elections. His party joined hands with UMNO and several others to form a new government that is unstable. UMNO has been unhappy with playing second fiddle to Muhyiddin’s smaller party.
He had been ruling by ordinance without legislative approval since January after suspending Parliament under a state of emergency declared to battle the coronavirus. Critics say he used the emergency, which expired on August 1, to avoid a vote in Parliament that would show he had lost a majority of support.
Public anger with his government has mounted after a lockdown imposed in June failed to contain the virus, with daily cases soaring above 20,000 this month.
Malaysia reported 21,468 new cases on Friday, bringing its confirmed total to 1.36 million. Deaths have soared to near 12,000.
(With inputs from agencies)
