Sin Chew Daily

Prime minister Muhyiddin Yassin on Wednesday suddenly announced the appointment of Umno vice president Ismail Sabri Yaakob as deputy prime minister, and Hishammuddin Hussein, who does not hold any party post, as a senior minister.

It is believed that the appointments have been made to hold down Umno, whose president Ahmad Zahid hit back at the PM early next morning and withdrew his party's support for him.

If all Umno MPs were to quit the PN government, then the already weak Muhyiddin would lose the support of majority of MPs, and the King would likely appoint an interim PM to lead the nation until the next election is held.

As a matter of fact, a new round of power struggle has just started right from this very moment. Umno and Bersatu, as well as anti-Muhyiddin and pro-Muhyiddin factions within Umno, are planning their next moves in order to gain an upper hand in this whole power-grabbing game. They will start doing something, at least before the special parliament sitting slated for July 26 through August 2.

If Ahmad Zahid's statement to retract support for Muhyiddin has not won the support of Umno ministers and supreme council members, it will not do any harm to the PM, to be honest.

Already a handful of Umno supreme council members have voiced their dissatisfaction with the president's announcement, feeling that it has not reflected the actual decisions made at the supreme council meeting.

As the crack within Umno gets increasingly visible now, the next possible development could be the sacking of several party leaders defying the president's orders.

So far Muhyiddin has not responded to the Umno president's statement yet. It has been reported that several ministers and the attorney-general were at Muhyiddin's residence early Thursday and their next moves are poised to steal national limelight.

It now appears that Muhyiddin will still be prime minster, and the Umno ministers will continue to execute their ministerial duties even as the PN government is in an extremely precarious position.

In the statement announcing the appointment of Ismail Sabri and Hishammuddin, Muhyiddin said he hoped the appointments would strengthen the unity among parties that form the government.

Indeed, a powerful and stable government is of paramount importance to a country that is still fighting the coronavirus in full force, and Muhyiddin needs the staunch support of the MPs to do so, including those from Pakatan Harapan, Warisan, Pejuang, etc. towards a confidence and supply agreement (CSA) to keep the government stable.

The distrust now is between Bersatu and Umno which started when Bersatu roped in Umno's elected reps.

While Muhyiddin still has the support of Umno ministers, any political move from Ahmad Zahid is poised to give the PM a headache. For example, pursuant to the Umno president's early morning announcement, Muhyiddin will now have to prove that he still enjoys the support of majority of MPs.

The statutory declarations deliberately signed by MPs and the subsequent reversal of their political stand have proven to be of little use and value. As such, His Majesty may not accept any more SDs from anyone.

To put a definite end to the current political stalemate, the best way is for Muhyiddin to open-heartedly allow the lawmakers to vote on him in the Dewan to prove his real strength.

Nevertheless, no one would want an election at this moment because the pandemic is still very serious and we do not want to open even the slightest crack that could lead to an explosive growth in the number of new infections.

Impacted by the pandemic, already many people have problem putting food on the table and the "raise a white flag" campaign speaks volumes of the desperation of many Malaysians. Many businesses have been locked out and if key economic powerhouses such as Selangor are unable to free themselves from the scourge of the virus with protracted lockdowns, the economic fallout will soon snowball into something that will eventually bring down the whole country's economy.

Politicians must realize that their most pressing task now is to get their priorities right and fight for the interest of the rakyat, not their own. Many more people will die if we allow politics and pandemic to further gather steam.