Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin made a wild suggestion during his anniversary speech today after telling Malaysians that he hoped to be “re-elected” in the next general election.
Muhyiddin, 73, made the remark when he was wrapping up his speech at the “One Year of Malaysia Cares” event marking his first anniversary as prime minister. After touching on the COVID-19 situation and the economy, Muhyiddin hinted that a general election could take place in the near future and he hopes to see his National Alliance government “re-elected” when that happens.
“When the election is held, we will leave it to the people to decide whether the [National Alliance] should be re-elected or otherwise,” Muhyiddin said today, adding: “My hope is they will re-elect us.”
“Of course, you are free to choose. That is what democracy is all about,” he said.
His remark and preach about democracy puzzled many Malaysians since his administration never contested in the previous election in 2018 and was instead born out of political realignments following the “Sheraton Move.”
Muhyiddin became prime minister on Feb. 29 after his predecessor Mahathir Mohamad resigned, ending the latter’s two-year leadership following the 2018 election victory. Muhyiddin said that he would advise the king to dissolve parliament when the state of emergency expires on Aug. 1, paving the way for a general election.
“Once the pandemic is over, which I hope will be very soon, I will then advise the [king] to then dissolve parliament,” Muhyiddin said.
Opposition politician and Lembah Pantai MP Fahmi Fadzil were among those who noted that nobody had voted for the National Alliance coalition, or PN, in the previous elections.
“The people never voted for PN in GE14. PN didn’t even exist then,” he wrote. PN was officially formed on May 17 last year, more than three months after Muhyiddin became prime minister.
“Re-elected??? Who elected PN in the first place sir??” Twitter user @Syakirfwzi asked.
During the anniversary of the Sheraton Hotel meeting that led to Muhyiddin’s eventual ascent, Malaysians on Twitter used the hashtag #SetahunPengkhianatan, or “a year of betrayal” in Malay, to remind the PN administration that nobody voted for them in the first place.
Other stories to check out:
Malaysians mark a year of Muhyiddin’s rule with ‘traitor’s day’ tweets
Reader Interactions