The Malaysian king has appointed Muhyiddin Yassin as Malaysia’s 8th Prime Minister on Saturday (2/29/2020) afternoon. This decision was taken after the King of Malaysia met with the leaders of political parties to ask for the names of the candidates for their respective prime ministers.

Reporting from the Anadolu news agency, Sunday (1/2/2020), Muhyiddin Yassin was born 72 years ago in Johor, Malaysia. He began his political career when he joined the United Malays National Organization (UMNO) as a member in 1971.

Muhyiddin’s career began racing when he became a member of parliament in the 1978 general election of UMNO and maintained his seat until 1982.

In the 1986 election, Muhyidin was elected governor of Johor Province, Malaysia. His tenure as governor lasted until 1995.

Furthermore, the political career of Noorainee Abdul Rahman’s husband was increasingly uphill by being chosen as Minister of Youth and Sports (1995-1999), Minister of Trade and Domestic Consumers (1999-2004), Minister of Agriculture (2004-2008) and Minister of International Trade and Industry ( 2008-2009) before becoming deputy prime minister.

He was appointed Deputy Prime Minister by Prime Minister Najib Razak in 2009 and simultaneously held the post of Minister of Education.

As Minister of Education and Deputy Prime Minister, Muhyidin once made a policy of returning Malay as the language of instruction in Mathematics and Science, in all Malaysian primary and secondary schools.

Conflict with Mahathir

In 2016, Muhyiddin and Mahathir jointly established the Malaysian United Indigenous Party (PPBM). He was later trusted to be president, while Mahathir became chairman.

Mahathir also appointed Muhyiddin as interior minister when the Pakatan Harapan coalition, which was supported by PPBM, the People’s Justice Party (PKR), Democratic Action Party (DAP), and the State Amanah Party, won the election in 2018-2020.

However, relations between the two began to drift apart when Mahathir resigned as prime minister on February 24, 2020.

PPBM also opted out of the Pakatan Harapan coalition and established communications with UMNO and PAS, which had previously been an opposition party. These three parties are known for their thought of maintaining Malay identity in Malaysia.

Mahathir Mohamad suddenly resumed running for Malaysia’s prime minister after meeting with the Pakatan Harapan coalition.

However, PPBM had previously declared Muhyiddin Yasin as a prime minister candidate to the King of Malaysia. A conflict broke out in the PPBM body between the pro Muhyiddin and pro Mahathir.

Muhyiddin also refused to re-appoint Mahathir as party chairman because he had previously resigned.

To overcome this political turmoil, the King of Malaysia also summoned the heads of political parties that have members in parliament to present the choice of their respective prime minister candidates.

This decision was taken because the King did not get the majority certainty in determining the name of the prime minister candidate after interviewing 222 members of the Malaysian parliament.

The Malaysian king finally declared Muhyiddin Yassin as prime minister after gaining majority trust from each of the existing parliamentarians.

Muhyiddin Yassin will be sworn in and take the oath of office as prime minister on Sunday at 10:30 local time.