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'I will come back': Malaysia's ex-PM Muhyiddin defends track record

2021-08-21 00:00:00.0 海峡时报-亚洲原网页

KUALA LUMPUR - Malaysia's caretaker Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin has defended his track record during the shortest premiership stint in Malaysian history, and has said that he is still hopeful of a return to power in the future.

During a farewell message to civil servants made on Monday (Aug 17), the day of his resignation, Tan Sri Muhyiddin said that his 18-month long administration had done what it could to manage the Covid-19 crisis while trying to balance it with the economic impact that lockdowns bring.

"What goes up now, maybe must come down. But what goes down now, God willing, I will come back," said Tan Sri Muhyiddin during a dawn address hours before his resignation.

The recording of his address was posted on Friday (Aug 20) evening on his Facebook page, hours after Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob was announced as his successor by the King, Sultan Abdullah Ahmad Shah.

Mr Muhyiddin had spent five days after his resignation as the caretaker Prime Minister. Mr Ismail was set to be sworn in on Saturday and officially assume duties.

Mr Muhyiddin said that it was "not correct" to say he did not do anything to manage the crisis, while also pointing out that he had never seen Malaysians in such dire straits as they were in the past year following a series of lockdowns.

"So it is just about one year that we struggled, and in the one year, we also achieved. There are records of sorts. I need to thump my chest a little on this because nobody else wants to praise me and I did not ask them to praise me," Mr Muhyiddin said, referring to the country's high vaccination rates. To date, more than half of Malaysia's adult population has been fully vaccinated.

He said the Cabinet he had formed had nothing else to focus on except for Covid-19. Malaysia entered its first lockdown on March 18, just over two weeks into Mr Muhyiddin's premiership.

The country has remained under some form of economic and social restrictions for the rest of his tenure, only seeing close to full reopening of the economy from June to October last year, and again in December last year.

Mr Muhyiddin imposed a second lockdown in January and also pushed for a state of emergency, which lasted seven months and expired on Aug 1.

He reintroduced lockdowns halfway through the year, as fresh infection spikes from the Delta variant caused the economy to come under several stages of lockdowns since mid-May.

Gradual reopening of limited business sectors has only been announced this month onwards, as the country has fully inoculated more than half of its adult population to date.

Umno vice-president Ismail Sabri Yaakob with Malaysia's caretaker Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin in Putrajaya on July 7, 2020. PHOTO: BERNAMA