OF the three main coalitions slugging it out in the March 12 Johor state election, Perikatan Nasional (PN) appears to be lagging behind the resource-rich Barisan Nasional (BN) and the more established Pakatan Harapan (PH).
However, as a Johorean, I am rooting for PN. One big reason is because it is led by Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin.
Many things have been said about the country’s eighth Prime Minister (PM), including labels like “backdoor PM” or the mastermind of the “Sheraton Move”. But there’s more to Muhyiddin than these accusations.
Here’s the man who, as Deputy Prime Minister, spoke out against ex-Premier Datuk Seri Najib Razak over the 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) scandal in 2015. The move cost Muhyiddin his job when he could have taken the easy way out by playing along, and eventually inherited the country’s coveted top post from the beleaguered Najib.
Muhyiddin eventually went on to become the PM under controversial circumstances with UMNO and PAS’ backing. But it was no different from how Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim had engineered defections of MPs multiple times to realise his elusive goal of becoming the PM.
During his short-lived tenure as PM, Muhyiddin had provided a steady hand steering the country amid the devastating COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting economic downturn.
On the economic front, Malaysia was one of the first countries in the world to provide a moratorium on bank loans to give borrowers hard hit by the pandemic some breathing space. For those who could hardly make ends meet, this meant a lot.
And over his 20-month premiership, Muhyiddin had introduced a series of aid and stimulus packages to help Malaysians get through lives and livelihood challenges. Packages like PERMAI, PRIHATIN, PEMERKASA and PEMULIH ran into billions of ringgit.
These were in forms like wage subsidies that helped companies retain employees who would otherwise be let go and unlikely to find employment at the height of the pandemic. With the aid, they could continue to put food on the table.
The B40 and micro small and medium enterprises which were among the worst-hit also received a leg-up in the forms of direct cash aid, grants, cheap loans or government guarantees. This help from Abah kept them afloat.
In terms of managing the pandemic, credit must be given to Muhyiddin for the speedy roll-out of the National COVID-19 Immunisation Plan. Despite some initial delay, Malaysia’s immunisation programme went on to become one of the fastest in the world.
Muhyiddin understood the importance of immunisation to get the country back on track. Today, despite the surging infections brought on by the Omicron variant, the economy shows no signs of sliding back to the days of movement control orders (MCOs) due to our high vaccination rate. We must thank Muhyiddin’s foresight in this.
Alas, Muhyiddin’s tenure was cut short due to the political wrangling that led to his ouster. But as Muhyiddin had disclosed, the masterminds behind the putsch were UMNO’s “court cluster” who have been convicted of wrongdoings or face criminal charges.
They had wanted Muhyiddin to interfere in their legal proceedings which the latter refused to. Just as Muhyiddin stood firm in speaking up on 1MDB in 2015, he, too, did not succumb to temptation to meddle in the judiciary.
And in both instances, he paid a heavy price because he stood by his principles. For that, Muhyiddin deserves my respect and voters in Johor ought to give the coalition he leads a chance.
Jeffery Koh is a voter in Johor Bahru.
The views expressed are solely of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Focus Malaysia.
