Embattled Malaysian Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin is expected to resign on Monday after a tumultuous 17 months in power marked by his government’s poor response to the COVID-19 pandemic and growing division within the ruling coalition, local media reports have said.
He is expected to inform the king of his decision after chairing his last cabinet meeting at 10am (02:00 GMT).
Muhyiddin, who has defied calls for him to step down, held a series of meetings with his party on Sunday after admitting in a televised address last week that he no longer had a majority to rule.
Afterwards, Mohamad Redzuan Yusof, a minister in the prime minister’s department, told online newspaper Malaysiakini that Muhyiddin had told the party he planned to resign the following day.
The political upheaval comes amid rising public anger at the continued surge in coronavirus cases despite months of various levels of lockdown.
Many Malaysians blame the government for spending too much time on politics and not enough time governing.
Some 12,510 people have died from the disease as overloaded government hospitals struggle to cope.
On Sunday, Malaysia recorded 20,546 cases on Sunday, its fourth successive day of more than 20,000 cases.
Who is Muhyiddin Yassin?
Muhyiddin, 74, is a veteran politician who began his career with the United Malays National Organisation (UMNO) before jumping ship amid the tumult of the multibillion-dollar 1MDB scandal in 2015.
He became prime minister in March 2020, after a week of political turmoil triggered by a power grab within the then-ruling Pakatan Harapan coalition that led to the resignation of his predecessor, Mahathir Mohamad.
Following days of uncertainty, Muhyiddin convinced the king he had sufficient support among members of parliament to form an administration.
His Perikatan Nasional (PN) coalition included his own Bersatu party – without founder Mahathir and his supporters – defectors from the previous administration’s Parti Keadilan Rakyat, as well as UMNO, Parti Islam Se Malaysia or PAS, the country’s Islamic party, and GPS, the ruling party in the Borneo state of Sarawak.
Muhyiddin’s cabinet included 70 people, the largest in Malaysian history, with four “senior ministers”. Some politicians were also appointed to prominent roles in government-linked businesses.
Muhyiddin was appointed prime minister after convincing the king he had a majority in parliament [File: Lim Huey Teng/Reuters]
What went wrong?
Muhyiddin’s support and legitimacy have been questioned ever since he came to power.
As a result of a pandemic lockdown, it was not until July 2020 that parliament sat for the first time following the change in government. Muhyiddin survived a delayed budget vote with a majority of just two.
Opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim has claimed a number of times he has the support to rule but it is UMNO that has proved to be Muhyiddin’s biggest headache.
Part of the country’s political landscape since it was founded in 1946, the PN-era saw an emerging split in the party’s upper echelons.
While those holding prominent positions in the cabinet backed the status quo, other senior members – including UMNO President Ahmad Zahid Hamidi and former Prime Minister Najib Razak – were more critical. Zahid is on trial on a slew of corruption charges while Najib was found guilty in the first of a series of 1MDB-linked trials in 2020.
Since September last year, the party has announced its withdrawal of support for Muhyiddin a number of times.
In July, hours before Zahid was expected to announce the party would no longer back him, Muhyiddin promoted Ismail Sabri Yaacob and Hishammuddin Hussein, the two most prominent UMNO politicians in his cabinet to senior roles. Sabri was named deputy prime minister.
What about COVID-19?
Shortly after taking power, Muhyiddin imposed a strict lockdown that proved largely effective in controlling the coronavirus.
Restrictions were slowly lifted and in July 2020, the country announced zero cases.
Malaysia’s death toll from the coronavirus pandemic has reached 12,510 as hospitals are pushed to the limit and more patients forced to isolate at home [File: Fazry Ismail/EPA]
But an outbreak had begun to pick up in the Borneo state of Sabah, where PN politicians began to move against the state government – aligned to the previous Pakatan Harapan administration.
A state election was called for September and politicians flew backwards and forwards between Sabah and Kuala Lumpur without being required to quarantine.
The result was a surge in cases that led to new restrictions being imposed in October. The rules were relaxed again just before the Christmas and New Year holidays – a popular time for travel in Malaysia – and in January cases surged again.
Muhyiddin, under increasing pressure politically, then announced he had secured the king’s backing for a state of emergency in order to battle the pandemic. The decision also suspended parliament.
Since then, cases have continued to rise, triggering what Muhyiddin called a “total lockdown” in June when the country was reporting 7,000 cases a day.
The prolonged disruption to business and schooling, coupled with a lack of financial support, has heightened anger among many Malaysians.
There have been protests by young people, a strike by junior doctors and a grassroots campaign to provide assistance to those most in need.
“It is evident that the current strategy is not working, and the current administration has failed,” IMAN, a Malaysian think-tank, said in a statement on Sunday. “A new strategy and a new leadership are urgently needed.”
One of the few bright spots, has been a noticeable acceleration in the country’s vaccination programme following a sluggish start. Some 32.9 percent of the population have now had two shots, according to the government.
Malaysians take part in a rare anti-government rally in Kuala Lumpur on July 31, 2021, despite a tough COVID-19 coronavirus lockdown in place restricting gatherings and public assemblies {File: Arif Kartono/ AFP]
Who could take over?
It is not clear who could emerge as the country’s next prime minister, given the fluid state of political loyalties.
The ructions could see UMNO’s return to pole position.
Among those in the frame are Ismail Sabri, despite his prominent role in handling the pandemic.
Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah, a veteran UMNO leader, is also said to be a possibility.
On the opposition side, Anwar Ibrahim, may see this as his last chance to be prime minister, a position which has long eluded him.
Rather than focussing on who should be the next prime minister, the opposition Democratic Action Party (DAP) said politicians should be looking at an effective COVID-19 ‘reset plan’, measures to support the economy and institutional reform.
What about the king’s role?
Malaysia has a unique system of monarchy where the role of king is rotated every five years among the nine Malay sultans.
The current monarch, King Al-Sultan Abdullah, is from the central state of Pahang and took the throne in 2019.
It is a constitutional monarchy, but the king has become increasingly prominent since Muhyiddin took charge.
He met each member of parliament individually before being convinced Muhyiddin had the support to form a government but also rejected Muhyiddin’s first request for an emergency last year.
In June, amid the deepening COVID-19 crisis and continued political manoeuvring, he called for parliament to sit “as soon as possible”, repeating the call two weeks later.
Malaysia has a consitutional moinarch but the king has taken a more prominent role during months of political uncertainty [File: Fazry Ismail/EPA]
MONTREAL – A Quebec political party has voted to support one of its members facing backlash for saying that racialized people are regularly disparaged at the provincial legislature.
Québec solidaire members adopted an emergency resolution at the party’s convention late Sunday condemning the hate directed at Haroun Bouazzi, without endorsing his comments.
Bouazzi, who represents a Montreal riding, had told a community group that he hears comments every day at the legislature that portray North African, Muslim, Black or Indigenous people as the “other,” and that paint their cultures are dangerous or inferior.
Other political parties have said Bouazzi’s remarks labelled elected officials as racists, and the co-leaders of his own party had rebuked him for his “clumsy and exaggerated” comments.
Bouazzi, who has said he never intended to describe his colleagues as racist, thanked his party for their support and for their commitment to the fight against systemic racism.
Party co-spokesperson Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois said after Sunday’s closed-door debate that he considers the matter to be closed.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 18, 2024.
RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — Democrats who control both chambers of the Virginia legislature are hoping to make good on promises made on the campaign trail, including becoming the first Southern state to expand constitutional protections for abortion access.
The House Privileges and Elections Committee advanced three proposed constitutional amendments Wednesday, including a measure to protect reproductive rights. Its members also discussed measures to repeal a now-defunct state constitutional ban on same-sex marriage and ways to revise Virginia’s process to restore voting rights for people who served time for felony crimes.
“This meeting was an important next step considering the moment in history we find ourselves in,” Democratic Del. Cia Price, the committee chair, said during a news conference. “We have urgent threats to our freedoms that could impact constituents in all of the districts we serve.”
The at-times raucous meeting will pave the way for the House and Senate to take up the resolutions early next year after lawmakers tabled the measures last January. Democrats previously said the move was standard practice, given that amendments are typically introduced in odd-numbered years. But Republican Minority Leader Todd Gilbert said Wednesday the committee should not have delved into the amendments before next year’s legislative session. He said the resolutions, particularly the abortion amendment, need further vetting.
“No one who is still serving remembers it being done in this way ever,” Gilbert said after the meeting. “Certainly not for something this important. This is as big and weighty an issue as it gets.”
The Democrats’ legislative lineup comes after Republican Governor Glenn Youngkin, to the dismay of voting-rights advocates, rolled back a process to restore people’s civil rights after they completed sentences for felonies. Virginia is the only state that permanently bans anyone convicted of a felony from voting unless a governor restores their rights.
“This amendment creates a process that is bounded by transparent rules and criteria that will apply to everybody — it’s not left to the discretion of a single individual,” Del. Elizabeth Bennett-Parker, the patron of the voting rights resolution, which passed along party lines, said at the news conference.
Though Democrats have sparred with the governor over their legislative agenda, constitutional amendments put forth by lawmakers do not require his signature, allowing the Democrat-led House and Senate to bypass Youngkin’s blessing.
Instead, the General Assembly must pass proposed amendments twice in at least two years, with a legislative election sandwiched between each statehouse session. After that, the public can vote by referendum on the issues. The cumbersome process will likely hinge upon the success of all three amendments on Democrats’ ability to preserve their edge in the House and Senate, where they hold razor-thin majorities.
It’s not the first time lawmakers have attempted to champion the three amendments. Republicans in a House subcommittee killed a constitutional amendment to restore voting rights in 2022, a year after the measure passed in a Democrat-led House. The same subcommittee also struck down legislation supporting a constitutional amendment to repeal an amendment from 2006 banning marriage equality.
On Wednesday, a bipartisan group of lawmakers voted 16-5 in favor of legislation protecting same-sex marriage, with four Republicans supporting the resolution.
“To say the least, voters enacted this (amendment) in 2006, and we have had 100,000 voters a year become of voting age since then,” said Del. Mark Sickles, who sponsored the amendment as one of the first openly gay men serving in the General Assembly. “Many people have changed their opinions of this as the years have passed.”
A constitutional amendment protecting abortion previously passed the Senate in 2023 but died in a Republican-led House. On Wednesday, the amendment passed on party lines.
If successful, the resolution proposed by House Majority Leader Charniele Herring would be part of a growing trend of reproductive rights-related ballot questions given to voters. Since 2022, 18 questions have gone before voters across the U.S., and they have sided with abortion rights advocates 14 times.
The voters have approved constitutional amendments ensuring the right to abortion until fetal viability in nine states: Arizona, California, Colorado, Maryland, Michigan, Missouri, Montana, Ohio and Vermont. Voters also passed a right-to-abortion measure in Nevada in 2024, but it must be passed again in 2026 to be added to the state constitution.
As lawmakers debated the measure, roughly 18 members spoke. Mercedes Perkins, at 38 weeks pregnant, described the importance of women making decisions about their own bodies. Rhea Simon, another Virginia resident, anecdotally described how reproductive health care shaped her life.
Then all at once, more than 50 people lined up to speak against the abortion amendment.
“Let’s do the compassionate thing and care for mothers and all unborn children,” resident Sheila Furey said.
The audience gave a collective “Amen,” followed by a round of applause.
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Associated Press writer Geoff Mulvihill in Cherry Hill, New Jersey, contributed to this report.
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Olivia Diaz is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative.
NEW YORK (AP) — President-elect Donald Trump says he will nominate anti-vaccine activist Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to lead the Department of Health and Human Services, putting him in charge of a massive agency that oversees everything from drug, vaccine and food safety to medical research and the social safety net programs Medicare and Medicaid.
“For too long, Americans have been crushed by the industrial food complex and drug companies who have engaged in deception, misinformation, and disinformation when it comes to Public Health,” Trump said in a post on his Truth Social site announcing the appointment. Kennedy, he said, would “Make America Great and Healthy Again!”
Kennedy, a former Democrat who ran as an independent in this year’s presidential race, abandoned his bid after striking a deal to give Trump his endorsement with a promise to have a role in health policy in the administration.
He and Trump have since become good friends, with Kennedy frequently receiving loud applause at Trump’s rallies.
The expected appointment was first reported by Politico Thursday.
A longtime vaccine skeptic, Kennedy is an attorney who has built a loyal following over several decades of people who admire his lawsuits against major pesticide and pharmaceutical companies. He has pushed for tighter regulations around the ingredients in foods.
With the Trump campaign, he worked to shore up support among young mothers in particular, with his message of making food healthier in the U.S., promising to model regulations imposed in Europe. In a nod to Trump’s original campaign slogan, he named the effort “Make America Healthy Again.”
It remains unclear how that will square with Trump’s history of deregulation of big industries, including food. Trump pushed for fewer inspections of the meat industry, for example.
Kennedy’s stance on vaccines has also made him a controversial figure among Democrats and some Republicans, raising question about his ability to get confirmed, even in a GOP-controlled Senate. Kennedy has espoused misinformation around the safety of vaccines, including pushing a totally discredited theory that childhood vaccines cause autism.
He also has said he would recommend removing fluoride from drinking water. The addition of the material has been cited as leading to improved dental health.
HHS has more than 80,000 employees across the country. It houses the Food and Drug Administration, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Medicare and Medicaid programs and the National Institutes of Health.
Kennedy’s anti-vaccine nonprofit group, Children’s Health Defense, currently has a lawsuit pending against a number of news organizations, among them The Associated Press, accusing them of violating antitrust laws by taking action to identify misinformation, including about COVID-19 and COVID-19 vaccines. Kennedy took leave from the group when he announced his run for president but is listed as one of its attorneys in the lawsuit.
Malaysia’s death toll from the coronavirus pandemic has reached 12,510 as hospitals are pushed to the limit and more patients forced to isolate at home [File: Fazry Ismail/EPA]
Malaysians take part in a rare anti-government rally in Kuala Lumpur on July 31, 2021, despite a tough COVID-19 coronavirus lockdown in place restricting gatherings and public assemblies {File: Arif Kartono/ AFP]
Malaysia has a consitutional moinarch but the king has taken a more prominent role during months of political uncertainty [File: Fazry Ismail/EPA]
