Muhyiddin Yassin

Mahiaddin bin Md Yasin^{[note 1]} (born 15 May 1947), commonly known as Muhyiddin Yassin,^{[note 2]} is a Malaysian politician and civil servant who served as the eighth prime minister of Malaysia from 2020 until his resignation in 2021 after losing parliamentary support amid the 2020–2022 political crisis.^[5] A president of BERSATU, he represented Pagoh in Dewan Rakyat since 1995 and previously served as the Menteri Besar of Johor from 1986 to 1995.

Born in Johor. Muhyiddin started his career in the state public service after graduating from University of Malaya (UM). He assumed management positions at various state-owned enterprise. In 1978, he was elected as the Member of Parliament for Pagoh. During this term, he was appointed parliamentary secretary to the minister of foreign affairs, deputy minister of federal territories and later deputy minister of trade and industry. As the Johor UMNO chief, he was the state's Menteri Besar from 1986 to 1995. He returned to federal politics in 1995. He was appointed to the Cabinet as Minister of Youth and Sports. He was appointed Minister of Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs after the 1999 general election and became a vice president of UMNO in 2000. Under the premiership of Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, Muhyiddin served as Minister of Agriculture and Agro-based Industry from 2004 to 2008, and then as Minister of International Trade and Industry from 2008 to 2009.

In 2008, he contested and won the UMNO deputy presidency and was appointed Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Education by Prime Minister Najib Razak in 2009. As Minister of Education, Muhyiddin ended the use of English as the medium of instruction for science and mathematics in public schools. He also attracted controversy after describing himself as "Malay first" when challenged by the Opposition to pronounce himself as "Malaysian first". Muhyiddin was a vocal critic of his government and party over the 1MDB scandal; as a result, he was dropped from his position during Najib's mid-term cabinet reshuffle in July 2015, marking the first incumbent UMNO deputy president to be left out of the president's cabinet. In June 2016, he was expelled from UMNO.^[6]

He participated in founding the political party Malaysian United Indigenous Party (BERSATU) under Mahathir in 2016. He returned to the cabinet after his coalition of parties Pakatan Harapan won the 2018 Malaysian general election.^[7] In February 2020, BERSATU withdrew from Pakatan Harapan, culminating in a political crisis as the coalition lost its majority in the Dewan Rakyat. Following Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad's subsequent resignation, Muhyiddin successfully formed a new coalition Perikatan Nasional by receiving support from enough MPs to form a majority government and was appointed prime minister on 1 March.

Much of his premiership was overseeing Malaysia's response to the COVID-19 pandemic, which became a major crisis shortly after he took office. This included enacting several iterations of the Movement Control Order (MCO), a vaccination programme and declaring a 2021 state of emergency, where parliament and elections were suspended. Although his government's initial response was praised by the WHO and had high local approval ratings,^[8][9] the worsening of the COVID-19 crisis in 2021 attracted criticism and destabilised the coalition.^[10] On 16 August 2021, he resigned after attempts to regain support from MPs were unsuccessful.^[11] He remained caretaker Prime Minister until his replacement Ismail Sabri Yaakob was selected on 21 August 2021.^[12]

Muhyiddin unsuccessfully ran as the prime ministerial candidate for Perikatan Nasional in the 2022 general election. In March 2023, Muhyiddin was arrested by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission as part of a corruption investigation on several counts of money laundering and abuse of power, making him the second former prime minister after Najib Razak to be prosecuted.

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