Former Deputy Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin, fresh from being replaced in the Cabinet reshuffle today, has released a statement regarding the end of his service in Najib Razak’s administration:
The statement, posted to his official Facebook account, first and foremost records Muhyiddin’s gratitude to the Prime Minister for allowing him to serve in the capacity of Deputy PM since April 10, 2009.
Muhyiddin also expressed his acceptance of Najib’s decision to drop him from the Cabinet, and asserts that it is the Prime Minister’s prerogative to recalibrate the members of his administration as he sees fit.
Muhyiddin went on to say that thoughout his tenure as the government’s No. 2, he had always been supportive of the Prime Minister’s policies and plans for the nation … except when it came to 1Malaysia Development Berhad.
1MDB, he said, was the one facet of Najib’s vision for Malaysia on which he had formed his own opinion, and he stood by his own principles on the matter, “for the sake of the rakyat, my party, and in the interest of the country”.
However, he said that if his principled stand on the 1MDB issue was the cause of his expulsion from the Cabinet, he accepted it wholeheartedly.
The end of Muhyiddin’s statement is telling in that he asserted his position within UMNO as party deputy president, a fact that is sure to raise some eyebrows in the very near future: will new Deputy Prime Minister Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi be content to the DPM wihtout also being UMNO Deputy President, a post traditionally help by the Deputy Prime Minister?
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