Many of us tuned in to news channels at 8pm on December 2 to watch our 10th PM, Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim unveil his new cabinet.
As Malaysians had expected, Zahid Hamidi was named as Deputy Prime Minister along with Fadillah Yusof in this unity government.
Following some surprises with his selection of his cabinet, the 8th prime minister of Malaysia, Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yasin has made a Twitter thread bashing Anwar’s cabinet for housing UMNO chief Zahid Hamidi.
KENYATAAN MEDIA
Perdana Menteri Anwar Ibrahim telah menggadai prinsip tatakelola yang baik seperti yang dijaja semasa kempen pilihanraya apabila melantik kleptokrat menganggotai kabinet.
(1/9)— Muhyiddin Yassin (@MuhyiddinYassin) December 3, 2022
In the thread, he says that Anwar has “mortgaged the principles of good governance” by appointing “kleptocrats” to the cabinet.
“This is the most disappointing cabinet in the history of Malaysia as someone who was asked to defend himself against 47 criminal charges of corruption, breach of trust and money laundering in court is appointed as Deputy Prime Minister.”
He likened this action to Anwar “selling off the nation’s honour” just to fulfil his desire to become Prime Minister.
He added that since Anwar will be the Finance Minister, he pointed out about how Najib was also the Finance Minister when he was PM and what had happened.
“It is a practice that led to the centralisation of power and large-scale embezzlement as happened in the case of 1MDB before.”
He elaborated on that point by saying that this will cause the rakyat and foreign investors to not trust Anwar’s leadership as he “lied to the whole world.”
Other than that, Muhyiddin mentioned that a “chauvinistic” MP was appointed as a minister as well which will “create controversy.”
“We can expect extreme racial policies to be put in place.”
The former prime minister concluded the strongly-worded thread by saying that the rakyat has lost trust towards Anwar Ibrahim.
Malaysians disagree
However, the replies on his Twitter thread showed otherwise.
“The 10th PM’s cabinet certainly has flaws but it’s much better when compared to seeing your face as the PM and your expected cabinet line-up,” said a netizen.
Many questioned his decision to not take up the YDPA’s offer when asked to form a unity government.
“That’s why you should have considered the YDPA’s recommendation for PN to join the unity government. Ideally, it’s not the best idea but you could avoid bigger harm with it. However, you chose the position of Prime Minister over a stable government.”
“Why did you decline the YDPA’s offer? Stop complaining and focus on how to support the unity government led by Anwar. For your information, the rakyat will always remember (you saying) “only 32 thousand people have died,” said another.
Some netizens even offered a word of advice seeing how Muhyiddin appeared to not be able to move on from the loss.
A user commented, “As an ex-PM, please give a chance to other people to build the nation with an open heart. If you want people to respect you then you should respect others.”
Well, it is certainly time for politicians to focus on nation-building and not fighting with one another.
Also read: Zahid Hamidi: We Should Stop ALL Provocation to Promote Peace & End Political Instability
