Muhyiddin Yassin during a live news broadcast on Jan 12.
Photographer: Samsul Said / Bloomberg
Photographer: Samsul Said / Bloomberg
When Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin explained why Malaysia had to suspend democracy for the first time in half a century to combat the pandemic, he assured the nation that he was not staging a military coup.
But his opponents found it difficult to view the first nationwide emergency since 1969 as anything but a seizure of power. While the Southeast Asian nation has seen a wave of coronavirus cases in recent weeks along with many other countries, measures to combat the pandemic have generally received wide support across the political spectrum.
“Don’t hide behind Covid-19 and charge the people with an emergency declaration to save yourself,” Pakatan Harapan, the main opposition bloc in parliament, said in a statement following the announcement.
The only problem the emergency could easily solve was Muhyiddin’s political problem: some key leaders from the ruling coalition’s largest partner, the United Malays National Organization (UMNO), had recently called for fresh elections as soon as possible. With parliament possibly suspended until August, the prime minister will not have to worry about elections anytime soon.
While the move brings stability to Malaysia for the first time since the political power struggle brought down a coalition government early last year and brought Muhyiddin to power, it also poses a risk to the country’s democracy. Prior to the In the last election in 2018, the same ruling coalition had ruled for about six decades – often using heavy-handed tactics to silence the media and opposition politicians.
Malaysia last saw a nationwide emergency in 1969, when racial riots between the ethnic Malays and Chinese led to the suspension of parliament for two years. The emergency is now “totally unnecessary” as the criteria to impose one have not been met and “no healthy MPs” from either side would prevent the pandemic from ending, said Oh Ei Sun, a senior fellow at the Singapore Institute of International Affairs.
“If you’re not careful, we’ll slip from parliamentary democracy to rule by dictate,” he said. “It’s addictive – future governments would declare a state of emergency again.”
Investors were cautious after the announcement, with the country’s ringgit and major stock index falling on Tuesday. A lockdown announced on Monday prompted Fitch Solutions to lower Malaysia’s 2021 economic growth forecast from 11.5% earlier to 10%, while warning restrictions could last for months.
For 73-year-old Muhyiddin, a former UMNO stud who has gambled by switching loyalties during his four-decade political career, it will be a welcome opportunity to consolidate power. Since becoming prime minister in March 2020, he has been under constant pressure from both his 12-party coalition and an opposition led by Anwar Ibrahim, who has repeatedly claimed to have the numbers to form a new government.
In October, the Malaysian king rejected his bid to declare an emergency, which would have allowed him to avoid a vote on the budget in parliament that also doubled as a test of confidence. But he narrowly survived, and the recent spike in virus cases – which hit a record 3,309 Tuesday – enabled him to convince the king to grant emergency powers this time.
“This period of need will give us much-needed peace and stability,” Muhyiddin said in a televised address to the nation on Tuesday. He added that the decree “is not a military coup and a curfew will not be enforced.”
‘Checkmate’
Following the emergency, a UMNO lawmaker became the second in the group in recent days to declare that he was ending support for Muhyiddin. The party as a whole was more reluctant, with President Ahmad Zahid Hamidi saying the prime minister should only use his emergency powers for measures that contain the pandemic and restore parliamentary practices as soon as possible.
“Muhiyiddin Yassin is now safe,” said Awang Azman Awang Pawi of the University of Malaya. “When a state of emergency was declared, UMNO was in check because nothing important can be done during a state of emergency.”
Photographer: Samsul Said / Bloomberg
Muhyiddin has been vague about how he will use his newfound powers. On Tuesday, he warned of possible price controls, more control over public hospitals and a role for the military and police in implementing public health measures. He also pledged to hold elections after an independent commission declared that the pandemic had disappeared and that it was safe for voters to go to the polls.
Whether Muhyiddin’s Bersatu Party will make a profit in the next election now largely depends on how he handles the virus during the emergency period. So far, he hasn’t found solutions to stop the wave of business – an outcome that ironically laid the foundation for implementing the emergency and keeping his opponents at bay.
“Without a strategy to deal with Covid-19, they use these levers to hold on,” said Bridget Welsh, honorary research associate at the Asia Research Institute, University of Nottingham Malaysia. “It is a reflection of the instability and will ultimately exacerbate the fault lines and divisions in a highly polarized society.”
(Updates with more Muhyiddin comments in the 11th paragraph)