Is this the beginning of Prime Minister Muhyiddin’s tenure?

By Stephanie Jacob

If Barisan Nasional wins this elections by a narrower margin Najib Abdul Razak will likely face a challenge to his leadership of Umno and the nation, from his deputy Muhyiddin Yassin. Muhyiddin’s issues date back to a famous land case in Johor where he was said to have been aligned to billionaire businessman Syed Mokhtar Albukhary. In politics his links with Malay extreme groups such as Perkasa and hardline position on the Malay language limits his appeal. But there are clear chances – better than even – that he would become prime minister eventually if BN wins by a small margin.

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After a nervy night of election results in March of 2008, Abdullah Ahmad Badawi’s Barisan Nasional coalition although battered, bruised and having lost its precious two thirds majority nonetheless emerged victorious.

As the excitement of a closely fought election receded, Malaysians settled down into what they thought was to be another five year term of Abdullah leadership. Slightly less than 13 months later, Najib Abdul Razak was sworn in as the nation’s sixth prime minister.

Now just days away from the 13th general election, Malaysians must realise the battle for Seri Perdana is no longer as clear cut as Najib versus Anwar Ibrahim. While they are at this moment the leader of BN and the de facto leader of the Pakatan Rakyat respectively, politics only guarantees one thing – change is possible, in fact it is probable.

In a system like ours, the head of the party or coalition with the most seats in Parliament becomes the prime minister. So long of course, as his party chooses to maintain him as its head. Sentiments can change and power grabs can come quickly as Pak Lah found out when pressure from his own party (current deputy prime minister Muhyiddin Yassin amongst them) forced him to resign his president’s post in favour of Najib.

Muhyiddin frontrunner if BN wins narrowly

Umno has internal elections every three years and the last one was held in 2009. The party is due for an internal polls, and should Najib win big in the general election it will be his moment to shine. However should he scrape through without bettering Pak Lah’s results then it may well be his last as Umno president, and as prime minister of Malaysia.

Which brings us to Muhyiddin Yassin, currently the loyal (or so he professes) deputy to Najib in both Umno and as deputy prime minister of Malaysia. Should BN and Umno put in a poor showing (and this is possible) than Muhyiddin would be the frontrunner to benefit if BN still wins.

But what will that mean for Malaysians – who is Muhyiddin Yassin, the man and the politician? What kind of government can we expect from him, will he maintain Najib’s course or will we see a change in directions?

Besides being born into a huge family of 40 siblings, Muhyiddin Yassin’s childhood was probably closer to that of the average Malaysian and certainly closer to that of a regular Malay than that of Najib.

Born in the traditional Umno stronghold of Johor, Muhyiddin’s education was in local government schools, and then in University Malaya where he earned a degree in economics and Malay studies. In contrast, Najib pursued his tertiary education in England.

Najib recently said that if he had not been a politician, he does not know what he might have done as he was appointed to parliament at the young age of 23. Muhyiddin on the other hand did not start of as a politician, although he always worked either in the public sector or for state-owned corporate bodies.

He joined Umno as an ordinary member in 1971 and worked his way up the rank and file in Johor. His first bite at national level politics came in 1978, when he was elected as the member of parliament for Pagoh. In 1986 he switched tracks, and ran for the Johor state seat which then allowed him to assume the role of chief minister of Johor – the culmination of his quick rise in the southern state.

The interesting land case of Stamford Holdings

It was during his time as chief minister in Johor, that the interesting and somewhat concerning Stamford land case occurred.

In 1984 Stamford Holdings Sdn Bhd applied to the Johor government for permission to develop land they owned. The company said they heard nothing back until 1988, when the Stamford directors had a meeting with businessman Syed Mokhtar Albukhary and Yahaya Talib who introduced themselves as business associates and friends of Muhyiddin.

According to news reports, in late 1989 Syed Mokhtar and Yahaya acting for themselves and Muhyiddin created a joint venture company to develop 1,766 acres of the land. The trio led by Syed Mokhtar invested in the joint venture and took a 30 percent share while Stamford held the rest. This joint venture then re-applied for permission to develop the land, and according to Stamford’s court filing this was approved “speedily.”

The land was developed, the group made a handsome profit and all was fine till 1992 when Stamford said that the trio again approached the Stamford directors to develop the remaining 6,520 acres of the land. However the rules had changed. This time around the trio demanded new terms which would give them 70 percent of the venture. Stamford refused.

According to Stamford, things then turned nasty. They were warned that land acquisition papers for their land were on Muhyiddin’s desk ready to be signed should they not comply. Things got kicked up a notch when Muhyiddin himself reportedly called the directors and repeated the threat.

Nonetheless, Stamford dug their heels in and refused the new terms. In July 1994, the land was acquired by the state government on behalf of Johor Islamic Economic Development Corp.

Stamford took the Johor government and the trio to court alleging that they had conspired to acquire its land unlawfully. The first round went to Stamford and the defendants were ordered to compensate them.

However the decision was appealed and in 1995 the Johor Baru High Court struck out the earlier suit saying Stamford had no reasonable cause of action against the defendants. Not willing to give in, Stamford took the case to the Court of Appeal.

Muhyiddin’s phone-call threat

It was at this time, that details of the case appeared in a news publication called Asiaweek, The detailed report precisely quoted Muhyiddin’s phone-call threat to the Stamford directors, and stated that Asiaweek had possession of a recording of the phone call as well.

Muhyiddin publically denied the report stating, “there is not a single shred of truth in any of the allegations against me.” Nonetheless he did not take legal action Asiaweek, which many saw as tacit proof that the report was true.

In 1997, the Court of Appeal overruled the Johor Baru High Court’s decision and allowed for the civil suit to proceed, pending an appeal by the defendants. Then in 1998 the Federal Court granted leave to the defendants to appeal to the Federal Court against the Court of Appeals decision.

However instead of pursuing this, all parties agreed to settle out of court agreeing on a final sum of slightly more than RM400 million as compensation to Stamford. No other action was taken against Muhyiddin (or his partners) for what was seemingly a blatant misuse of power.

This case is important for more than just the facts as it calls into serious question the integrity of a man who has a high chance of becoming Malaysia’s next prime minister. It is also one of the best examples of Muhyiddin’s close working and personal relationship with tycoon Syed Mokhtar.

Bachelor uncle to Muhyiddin’s children

According to Syed Mokhtar’s biography, the relationship begun in 1976 when he was looking for buyers for his products and Muhyiddin was the managing director of Sergam Bhd a Johor state-owned entity in charge of procuring government supplies. In his book, Syed Mokhtar says the two became “fast friends and he was welcomed by Muhyiddin’s family, as the bachelor uncle who spoilt the children.”

It is important to note that subsequently, Syed Mokhtar amassed a great amount of wealth from securing contracts both at the state level in Johor when Muhyiddin was chief minister and at the federal level. He is arguably one of Umno’s biggest backers (and many say one of its biggest financiers). Should Muhyiddin become prime minister, it is likely that Syed Mokhtar dominance over many industries across Malaysia will strengthen.

But what about the rest of Malaysia, what kind of policies might we see from a Muhyiddin-led government?

The deputy prime minister made the headlines when he called himself Malay first, when asked to declare that he was Malaysian first in line with Najib’s 1Malaysia concept. It was also under his ongoing tenure as the education minister, that he made the decision to revert to the teaching of science and mathematics in Malay. He also has been a strong advocate for the national language to be the medium of choice at national level events and encourage the private sector to encourage its use.

For all the criticism leveled against Najib, even his detractors have admitted that his efforts to ease regulations on the economy, particularly those which are race-based have been an important step towards a merit-based system. But will Muhyiddin continue with these?

Malay first and cosying up to Perkasa

In addition to his Malay first announcement, Muhyiddin has also been seen cosying up to Perkasa – the extreme group which actively promotes and defends what it sees as Malay rights – suggesting that there was nothing wrong with a group formed for the specific (and sometimes extreme) intention of championing the cause of one race and that other races could also form a similar group as long as their intentions “are good” (even though this too goes against the 1Malaysia concept). Although he has always stopped just short of endorsing their views, Muhyiddin has never unequivocally rebuked them either.

Mustaffa Ayub, now a high ranking PKR member but who used to be Muhyiddin’s political secretary when the latter was in the Youth and Sports ministry says that his former boss had changed, and his race based rhetoric is likely to be driven by political expediency.

“Muhyiddin is always touching on Malay sentiment as if the rights of Malays are being challenged…he may be feeling that the Malays should be made fearful of Pakatan Rakyat, which has been successful in bringing the races together,” said Mustaffa.

It is worth noting that at the end of the day, should the transition from Najib to Muhyiddin happen after the elections – Malaysians at large will have absolutely no say in the matter for the next five years.

Whether political expediency or not, should the Umno members decide that they like the Malay centric rhetoric and choose him as their president than Muhyiddin will have to walk the talk in his policies so to speak.

In the aftermath of 2008’s political tsunami, most Malaysians might have been caught by surprise when the Pak Lah to Najib transition went through with the approval of such a small select group of individuals.

This time there can be no such naivety – there is historical precedence and it has been further underlined by none other than former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohammad himself, who has said that should Najib fail to better his predecessor’s record than he too will face discord amongst the Umno ranks.

In a recent interview with Al Jazeera, the interviewer put to Najib that what happened to Pak Lah may happen to him, and if it did what he would like his legacy to be. Najib responded that he was not ready to write his legacy yet and that he was working tirelessly to ensure BN would win convincingly. Therefore he said such a discussion was “purely academic”.

Academic or not should Najib fail to make gains on 2008’s performance – his future and that of the country will largely be out of his and the majority of Malaysians’ hands.

We go to the polls with Najib leading BN and Anwar Ibrahim leading Pakatan Rakyat. But come May 6th, the only thing that is assured is that in politics change is not only possible but probable.

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