‘Most disappointing Cabinet ever’: Muhyiddin hits out at Anwar’s line-up

Perikatan Nasional chairman Muhyiddin Yassin today lashed out at the Cabinet line-up announced by Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim yesterday evening, zooming in on the decision to name Umno president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi as one of two deputy prime ministers. 

“This is the most disappointing Cabinet line-up that the country has ever seen, with someone who has been called to enter his defence against 47 charges of corruption, criminal breach of trust and money laundering appointed as deputy prime minister,” he said, accusing Anwar of “mortgaging” the principles of good governance touted during the election campaign. 

“Anwar appears to have sold the country’s honour simply in order to become prime minister,” Muhyiddin, who was prime minister himself from March 2020 to August 2021, added. 

“This Cabinet of kleptocrats formed on the basis of fraud towards the people’s mandate has no legitimacy to function as the highest executive body of the country.”

The Pagoh MP also took aim at Anwar’s decision to take on the finance portfolio in addition to the prime minister’s post, calling it a practice that had led to the centralisation of power and large-scale embezzlement, as had occurred in the 1MDB scandal.

He likewise hit out at the appointment of MPs whom he described as “extreme chauvanists”, saying it would lead to controversy and the introduction of “extreme racist policies”. 

“His reform agenda rings hollow when he could not even stand up in defence of his own party's struggle to fight against corruption and promote good governance,” he added.

“His worth as a true leader worthy of respect and dignity is now highly questionable.”