• Malaysian Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin resigned on August 16 after less than 18 months in power.

• Muhyiddin conceded that he had lost majority support to govern, making him the country’s shortest-ruling leader. 

• The constitutional monarch, king Sultan Abdullah Sultan Ahmad Shah, accepted Muhyiddin’s resignation and appointed him as caretaker prime minister until a successor is found, in line with the constitution.

• The king’s role is largely ceremonial in Malaysia, but he appoints the person he believes has majority support in Parliament as prime minister.

The rise and fall of Muhyiddin

• Malaysia has been in a state of political flux since widespread graft accusations led to the 2018 election defeat of the United Malays National Organisation (UMNO), which had governed for more than 60 years since independence in 1957.

• The alliance led by Mahathir Mohamad brought the opposition to power for the first time.

• In February 2020, Malaysian PM Mahathir Mohamad resigned just two years into his five-year term, as infighting caused the collapse of his coalition.

• When Mahathir resigned, the king met all 222 members of parliament to seek their choices for the next leader. After a week of discussions, he picked Muhyiddin.

• Muhyiddin took power in March 2020 after initiating the collapse of Mahathir’s reformist government that won the 2018 elections. He pulled his Bersatu party out to join hands with the United Malays National Organization (UMNO)-led coalition.

• Muhyiddin’s government had a razor-thin majority and dodged leadership tests in Parliament from the start. 

• Muhyiddin’s government was unstable because UMNO was unhappy with playing second fiddle to his smaller party. Muhyiddin halted Parliament for months last year to shore up support. He again suspended Parliament in January and ruled by ordinance without legislative approval under a state of coronavirus emergency that ended August 1.

• It finally fell when 15 lawmakers from the UMNO, the biggest party in his alliance, pulled their support for his government. Two UMNO ministers also resigned from the Cabinet.

• Muhyiddin’s resignation comes amid mounting public anger over what was widely perceived as his government’s poor handling of the pandemic. Malaysia has one of the world’s highest infection rates and deaths per capita, with daily cases breaching 20,000 this month despite a seven-month state of emergency and a lockdown since June to tackle the crisis.

• The king will have a tough task picking a new leader because no coalition can currently claim a majority. 

India-Malaysia relations

• India and Malaysia share warm bilateral relations based on people to people linkages, shared history and well-established trading relations.

• India established diplomatic relations with the Federation of Malaya (predecessor state of Malaysia) in 1957 immediately after Malaysia’s independence. 

• The two countries enjoyed a strong relationship in the 1960s as a result of the personal friendship between Prime Ministers Nehru and Tunku Abdul Rahman Putra. PM Abdullah Badawi (2004-2009) took some important initiatives to develop a closer relationship with India. 

• There is considerable goodwill for India in Malaysia at people to people level, which hosts the third largest PIO community in the world.

• India and Malaysia are witnessing growing engagements in all aspects of bilateral relationship, including political, economic and trade, defence and security, tourism and education, health, human resources, public administration, etc. 

• Economic and commercial relations are the mainstay of the bilateral partnership. A bilateral Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement (CECA) covering goods, services and investment has come into effect from 1 July 2011.

• Malaysia was India’s 13th largest trading partner in 2019-20. 

• India’s major exports to Malaysia are mineral fuels, mineral oils, aluminum and articles thereof, meat and edible meat offal, iron and steel, copper and articles thereof, organic chemicals, nuclear reactors, etc.

• India and Malaysia signed a MoU on cooperation in the field of Traditional Systems of Medicine in October 2010. Ayurveda, Siddha, Unani and Homeopathy systems are practiced in Malaysia. 

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