KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia’s Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin will resign on Monday, news portal MalaysiaKini reported, after he lost his majority due to infighting in the ruling coalition.
The resignation, if confirmed, would end a tumultuous 17 months in office for Muhyiddin but also bring more uncertainty to Malaysia as the country grapples with a COVID-19 surge and economic downturn.
It was not immediately clear who could form the next government as no lawmaker has a clear majority in parliament, or if elections could be held in Malaysia amid the pandemic.
It would be up to the constitutional monarch, King Al-Sultan Abdullah, to decide what happens next.
Muhyiddin will submit his resignation to the king on Monday, according to Mohd Redzuan Md Yusof, a minister in the prime minister’s department, Malaysiakini reported on Sunday.
Reuters could not immediately reach Mohd Redzuan. The prime minister’s office did not immediately respond.
Mohd Redzuan said Muhyiddin informed party members of his decision to resign as he had exhausted all other options to sustain the government.
“Tomorrow, there will be a special cabinet meeting. After that, he will head to (the palace) to submit his resignation,” Mohd Redzuan told Malaysiakini.
Muhyiddin’s grip on power has been precarious since he came to power in March 2020 with a slim majority. Pressure on him mounted recently after some lawmakers from the United Malays National Organization (UMNO) party — the largest bloc in the ruling alliance — withdrew support.
The premier had for weeks defied calls to quit and said he would prove his majority in parliament through a confidence vote in September.
But on Friday, Muhyiddin admitted for the first time he did not have a majority and made a last ditch effort to woo the opposition by promising political and electoral reforms in exchange for support on the confidence vote. The offer was unanimously rejected.
The king has the constitutional power to appoint a prime minister from among elected lawmakers based on who he thinks can command a majority. He picked Muhyiddin as premier last year after the unexpected resignation of Mahathir Mohamad.
Malaysia PM Muhyiddin Yassin to resign on Monday — report
https://arab.news/2g8cc
Malaysia PM Muhyiddin Yassin to resign on Monday — report
- The resignation, if confirmed, would end a tumultuous 17 months in office for Muhyiddin
Trump invites Colombia’s Petro to White House after earlier threat of military action
- Relations between Trump and Petro have been frosty since the Republican returned to the White House in January 2025
WASHINGTON/BOGOTA: Days after threatening Colombia with military action, US President Donald Trump on Wednesday said arrangements were being made for the country’s President Gustavo Petro to visit the White House, following a call between the two leaders. Trump and Petro said they discussed relations between the two countries in their first call since the US president on Sunday said that a US military operation focused on Colombia’s government “sounds good” to him. That threat followed Trump ordering the US capture of the president of neighboring Venezuela, who was flown to the US to face drug and weapons charges.
“It was a great honor to speak with the President of Colombia, Gustavo Petro, who called to explain the situation of drugs and other disagreements that we have had. I appreciated his call and tone, and look forward to meeting him in the near future,” Trump wrote on social media.
Trump added “arrangements are being made” for a meeting in Washington between himself and Petro, Colombia’s first leftist president, but gave no specific date for a meeting.
“We have spoken by phone for the first time since he became president,” Petro told supporters gathered at a rally in Bogota meant to celebrate Colombia’s sovereignty, adding he had requested a restart of dialogue between the two countries.
A source in Petro’s office told Reuters the call was “cordial” and “respectful.”
Relations between Trump and Petro have been frosty since the Republican returned to the White House in January 2025.
Trump has repeatedly accused the administration of Petro, without evidence, of enabling a steady flow of cocaine into the US, imposing sanctions on the Colombian leader in October.
On Sunday Trump referred to Petro as “a sick man, who likes making cocaine and selling it to the United States.”
The US in September had revoked Petro’s visa after he joined a pro-Palestinian demonstration in New York following a meeting of the United Nations General Assembly and called on US soldiers to “disobey the orders of Trump.”
Petro, who has been a vocal opponent of Israel’s war in Gaza, had accused Trump of being “complicit in genocide” in Gaza and called for “criminal proceedings” over US missile attacks on suspected drug-running boats in Caribbean waters.
The Trump administration has carried out more than 30 strikes against suspected drug boats since September, in a campaign that has killed at least 110 people.
