Before the cabinet reshuffle that was announced by Prime Minister Najib Razak yesterday, UMNO-friendly blogs had raised the possibility of Muhyiddin Yassin resigning as the deputy prime minister.
What made the rumour more interesting was the blog posting byInformation Minister, Zainuddin Maidin (Zam), who claimed that Muhyiddin informed several of his friends about his intention to resign, citing age as a reason.
Zam, a staunch supporter of former Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad, also said that Muhyiddin was deeply disappointed with Najib on several fronts.
However, both Najib and Muhyiddin including several UMNO leaders had quickly denied Zam’s claim.
For rumour as hot as this, many had their eyebrow raised when no one from UMNO stood out to give a strong warning to Zam or UMNO-friendly blogs over such speculative claim that could divide UMNO from within.
Even Muhyiddin’s supporters did not come forward to rap or threaten to sue Zam or anyone who spread the rumours. In fact, Muhyiddin had remained relatively quiet on all fronts.
Would Najib have dragged so long to announce such a small cabinet expansion like yesterday, where it was merely to announce the inclusion of MCA and Gerakan leaders into his team, if the original plan did not involve the reshuffling of UMNO leaders as well?
The lame cabinet reshuffling exercise from Najib yesterday had somewhat revealed that he does not have the power or support to alter his cabinet line-up without triggering a potential revolt from within UMNO.
Maybe, from within UMNO too, a lot of them are resonating the same frustration as the Malaysian public over Najib’s lack of leadership and elegant silence on many pressing issues affecting the country.
How long can the proxy war between Najib and Muhyiddin be hidden under the carpet?
Or UMNO leaders from within had just teamed up to prevent Najib from announcing a Rosmah Mansor’s cabinet team?
That could possibly answer why there is not a single reshuffling of cabinet minister involving UMNO minister yesterday.
There’s no coincidence in politics, especially In Malaysia politics. When there’s smoke, you can be sure that there is a fire, this time coming somewhere from within Putrajaya.
And never keep your eyes off from the development within UMNO whenever racial and religious issues keep occupying the headlines of news portal and conventional media.
That’s normally where the real action is, instead of those making headlines with their creative racist and religious rhetoric.
The fire behind the recent Muhyiddin’s resignation smoke is still pretty much alive. Let's just wait for the next smoke.
