Muhyiddin Yassin

Tan Sri Muhyiddin bin Yassin (born 15 May 1947) is a Malaysian politician and the current Deputy Prime Minister and the Minister of Education. He is also the Deputy President of the United Malays National Organisation (UMNO), the main component party of the ruling Barisan Nasional coalition.

Muhyiddin grew up in the state of Johor and joined the state public service after graduating from university. He later took up management positions at various state-owned companies. He joined politics in the 1970s and was elected as Member of Parliament for Pagoh in 1978. During his term as MP, he was appointed Deputy Federal Territories and later Deputy Trade and Industry Minister. As Johor UMNO chief, he became Menteri Besar of Johor from 1986 to 1995.

He returned to federal politics in 1995 and was appointed to the Cabinet as Minister of Youth and Sports. He was appointed Minister of Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs after the 1999 general election and became a vice president of UMNO in 2000. Under the premiership of Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, Muhyiddin became Minister of Agriculture (2004–2008) and then Minister of International Trade and Industry (2008–2009).

In 2008, he contested and won the UMNO deputy presidency and was appointed Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Education by Prime Minister Najib Razak in 2009. As Education Minister, Muhyiddin ended the use of English as the medium of instruction for science and mathematics in public schools. He also attracted controversy after describing himself as "Malay first" when challenged by the opposition to pronounce himself as "Malaysian first."

Early life

Muhyiddin was born in Muar, Johor, Malaysia. His father, Muhammad Yassin bin Mohammad, was an Islamic theologian and cleric in Bandar Maharani, Muar, Johor.

Muhyiddin received his primary education at Sekolah Kebangsaan Maharani, Muar, Johor and Sekolah Kebangsaan Ismail, Muar, Johor. After that, he received his secondary education at Muar High School, Johor. Subsequently, he attended Universiti Malaya, Kuala Lumpur and received his honour bachelor's degree in Economics and Malay Studies in 1971.

On 22 August 1972, he married Noorainee Abdul Rahman and they have four children; Fakhri Yassin (b. 1975), Nabilah (b. 1978), Najwa (b. 1986) and Farhan Yassin (b. 1993).

Early career

After completion of his studies, Muhyiddin joined the Johor state public service as the Assistant Secretary of Training and Scholarship. In 1974, he was appointed as Assistant District Officer (ADO) of Muar, but later decided to joined the corporate sector in the Johor State Economic Development Corporation (PKENJ) in managing its subsidiary companies like Sergam Bhd as Managing Director (1974–1977), Equity Mal (Johore) Sdn Bhd as Director (1974–1978), Sri Saujana Bhd as Managing Director (1974–1978) and SGS Ates (M) Sdn Bhd as Human Resource Manager (1974).

Political career

Muhyiddin involvement in UMNO began as ordinary member at the Pagoh division in 1971. His leadership was imminent when he was elected as UMNO youth chief in the Pagoh division and the secretary in 1976 and subsequently the youth chief of Johor state UMNO Youth until 1987. In addition, Muhyiddin also occupied the seats of Exco in the national Malaysia UMNO Youth. In 1984, Muhyiddin was elected the UMNO Division Chief of Pagoh replacing Tan Sri Osman Saat. Muhyiddin rose up the ranks and file of Johor UMNO quickly. From a state executive council member, he rose to become Johor UMNO's head and later became Menteri Besar of Johor.

Muhyiddin contested and was elected Member of Parliament for the Pagoh constituency in the 1978 general election and kept the seat until 1982. Muhyiddin was appointed Parliamentary Secretary in the Ministry for Foreign Affairs, subsequently promoted to Deputy Minister in the Ministry of Federal Territories and later the Ministry of Trade and Industry. In 1986 general election, Muhyiddin switched to contest and won the Johor State Legislative constituency seat of Bukit Serampang to open the path for him to become the fourth Menteri Besar of Johor after independencs on 13 August 1986.

Throughout his ten years tenure as Menteri Besar from 13 August 1986 to 6 May 1995, Johor saw much more progress. Muhyiddin switched back to contest the Pagoh parliament seat in 1995 general election and served in several different federal government cabinet as Minister of Youth and Sports (1995–1999), Minister of Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs (1999–2004), Minister of Agriculture (2004–2008) and Minister of International Trade and Industry (2008–2009) before becoming deputy prime minister. He was made the Deputy Prime Minister by the new fifth Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak, in 2009. He is also holding the post of Education Minister.

Muhyiddin's luck of his political pursue at the national level in UMNO has a different story. In 1984, Muhyiddin contest UMNO Supreme Council seat but lost. Muhyiddin was later appointed as the Umno Johor State Liaison Chairman and next appointed as Supreme Council member. In November 1990 he offered himself to contest the UMNO Vice-President, but lost again. Muhyiddin attempted again in the November 1993 UMNO party election, successfully this time. But he lost the 1996 election when defending Vice President post. Eventually in the election in 2000 he again won the post of vice president of UMNO until October 2008 party election when Muhyiddin contested the higher post of Deputy President which was left vacant as the incummbent, Dato' Seri Mohd Najib who was acting party president after the retirement of Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, announced to run for President; and won.

2009 UMNO General Assembly and Party Election

Muhyiddin attacked Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi's original transition plan as "too long", and some people say that to one point Muhyiddin was about to ask and force Abdullah to quit, though he never did so directly. Muhyiddin during the 2008 general election, managed to keep his seat, and remained as an UMNO leader. Shocked by the election results, he has called for reforms. Muhyiddin served as one of the Vice-presidents of UMNO too.

During the 2009 UMNO General Assembly and party election, Muhyiddin offered his candidacy and nominated for the Deputy President post which was vacated by the incoming Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak. He was challenged by Datuk Seri Mohd Ali Rustam, Malacca Chief Minister and Tan Sri Muhammad Muhammad Taib, Rural and Regional Development Minister. Muhyiddin, seen being the supporter of Tun Dr Mahathir was seen to be the front-runner for the race, garnering many nominations by the UMNO divisions. But the competition went tough, as Taib and Rustam gained more ground especially from the Tun Abdullah Badawi camp. The race was tipped by political analysts to be very tight. However, UMNO supreme council decided to disqualify Ali Rustam candidacy from the Deputy President elections after his assistants were caught involved with corruption after investigation. The election resulted Muhyiddin's election to the post with 1,575 votes to Muhammad Taib's 916.

Deputy Prime Minister

Subsequently, Muhyiddin was appointed as the new Deputy Prime Minister for Malaysia on 9 April 2009 when Najib took over from Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi and unveiled his first Cabinet after assuming the premiership on 3 April 2009.

During Muhyiddin's tenure as the Deputy Prime Minister for Malaysia, he announced several controversial actions. He announced the decision to revert the teaching and learning of Mathematics and Science in English in all Malaysian government primary and secondary school made during Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad's administration.^[2]

Muhyiddin waded into controversy in March 2010, by stating he was "Malay" first rather than "Malaysian first".^[3] He has also said that there is nothing wrong for other races to do the same i.e. the Chinese could claim themselves to be "Chinese first, Malaysian second" and same for the Indians. On July 13, 2010 he said that anyone was free to form an association, including Chinese or Indian versions of the Malay rights group, Perkasa.^[4]

Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak came to Muyyiddin's defence.^[5] despite the 1Malaysia campaign promoting "a nation where, it is hoped, every Malaysian perceives himself or herself as Malaysian first, and by race, religion, geographical region or socio-economic background second...".^[6]

References

External links

• Deputy Prime Minister of Malaysia Official Website
• Johor Menteri Besar Office|Menteri Besar Biography|Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin
• My KMU Johor|Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin
• Johorean Student Society|Persatuan Mahasiswa Anak Johor (PERMAJ)|National University of Malaysia|Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM)|Biografi Mantan Menteri Besar Johor