Speech by Dewan Rakyat Speaker Tan Sri Azhar Azizan Harun at the launch of the book entitled 'Leading The Nation in Unprecedented Crisis' on Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin's time as Prime Minister at the Persatuan Alumni Universiti Malaya (PAUM) Clubhouse/Aroma Cafe, Jalan Susur Damansara, Kuala Lumpur on July 29 (Friday).

When we speak of the man, Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin, it would only be in order for us to quote the American abolitionist and social reformer, Frederick Douglass, who said: “If there is no struggle, there is no progress.”

Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin, the eighth Prime Minister of Malaysia, is a renowned national figure and towering personality and a reformer, whose reformation efforts many choose to overlook, for whatever reason they may have.

I first met Tan Sri in the early morning of 30th July 2015 under circumstances that are best left in my repository of momentous occasions and filed under “things that have changed my life”.

Suffice (it for me to) say that the circumstances under which we met were not the circumstances under which a long-lasting friendship and strong relationship were usually forged.

At that time, I am sure everyone here would remember, Tan Sri was just removed from the office of Deputy Prime Minister two days earlier.

As he walked towards me and held out his hand to bersalam, the first thing I noticed about him was his steely gaze and a friendly, albeit slightly measured smile.

Later, with the benefit of time, I would learn that that steely gaze is a reflection of Tan Sri’s steely determination; steely resolve and unflinching adherence to the principles and values that he holds dear and close to his heart.

That early morning, Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin, in not so many words, declared what General MacArthur said in his speech when he evacuated the Philippines, “I came through and I shall return.”

And oh boy, did he return. It is not only the fact that he had a triumphant return on 9th May 2018 but the manner in which that return was achieved that defines the man, building a political party from scratch against all adversities and challenges and engineering the defeat of a party that had formed a unicentric government in Malaysia since independence is our modern tale of David and Goliath, if all of you would permit me to repeat a cliché.

I have mentioned about his reformist agenda that is greatly overlooked.

Let me set it out here and this is from my personal experience.

Among Tan Sri’s first initiative when he was the Home Minister in the Pakatan Harapan government was the formation of a high-powered committee to look into and analyse several laws that were deemed unsuitable in our times, such as the Sedition Act, SOSMA and the Prevention of Crimes Act.

I know because I sat in that committee together with Justice Mah Weng Kwai and other human rights activists as well as well-known academicians. The committee met many times, going through every and each detail of the laws and listening to the relevant stakeholders.

He later pushed me to become the Chairman of the Election Commission, a job that I had never asked and dreamt of having.

When I was asked to see him as the Prime Minister in 2020, during which meeting he invited me to be nominated as the Speaker, his first question was “How’s the SPR?”

Such was concern about the reforms that I was undertaking in SPR that he saw it fit to ensure that SPR would be in a good position even if I left.

The events of February 2020, which led to Tan Sri being appointed as the Prime Minister, have always been the subject of immense analysis, conjecture and tale-telling. Suffice (it for me to) say that I was within it all even though of course I was not in the centre of it all. And I can say with a bit more weight than others, or in legal jargon, as YAA Tun Ariffin would say, with a bit more probative value than others, that Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin, like me and my SPR chairmanship, had never asked for the job.

He took over as the Prime Minister during a period of political uncertainty, a period during which the whole world was facing a yet to be known enemy that debilitates economies, shakes political system, overwhelm economies and threaten humanity. And internally, Malaysia then, was a cauldron of political manoeuvres yet unseen in our history, both in its intensity and viciousness.

Yet Tan Sri Muhyiddin’s first initiative was to take care of the people and the section of our society that needed help the most.

Great leaders make hard decisions, not populist ones. He quickly moved for Movement Control Orders, no matter how unpopular it was or they were. The streets were deserted, buildings empty and economy ground to a halt. But the health and welfare of the rakyat came first.

Malaysia’s success in countering Covid-19, the success that we are all benefiting from now, is a fruit whose seeds were sewn by Tan Sri Muhyiddin and again, that is widely overlooked. Without the MCOs and his drive for vaccinations, nobody would know where we would be today. Despite that, Tan Sri is not one who would “mendabik dada” and shout his own name.

Everyone knows what came about next. And the reasons for that episode. His unflinching adherence to the principles that he held dear created foes and even enemies. The knives were out, in darkened rooms and cold mornings, plans were hatched and executed. Caeser would lament “Et tu Brute” and in Tan Sri’s case there were many Brutes. Tan Sri could have easily prevented it by negotiating his passage but that he wouldn’t do. He honourably stepped down.

Not many would have achieved what he achieved in this tumultuous time that he was the Prime Minister. A lesser man wouldn’t have done what he had done. Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin reminds me of what Charles McKay in his prose 'No Enemies' said and if I may cite it:

You have no enemies you say? Alas my friend, the boast is poor. He who has mingled in the fray of duty that the brave endure, must have made foes. If you have none, small is the work that you have done.

You have hit no traitor on the hip.

You have dashed no cup from perjured lip.

You have never turned the wrong to right.

You have been a coward to the fight.

Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin, may Allah continue to bless you with wisdom, good health and success in all of your future endeavours.

Ladies and gentlemen, we do not know what his future plans are, but if Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin, in not so many words declared “I shall return”, take this advice from me, you’d better sit up and notice. In this spirit, and with the recitation of Bismillahirrahmanirrahim, I hereby officiate the launch of 'Leading the Nation in Unprecedented Crisis'.