HONG KONG — After a week of political turmoil in Malaysia, former premier Najib Razak made his first public comments on the developments on Tuesday (March 3), saying he believed newly appointed Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin had enough support to survive a no-confidence vote in parliament and should be given a chance to execute his duties.

Najib, 66, led Malaysia for nine years before losing a general election in 2018 to Dr Mahathir Mohamad, 94, whose shock resignation last week following the collapse of his Pakatan Harapan coalition resulted in the appointment of Mr Muhyiddin. Mr Mahathir said he felt "betrayed" by Mr Muhyiddin, and sought an urgent confidence vote in parliament to show he had the numbers to form a government.

But Mr Muhyiddin's willingness to work with his former party, the United Malays National Organisation (Umno), led to concerns that few of Malaysia's political elite were willing to clean up corruption, and that this would herald the return of politicians who are currently facing charges of corruption and abuse of power.

Najib is currently on trial on multiple corruption and money laundering charges involving the 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) fund. He made the comments outside the High Court before proceedings resumed on Tuesday.

He also posted a picture on social media on Sunday of himself smiling and giving a thumbs-up. It was tagged as a gesture of satisfaction with a restaurant meal, but many Malaysians saw it as a bigger sign of happiness that the return of his party would affect the handling of high-profile trials.

Dr Mahathir on Sunday accused Najib and his party of engineering last week's political crisis to help them avoid corruption convictions.

"If Najib can be part of the government now, he can do all sorts of things to free himself," Dr Mahathir told a meeting with his party's youth members.

Ms Cynthia Gabriel, director of the Kuala Lumpur-based anti-corruption watchdog C4 Centre, said: "The worst case scenario is that these grand corruption trials will be dropped through judicial interference and more."

Najib said he hopes to continue to fight his case in court. "We'll go through the court process," he said. "It's the only credible way."

A senior Umno official echoed Najib's sentiments, saying the new government should not interfere in the courts.

"If we interfere by withdrawing cases of those charged, the people would say the government does not respect the law and the judicial body is not independent; so, don't mar that concept," party secretary general Annuar Musa told state news agency Bernama.

The US Department of Justice estimated that US$4.5 billion (S$6.24 billion) was misappropriated from Malaysia's 1MDB sovereign fund between 2009 and 2014, with over US$1 billion flowing into Najib's personal banks accounts.

Although Najib was quick to post congratulations to Mr Muhyiddin on social media, their relationship has been strained. Mr Muhyiddin was fired by Najib as his deputy in 2015 after questioning his handling of 1MDB. That led Mr Muhyiddin to form the new party with Dr Mahathir that brought them both back into office before it was torn apart in the recent political fighting.

Najib had not been directly involved in coalition talks even if he had tried to encourage Dr Mahathir's downfall from behind the scenes, said one source close to the new prime minister who did not want to be identified.

"Muhyiddin doesn't want to deal with Najib," the source said.

In his first speech on Monday, Mr Muhyiddin said fighting corruption would be a priority for his government, whose biggest backer in parliament is Umno. He made no specific mention of the corruption trials faced by Najib, his wife Rosmah Mansor and Umno party leader Ahmad Zahid Hamidi.

"For a start, I promise to appoint cabinet ministers from among those who are clean, have integrity, and capable," he said. "My government will also give priority to efforts to improve integrity and good governance."

The new prime minister also said he had stepped in to save the country from political turmoil and did not crave the post of prime minister.

"I know there are those who are angry with me," he said. "As expected, there are parties who called me a traitor. Listen carefully, I'm not a traitor."

Mr Muhyiddin also pledged to continue with the previous government's Shared Prosperity Vision 2030, a move to push for equitable development and to elevate living standards.

But on Tuesday, Dr Mahathir denied that he had started the political turmoil by submitting his resignation.

"Is it true that I resigned without reason? I, who had the apparent support of the ruling party and opposition, including Najib Razak and others who are currently under trial for corruption? This does not make sense," he wrote in a blog post.

"I did not have the majority [support] and thus was not worthy of being the prime minister," he said.

Dr Mahathir also said the public were tired of leaders who prioritised politics over good governance, and that he had suggested including non-politicians who are knowledgeable in government. "But my suggestions were rejected and I resigned. So the crisis continues. When will it end?"

Meanwhile, Mr Muhyiddin started his second day in office on Tuesday with briefings on the country's economic situation and the latest developments concerning the coronavirus outbreak. Malaysia on Tuesday reported seven new cases of Covid-19, taking its total number of cases to 36.

This came as Malaysia's central bank cut its key interest rate by 25 basis points to 2.5 per cent — the lowest in 10 years — to reduce the impact of the coronavirus outbreak on the country's exports and tourism. It made a surprise 25 basis point cut in January which was described as a "pre-emptive measure" to improve growth prospects. SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST