Malaysia’s King Names New Prime Minister from Corruption-Mired Party

BANGKOK - Malaysia’s king on Friday appointed Ismail Sabri Yaakob the country’s new prime minister, returning a member of the corruption-mired United Malays National Organization to the top job three years after Malaysians voted the party out of office.

King Sultan Abdullah Sultan Ahmad Shah said Ismail Sabri had secured the support of 114 of the 220 sitting members of the House of Representatives. He replaces Muhyiddin Yassin, whom he served as deputy prime minister and who resigned Monday after conceding that he had lost majority support in parliament. Muhyiddin was appointed prime minister by the king in February 2020 after helping engineer the collapse of the coalition government that beat UMNO at the polls in 2018. But his Bersatu party’s own coalition with UMNO was fragile from the start, with some members of the larger UMNO bristling at playing a junior role in the alliance. “UMNO engineered the collapse of the previous government and now they are reaping the rewards of the position of the prime minister,” said Adib Zalkapli, Malaysia analyst for consulting firm Bower Group Asia.