The man who is likely to be Malaysia’s new Deputy Prime Minister is Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin, the newly elected deputy president of the United Malay National Organisation (Umno), the dominant political party in the ruling conservative coalition the National Front (BN).
Born in Muar, Johor on May 15, 1947, he spent his early education in Bandar Maharani Secondary School and Muar High School in Muar. He later pursued an economics degree in University Malaya, Kuala Lumpur.
Muhyiddin, whose uncle the late Tan Sri Othman Saat was once Menteri Besar (Chief Minister) of Johor, joined the civil service in 1970 as assistant secretary in the Johor State Secretariat.
In 1974, he became assistant district officer of Muar.
In the same year, he became a manager of the company SGS Ates, and later general manager of the company Sri Saujana.
In 1981, he became Parliamentary Secretary to the Foreign Ministry and a year later he became Deputy Federal Territories Minister [at that time he was known as Deputy Federal Territory Minister as Kuala Lumpur was the only Federal Territory prior to 1984].
In 1983, he became Deputy Trade and Industry Minister.
In 1986, he became Chief Minister of Johor, and spent the next 9 years spearheading the industrialisation of Malaysia’s one-time largest state and the world’s oldest empire.
In 1995, he became Youth and Sports Minister and 4 years later he became Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs Minister.
Muhyiddin became Agriculture Minister in 2004 [later renamed Agriculture and Agro-Based Industries Minister], and International Trade and Industry Minister in 2008.
In 1993, Muhyiddin was elected vice-president of Umno.
He lost the vice-president’s post during the party’s election in 1996, but regained the post in 2000.
In 1988, the Sultan of Johor Sultan Iskandar Shah who was then the eighth King of Malaysia made Muhyiddin a Tan Sri.
Muhyiddin is married to Puan Sri Noorainee Abdul Rahman and they have four children.
