The grand old dame Barisan Nasional (BN), which ruled Malaysia for 61 years since independence, was thoroughly humiliated – winning only 30 of the 222 seats in parliament. BN also lost control of two states – Perak and Perlis – and with a hung legislature in Pahang state. All these were BN strongholds since 1957.

Now, the various parties are trying to cobble together a coalition, and chances are Muhyiddin will return to the federal capital Putrajaya with the backing of east Malaysian coalitions Gabungan Rakyat Sabah and Gabungan Parti Sarawak.

Both coalitions on Sunday evening said they would back him as prime minister, and Muhyiddin himself issued a statement indicating that he would tell the king, Sultan Abdullah Sultan Ahmad Shah, that he now possessed the support of a simple majority of parliament.

The East Malaysian states of Sabah and Sarawak, long neglected by Putrajaya, will extract their pound of flesh – whoever becomes prime minister – in increased oil royalties, development expenditure and greater autonomy. Perhaps, this is the most obvious and positive outcome of this hung parliament.

Both Anwar and Muhyiddin have until 2pm on Monday to submit their numbers to the Malaysian king, Sultan Abdullah Ahmad Shah. The king has absolute discretion to appoint a person whom he thinks has command of the majority as prime minister.

While there is a chance for PH if it can get all 30 MPs of its sworn enemy BN to support it for a simple majority, that is unlikely to happen. There’s too much bad blood between them.

BN is already imploding with party leaders publicly calling for the resignation of their president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, who is facing multiple corruption charges in court.

But the fear for many of Malaysia’s minority ethnic Chinese and Indians, and among moderate Muslims and other faiths, is the powerful role that PAS is destined to play in a Muhyiddin-led government.

PAS leaders are known for myopic pronouncements and are neither business savvy nor seen as accommodative of different faiths and beliefs.

Added to that, Muhyiddin himself has made strange pronouncements, speaking of Zionist conspiracies to convert Muslims to Christianity and his professed Malay nationalism.

There’s no enthusiasm among the general public over this situation. They voted out BN because of the numerous financial scandals involving its leaders, including the multibillion dollar 1MDB scandal which has landed Zahid’s predecessor and former prime minister Najib Razak in jail for 12 years.

Islamists rise in Malaysia but next leader must govern for all

But they have ended up with something they never expected. Muhyiddin’s short 17-month tenure as prime minister at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic in February 2020 was unimpressive at best.

He declared a state of emergency, appointed a bloated and largely dysfunctional cabinet, and hardly ever interacted with the media, preferring to issue bland press statements to convey government policies.

His prime ministership had no real highlights. But if one were to be generous, one could say it was the pandemic and there was no wriggle room for Muhyiddin.

The initial euphoria over demolishing BN last night and seeing many giants fall has fast dissipated. The coming weeks and months will determine whether Malaysia finds its feet again. The jury on either a Muhyiddin- or Anwar-led government is still out.

Kalimullah Hassan was editor-in-chief of Malaysia’s largest media group New Straits Times Press and its deputy chairman from 2004 to 2008. He is currently semi-retired and focuses on charity work through the ECM Libra Foundation which he and his business partner set up in 2004.