According to Asia’s top debater Syed Saddiq Syed Abdul Rahman, Nazri had used the same tactic against incarcerated former Opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim.

“An old tactic used to divide the rakyat’s support. Allegations of ‘conspiracies’ and ‘power hungry’ were the exact same terms used for Anwar when he fell.”

Syed was commenting on Nazri’s allegation that Muhyiddin, in his effort to rise to the top and with the help of Umno Vice-President Shafie Apdal, had cooked up a plan to oust current Prime Minister Najib Razak.

“If unravelling one of the biggest corruption scandals in Malaysia incidentally makes him the PM, so what? At least he decided to speak up for the rakyat in contrast to sitting comfortably in his office.

“Would you prefer a future PM who just kept quiet while the rakyat suffered?”

The 23-year-old former Perdana fellow pointed that if Nazri had been right in his claim that both Muhyiddin and Shafie were interested only in obtaining power, they would definitely have taken the safer route of simply keeping quiet and patiently wait for Najib to fall.

The fact that both spoke out for the rakyat indicated that they cared a lot more than power, Syed told FMT.

Syed also expressed confidence that should the duo decide to take on the highest positions in the country’s administration, their move would be supported by many.

“Muhyiddin’s popularity has skyrocketed, even among the non-Malays. The fact that he spoke up when he was in a position of power is a noble thing to do. He spoke up even when he was the deputy prime minister. He is starting show that he can be a fighter.”