IT is no big secret that the prime minister is facing pressure from all sides in forming his Cabinet. The Prime Minister’s Department itself admitted that more time is needed to decide Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin’s Cabinet line-up, although in making this admission, it was justifying the prime minister’s decision to push the start of the new parliament meeting from March 9 to May 18 (which is causing much furore).

Based on the department’s statement, the meeting is delayed because the Cabinet line-up has not been decided.

As prime minister, Muhyiddin would definitely have envisaged how his Cabinet will look like. But his supporters have no qualms about advising him. Even those outside his party, Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia. Former chief justice Tun Abdul Hamid Mohamad is one.

In an open statement of advice to Muhyiddin, Hamid said in the event of a no-confidence motion in parliament “we do not know if the prime minister can get majority support or not”. Granted, his remarks were made before the parliament meeting was delayed, hence he could have spoken with March 9 in mind.

Nonetheless, what Hamid was driving at as the main issue was Umno’s presence in the new government, with special attention on its president, Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi.

“If Zahid is made minister, what more deputy prime minister, I openly say Muhyiddin will not survive the vote of no confidence and his government will fall,” said Hamid. Zahid and several other Umno leaders, as we know, are facing corruption charges in court.

Hamid added that if Umno was adamant in wanting Zahid to be made minister or deputy prime minister and tried to hold Perikatan Nasional (which Hamid called by its old name, Pakatan Nasional or PN) to ransom, “let them leave PN and let PN fall. Umno will be cursed by the Malays and will die without a grave”.

Harsh and fiery words indeed. But it seems that is what Umno is demanding. There have been no public statements, but on social media platforms belonging to Umno operatives and pro-Zahid groups, little is left to the imagination.

They are stating their displeasure over Muhyiddin’s maiden speech as prime minister, which was carried live on national television, where he told the nation his would be a clean Cabinet, meaning that people who are tainted with corruption charges would not be included.

The pro-Zahid camp sees this as a slight on Umno and its president. They maintain that Zahid has said he will clear his name in court. But what agitates them is “how come this question of integrity was not brought up when we were talking about cooperation earlier”. Obviously referring to negotiations during the previous week’s political turmoil.

We are also hearing of warnings that Muhyiddin would not be prime minister for long.

As it is, Bersatu is fast losing control of the states it governed with Pakatan Harapan (PH). In Melaka, Barisan Nasional (BN), spearheaded by Umno, has pulled out of its pact with Bersatu, causing the state government to fall.

This is seen as a warning to Muhyiddin, despite Melaka BN chief Datuk Seri Ab Rauf Yusoh saying “this would not affect the spirit of Perikatan Nasional at the federal level”.

There is no denying that an unhappy Umno would want snap elections to be called, which it is confident of winning with the support of PAS, its Muafakat Nasional ally.

To say that the prime minister is in a dilemma is an understatement. Umno is the biggest bloc in PN and Muhyiddin is obliged to pick its top leaders for his Cabinet. But the deputy prime minister’s post is tricky. Zahid would be the obvious choice by virtue of being the president of his party if not for the court cases against him. Talk in the political fraternity has it that Muhyiddin could instead choose former Umno vice-president Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein to be his No 2. But this has not gone down well with Umno.

A veteran Umno operative has vowed “to fight to the end” if Hishammuddin is made deputy prime minister. His video has gone viral.

An Umno insider tells me that “Hisham is just a ketua bahagian who refused to defend his vice-presidency in the party elections after we lost power in the last general election”. The underlying message is that Hishammuddin gave up when the chips were down.

That may be true, but Hishammuddin has always been seen as the Umno man who had worked with former PKR deputy president Datuk Seri Azmin Ali in trying to form a back-door government to replace PH. The Sembrong MP has repeatedly denied any involvement.

Speaking of Azmin, former PKR members want the Gombak member of parliament who is credited for organising the previous week’s political coup to be rewarded with the deputy premier’s post.

Then, there is always PAS, although its president, Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang, has said his party will not make demands for Cabinet posts. Its members, nevertheless, expect PAS leaders to be brought in. And in Hadi, they see a leader with all the qualities of a prime minister or deputy prime minister at the very least.

Nevertheless, PAS deputy spiritual adviser Datuk Ahmad Yakob was quoted as saying that the new Cabinet must be clean of people facing corruption and criminal charges.

“We agree there should be no individuals involved with corruption. We must have integrity,” he was quoted as saying by Malaysiakini.

However, days earlier, Hadi, when asked by the media whether leaders facing charges should be appointed to the Cabinet, said, “If we want to accuse leaders of having problems, [Pakatan] Harapan leaders too had them and they (the cases) were stopped in court. They were just let go.” He did not name names, but obviously, he was referring to Lim Guan Eng’s bungalow case in Penang.

As if all that is not problem enough for Muhyiddin in forming his Cabinet, there is advice from his allies that he should invite Dr Dzulkefly Ahmad, as if suggesting that there is a dearth of talent for him to choose from.

Those making the call say Dzulkefly had performed exceptionally well when he was health minister in the PH administration, in particular his handling of the Covid-19 outbreak in the country.

We can imagine the outrage of PAS if Dzulkefly is taken in as he is from the party’s arch-enemy, Amanah. But then, will he want to come in the first place? I doubt it very much.

In a nutshell, Muhyiddin is in a situation where he needs to accommodate everybody who had helped him to be prime minister.

While he figures out his Cabinet, he will be in charge of all ministries and government departments, according to the latest federal government gazette.

He is but a one-man show, at least for now.

Mohsin Abdullah is a contributing editor at The Edge. He has covered politics for more than four decades.