KUALA LUMPUR, July 30 — Inheriting an Umno plagued with allegations of corruption could provide Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin only a short-lived stint as Malaysians have grown impatient over the effects of the party’s politicking on the country, the Wall Street Journal said today.

In an opinion piece today hypothesising on the possible outcomes of Muhyiddin’s shock removal as deputy prime minister this week, the editors of the US-based newspaper said the Umno leader appeared to be waiting for the party to remove Najib of its own volition rather than through his machinations.

“If Mr Muhyiddin sits back and waits for the leadership of an unreformed Umno to fall into his lap, he may be disappointed.

“It’s hard to escape the feeling that Malaysia is approaching a tipping point when its citizens demand a change in the institutions that have held back the country’s political and economic development,” it wrote in the editorial titled “Malaysian power struggle”.

Viewing the decision to remove Muhyiddin from office as part of a brewing fight for the control of Umno, the WSJ noted that the Umno deputy president is continuing to lay the foundation for the possibility that he will take over the party in the event the scandal over 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) is sufficient to force Najib’s exit.

But hampering Muhyiddin’s appeal is his own political career, which the WSJ described as the epitome of the politics of patronage attached to Umno, despite his recent attempts to appear as reformist with the outbursts against Putrajaya’s handling of 1MDB.

“It is also possible that Mr Muhyiddin has underestimated the backlash building against Umno’s leaders. Already the party’s support is precarious; in the 2013 election the ruling coalition won a majority of seats but lost the popular vote.

“1MDB’s mismanagement of US$11 billion (RM41.9 billion) in borrowed funds on Mr Najib’s watch exposes the rot built up over six decades of one-party rule,” it added.

In a hastily-convened press conference in Putrajaya on Tuesday, Najib had confirmed rumours that Muhyiddin will be replaced by Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi.

The Umno veteran had during the weekend urged Najib to satisfactorily explain the 1MDB controversy, claiming that he and other ministers were unaware of the “real facts”.

This resulted in a rare public rebuke from the Prime Minister’s Office yesterday, which urged Muhyiddin and other members of the administration not to pre-judge the ongoing investigations on 1MDB.

A secret video recording of Muhyiddin was leaked last night, showing Muhyiddin claiming to guests at his Damansara Heights house last night that RM2.6 billion in 1MDB funds were channelled into the personal bank accounts of Najib.

Malay Mail Online was unable to immediately verify the authenticity of the leaked video, but former minister Tan Sri Abdul Kadir Sheikh Fadzir who was present at the meeting confirmed the incident captured on camera was genuine.