SEPANG, June 2 — Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin arrived to loud cheers at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) tonight as a group of supporters rushed to welcome the deputy prime minister home from his holiday in Australia.

The group, numbering to about 100 people, chanted “Selamatkan Malaysia” (save Malaysia) and “Hidup Tan Sri” (long live Tan Sri) as Muhyiddin made his way through the airport.

Muhyiddin, however, refused to take any questions and was quickly whisked away to his chauffeured car.

The deputy prime minister’s return to Malaysia is being closely watched, largely because just days ago, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak reportedly told Cabinet ministers that they could choose to resign if they disagreed with his stand on the 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) controversy.

As he left the airport, Muhyiddin merely replied “good” and flashed a smile when a journalist asked him how he felt to be back to Malaysia after his long break.

Several of Muhyiddin’s supporters said that no discussion took place between them and the former after he touched down at the airport and made his way into a special lounge to meet his well-wishers.

“Sometimes it is difficult to see him, so this is where we get to meet,” a supporter, Suhaimi Shamsuddin said when met.

“He just prayed with us and we did not complain about anything… we just came to see him… some of us are his close friends,” another supporter, Fakhrul Azman Abu Bakar said.

Last month, a leaked video showing Muhyiddin’s outburst over Putrajaya’s handling of debt-laden 1MDB made media headlines and fuelled speculation that Najib may not have the full support of all those in his administration.

In the video, Muhyiddin said the government should sack the entire board of 1MDB over the controversy.

Not long after the video went viral, former Umno minister Tan Sri Zainuddin Maidin urged the party to call for an emergency meeting to discuss the episode and decide if Muhyiddin should face action for his remarks.

Najib has been under pressure of late over his handling of the 1MDB fiasco, with his predecessor Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad openly demanding that the former step down for allowing the fund to accumulate some RM42 billion in debt to date from the time it was incorporated in 2009.

Most recently, the fund was pilloried after the Finance Ministry ― which Najib also heads ― declared that the US$1.103 billion (RM3.91 billion) that 1MDB redeemed from its offshore account in the Cayman Islands into a Singaporean bank is not in actual cash but assets.

This added to public anger over an expose on RM188.5 million paid to 1MDB by pilgrimage fund Lembaga Tabung Haji for 1.5 acres (0.6 hectares) in the Tun Razak Exchange, and also some RM3 billion invested by the Employees Provident Fund and Retirement Fund Inc in the controversial fund.