Deputy Prime Minister of Malaysia

The deputy prime minister of Malaysia (; ) is the second-highest political office in Malaysia. There have been 15 officeholders since the office was created in 1957. The first prime minister of Malaysia, Tunku Abdul Rahman, started the convention of appointing a deputy prime minister, but some cabinets have opted not to appoint a deputy prime minister.

Appointment

Malaysia has had a deputy prime minister since independence, but the prime minister may choose not to appoint one. The office of deputy prime minister is not officially provided in the constitution of Malaysia. A prime minister could also appoint more than one deputy prime minister, as has occurred before in Singapore.

From August 1957 to May 2018, when the coalition government Barisan Nasional (BN), of which the United Malays National Organisation (UMNO) was the main component party, and the only ruling coalition, the UMNO deputy president was usually appointed the deputy prime minister by the prime minister, who was the UMNO president. In the organisational structure of BN, the president and deputy president of UMNO were automatically made the chairman and deputy chairman of BN, respectively.

From May 2018 to February 2020, when Pakatan Harapan (PH), a political coalition of four parties, was the only ruling coalition, the holder of the position of deputy prime minister was decided upon by the presidential council of PH. Wan Azizah Wan Ismail, who was the first female holder of office, was the post holder.

The position was vacant for 16 months when Muhyiddin Yassin was sworn in as prime minister in March 2020 after Perikatan Nasional (PN) was the ruling coalition until July 2021. Ismail Sabri Yaakob was then appointed and briefly served for 40 days before taking over as prime minister. This made him the shortest-serving officeholder in history.

Between August 2021 till December 2022, when BN became again the ruling coalition, there have been no holders of the office of the deputy prime minister for 13 months.The position then is filled by Ahmad Zahid Hamidi and Fadillah Yusof, the first duo deputy prime minister in Malaysian history.

Deaths, resignations and removals from office

Of the thirteen previous officeholders, eight have stepped up to become Prime Ministers. Of the remaining, one died in office, two resigned, two were removed from office (both who later became Prime Ministers) by the sitting prime minister, and two disqualified from office due to defeat in the 2018 general election and collapse of the federal administration in 2020 political crisis.

Ismail Abdul Rahman died in office due to massive heart attack in 1973. Musa Hitam resigned from second Mahathir cabinet over differences with prime minister over government policy in 1986. Ghafar Baba resigned from his portfolio following UMNO grassroots lost confidence in his leadership and his position as Deputy President of UMNO was challenged by Anwar Ibrahim in the UMNO's top leadership election. Anwar Ibrahim was the first deputy prime minister to be sacked after being accused and subsequently charged with corruption and sodomy in 1998. Muhyiddin Yassin was the second DPM to be removed from office after being dropped from the Cabinet by former prime minister Najib Razak in a reshuffle in 2015. He later was sacked from his party. Wan Azizah Wan Ismail's role as deputy prime minister ended after the seventh Mahathir cabinet was dissolved due to its fall from the federal administration in 2020.

List of deputy prime ministers of Malaysia

Colour key (for political parties):

{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center"

! rowspan=2 |#

! rowspan=2 | Portrait

! rowspan=2 |Name

! colspan=3 |Term of office

! rowspan=2 style="font-size:90%; line-height:normal" scope="col" |Ministerial offices held as Deputy Prime Minister

! colspan=2 rowspan=2 |Political party

! rowspan=2 |Prime Minister

!|Took office

!|Left office

!|Time in office

! 1

| 100px

| Abdul Razak Hussein

|31 August 1957

|22 September 1970

Minister of National and Rural Development
Minister of Defence
Minister of Home Affairs
Minister of Finance

| bgcolor="" |

| rowspan="3" | Alliance (UMNO)

| Tunku Abdul Rahman

! 2

| Ismail Abdul Rahman (Died in office)

|22 September 1970

|2 August 1973

Minister of Home Affairs
Minister of Trade and Industry

| bgcolor="" |

| rowspan=3| Abdul Razak Hussein

! rowspan=2| 3

| rowspan="2" |

| rowspan="2" | Hussein Onn

| rowspan="2" |13 August 1973

| rowspan="2" |15 January 1976

| rowspan="2" |

Minister of Education
Minister of Trade and Industry
Minister of Finance

| bgcolor="" |

| rowspan="9" | BN (UMNO)

! 4

|100px

| Mahathir Mohamad

|5 March 1976

|16 July 1981

Minister of Education
Minister of Trade and Industry

| bgcolor="" |

| Hussein Onn

! 5

| Musa Hitam

|18 July 1981

|16 March 1986

Minister of Home Affairs

| bgcolor="" |

| rowspan="4"| Mahathir Mohamad

! 6

|100px

|Abdul Ghafar Baba

|10 May 1986

|15 October 1993

Minister of National and Rural Development
Minister of Rural Development

| bgcolor="" |

! 7

|100px

| Anwar Ibrahim

|1 December 1993

|2 September 1998

Minister of Finance

| bgcolor="" |

! 8

|100px

| Abdullah Ahmad Badawi

|8 January 1999

|31 October 2003

Minister of Home Affairs

| bgcolor="" |

! 9

|100px

| Mohd. Najib Abdul Razak

|7 January 2004

|3 April 2009

Minister of Defence
Minister of Finance

| bgcolor="" |

| Abdullah Ahmad Badawi

! 10

|100px

| Muhyiddin Mohd. Yassin

|10 April 2009

|29 July 2015

Minister of Education

| bgcolor="" |

| rowspan="2"| Najib Razak

! 11

|100px

| Ahmad Zahid Hamidi

|29 July 2015

|9 May 2018

Minister of Home Affairs

| bgcolor="" |

! 12

|100px

| Wan Azizah Wan Ismail

|21 May 2018

|24 February 2020

Minister of Women, Family and Community Development

| bgcolor="" |

|PH (PKR)

| Mahathir Mohamad

! 13

|100px

| Ismail Sabri Yaakob

|7 July 2021

|16 August 2021

Minister of Defence

| rowspan=2 bgcolor="" |

| rowspan=2|BN (UMNO)

| Muhyiddin Yassin

! rowspan=2|14

|100px

| Ahmad Zahid Hamidi

|3 December 2022

|Incumbent

| rowspan="2" |

Minister of Rural and Regional Development

| rowspan=2|Anwar Ibrahim

|100px

| Fadillah Yusof

|3 December 2022

|Incumbent

Minister of Plantation and Commodities
Minister of Energy Transition and Public Utilities

| bgcolor="" |

| GPS (PBB)

Timeline

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from: 22/09/1970 till: 02/08/1973 color:lightpurple text:"Ismail Abdul Rahman" fontsize:9

bar:Husonn

from: 13/08/1973 till: 31/05/1974 color:lightpurple

from: 01/06/1974 till: 15/01/1976 color:blue text:"Hussein Onn" fontsize:9

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from: 05/03/1976 till: 16/06/1981 color:blue text:"Mahathir Mohamad" fontsize:9

bar:Musa

from: 18/07/1981 till: 16/03/1986 color:blue text:"Musa Hitam" fontsize:9

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from: 10/05/1986 till: 15/10/1993 color:blue text:"Abdul Ghafar Baba" fontsize:9

bar:Abi

from: 01/12/1993 till: 02/09/1998 color:blue text:"Anwar Ibrahim" fontsize:9

bar:Paklah

from: 08/01/1999 till: 31/10/2003 color:blue text:"Abdullah Ahmad Badawi" fontsize:9

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from: 07/01/2004 till: 03/04/2009 color:blue text:"Mohd Najib Abdul Razak" fontsize:9

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from: 10/04/2009 till: 28/07/2015 color:blue text:"Muhyiddin Yassin" fontsize:9

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from: 29/07/2015 till: 09/05/2018 color:blue

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from: 21/05/2018 till: 24/02/2020 color:red text:"Wan Azizah Wan Ismail" fontsize:9

bar:Ismail

from: 07/07/2021 till: 16/08/2021 color:blue text:"Ismail Sabri Yaakob" fontsize:9

bar:Zahid

from: 03/12/2022 till: end color:blue text:"Ahmad Zahid Hamidi" fontsize:9

bar:Yusof

from: 03/12/2022 till: end color:pink text:"Fadillah Yusof" fontsize:9

</timeline>

Deputy Prime Minister of Malaysia

Appointment

Deaths, resignations and removals from office

List of deputy prime ministers of Malaysia

Timeline

See also

References