Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin’s emergency gambit is a big ‘no-confidence’ vote against him while his persistence to stay  in power is appalling.

There is no country on earth where a Prime Minister refuses to resign after such a rebuke by the highest authority.

Nevertheless, the Perikatan Nasional is still trying to keep Muhyiddin in power and this is for various reasons.

First, they do not have a better replacement for Muhyiddin. Apparently, no one can command a better majority than the current PM in the PN-MN-BN coalition.

Umno’s leaders are in a bad shape. They have court cases haunting them and putting them as PM will be a dangerous thing to do.

The PN cannot afford such a risk, hence its decision to stick to Muhyiddin and not to bring an Umno top gun in for now, unless it is not Ahmad Zahid Hamidi or Najib Tun Razak.

Unless the Umno decides to go for it and remove the current leadership of the party, it is difficult for the leader Zahid to accept one of his lower ranking men to be DPM.

There is also Hishamuddin Hussein Onn, but apparently, he does not command the numbers in Umno to get him the post.

Will Umno let Hishamuddin be the TPM? Perhaps the party has to appoint him to a higher party post before he reach that level in the government?

As for Tengku Razaleigh Hamza, if he has some support among the Umno MPs, it might not be sufficient for him to challenge Muhyiddin for the post of PM.

He might also not get the TPM post, again for the same reason that Zahid would not allow that to happen.

His motion of no-confidence did not go anywhere near trembling the PM who is seconded by the House Speaker on the matter.

HADI AWANG?

Then what about the PAS? The argument against the Islamic party is that it has only 18 seats. It is not easy for the partners in PN to grant Hadi Awang the post of PM. But we believe this is the closest Hadi has been to snap the post in his entire political career.

Though he is not on top of the list, he may be pushing his agenda in silence.

But the Bersatu has some interesting elements. Minister Azmin Ali could be the next in line to become PM if Muhyiddin were to resign.

The PM would still remain in the Parliament and Azmin may still command the support of 114 MPs, that is if all of them are still in the PN.

Though at this moment, he did not show interest, he could be the replacement PM for the PN. But will he really have command of all the MPs?

No one knows the official stance of the Umno towards the powerful MITI Minister. There are only rumours and he seems to be well protected from attacks from within.

However, the fatal ’emergency’ episode has apparently tarnished his image in the PN.

There are calls for him to be sacked by some MPs from both side of the House. This does not augur good for a potential PM who might not command a majority at all!

Amid such confusions in the PN, the fact that Muhyiddin got a rebuke has deepened the crisis within the ruling coalition.

While Muhyiddin is reeling with the effects of this shock defeat, his government is in tatters. The country is waiting to see when the government fall. If it falls, that is.

This will depend largely on what the Umno do next.

WFTV.LIVE is an analysis portal based in Kuala Lumpur