KUALA LUMPUR • Malaysia's prime minister-designate, Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin, has faced many ups and downs in a career that brought him close to all the major political players.

He first made his name in his home state Johor as its Menteri Besar for nine years till 1995.

The 72-year-old politician, the same age as prime minister-hopeful Anwar Ibrahim, was born in Muar and studied economics and Malay studies at Universiti Malaya in Kuala Lumpur.

Mr Muhyiddin became MP in 1978 at the age of 31, and was made deputy federal territories minister in 1982 and, a year later, deputy minister of trade and industry.

He was sent back to his home state in 1986, when then Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad made him Johor Menteri Besar.

In 1995, Mr Muhyiddin joined the Mahathir Cabinet as youth and sports minister.

During the 1980s and 1990s, he went through major upheavals.

He defeated former Umno Menteri Besar Osman Saat in 1984 to become the Umno chief for Pagoh, which became his stronghold. But he lost in 1990 to Datuk Seri Anwar in Umno polls to become vice-president.

In 1993, Mr Muhyiddin, Najib Razak and Selangor Menteri Besar Muhammad Muhammad Taib won three Umno vice-presidency seats, at the same time that Mr Anwar became deputy to Tun Dr Mahathir.

When Najib became prime minister in 2009, Mr Muhyiddin became deputy prime minister for six years until 2015.

He was later sacked from Umno for complaining about Najib's role in the 1MDB scandal. Mr Muhyiddin, with Dr Mahathir, founded Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia in 2016 and joined up with the other parties, later named Pakatan Harapan. He was home minister before the tumultuous events of the last one week.

In October 2018, Mr Muhyiddin revealed he underwent surgery and chemotherapy after being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.

He was treated at Mount Elizabeth Hospital in Singapore.

Hazlin Hassan