KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 11 — Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin today called Datuk Seri Najib Razak the "real” traitor of the Malays for embezzling billions of ringgit from state investment fund 1MDB, as he responded to accusations that his actions have divided the community.

In a sharp response against his detractors, the former prime minister claimed Umno leaders have intensified their attempts to portray him as a turncoat to deter Malay voters from supporting his party Bersatu at the Johor state elections, where the two will collide.

Pundits believe the polls outcome will be the bellwether to how Bersatu will perform in the 15th general election, rumoured to be planned for sometime this year.

"There are Umno leaders trying to incite the Malays to believe that I am a traitor,” he wrote on his official Facebook account.

"It’s as if I am the one that had brought calamity to the Malay race by forming Bersatu and collaborated with PKR and the DAP to bring down Umno,” the Bersatu president added.

"But they are trying to conceal the fact that Umno was actually betrayed by its own president, Datuk Seri Najib Razak. He had allowed the 1MDB scandal to grow too big and disastrous to the point that made the majority of the Malays to hate Umno.”

Muhyiddin then recalled his sacking as deputy prime minister when he questioned Najib and "advised” the prime minister at the time to ensure transparency in the corruption investigation on 1MDB.

The Bersatu president said his dismissal was not because he had done anything morally or legally wrong, but for merely asking those involved in the scandal to face justice.

"Have the Malays forgotten about the moment when we became the world’s laughing stock because of the 1MDB scandal? Are Umno leaders not aware that the party had lost because Najib had dragged it down with his scandal?” Muhyiddin wrote.

"If I am deemed to be a traitor because I was critical of the 1MDB scandal and had left to form Bersatu to fight against the kleptocrats in Umno, then I am willing to be called one,” the former Umno leader added.

Still, Muhyiddin became the country’s eighth prime minister on the support of Najib and other Umno leaders that form the so-called "court cluster”, a moniker coined to describe those on trial for corruption charges, among them, current Umno president Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi.

But the Bersatu president said he never caved in to pressure to interfere with the trials. This, he suggested, was the reason why Umno leaders have attacked him incessantly.

"Just days after I became prime minister, those from the court cluster had approached me to ask that I interfere with the courts so that they can be set free,” Muhyiddin alleged.

"But even though I knew that my position depended on their support, I said no to them because I did not want to betray my mandate and the vows I have taken to perform my duty as prime minister.”

Muhyiddin’s tenure as prime minister was cut to just under one-and-a-half years after 15 Umno members of parliament withdrew their support, a move that eventually reinstalled the Barisan Nasional lynchpin into power.

The former prime minister claimed even after Umno regained the driving seat, there had been attempts to interfere with the corruption trials of Najib and Zahid.

He suggested Perikatan Nasional, the political pact between Bersatu and PAS, had prevented that from happening, which had prompted Umno to plot a way to kick Bersatu out of the federal government by calling for an early general election, so it could have total control over the judiciary.

Muhyiddin believed Umno’s strong performance in the Melaka state polls had emboldened them to make a similar move that forced the Johor elections, and winning two-thirds majority in the state that birthed the party would give them the confidence to dissolve Parliament.

"There is only one way to defeat the court cluster, that is by ensuring that BN loses the Johor state election,” he said.