This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily on April 12, 2019

KUALA LUMPUR: Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad has dismissed a Johor Umno suggestion to appoint Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin as the new Johor menteri besar (MB), saying the home minister has other things to do.

Dr Mahathir, who is Pakatan Harapan and Bersatu chairman, said the government would name a candidate for the post.

“It is the winning party (Pakatan) which names the menteri besar, not the losers. The losers keep quiet,” he said when asked about the suggestion.

Asked about the statement by Sultan of  Johor Sultan Ibrahim Sultan Iskandar calling on certain quarters to stop meddling in matters concerning the state, Dr Mahathir said Johor is a part of Malaysia.

“Unless, of course, it’s a foreign country. I don’t interfere in the internal affairs of foreign countries,” he said after launching the Malaysia Autoshow 2019 at the Malaysia Agro Exposition Park Serdang.

On Tuesday, Dr Mahathir announced the resignation of Datuk Osman Sapian as the Johor MB effective April 8.

Osman, 67, was MB for less than 11 months, taking office on May 12 last year after the 14th general election.

Dr Mahathir said that attempts by certain parties to make the rulers unhappy with the current government will not succeed because the government is elected by the people, Bernama reported.

“There have been a lot of attempts now to make the rulers unhappy with the government. They single out the Rome Statute and things like that ... but it is not going to succeed, it will fail. They can try their luck.

“They will fail because this government is elected by the people. This is a democracy and you just can’t get rid of the government.

“Unless you want to drop democracy and become a kleptocracy or you can become an autocracy,” said Dr Mahathir when asked about the existence of a “deep state” or “state within a state” that could unseat the government.

Foreign Minister Datuk Saifuddin Abdullah was reported recently as saying that the cabinet’s reversal of its decision to ratify the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court was a political move done for fear of a coup d’etat attempt spurred on by powers behind the scenes.

On the retirement of Chief Justice Tan Sri Richard Malanjum today, Dr Mahathir said the government already had a candidate for the post.

“Yes, we have. We’ll tell later,” he said.

Malanjum, appointed as the top judicial officer in the country on July 11 last year, has reached the mandatory retirement age of 66 years, plus an extension of six months.