Too early to nominate Johor MB - Maszlee

Simpang Renggam MP Maszlee Malik is downplaying speculation that he will be PKR and Pakatan Harapan's candidate for Johor menteri besar.

He said it was too early to discuss such matters as the election has to be won first.

“(It is) still too early to talk about MB. Let (us) focus on how to win the PRN (state elections).

“MB will only be appointed by Tuanku Sultan from the winner (political party),” he said in on Twitter today.

Maszlee said this in response to PKR's Kota Anggerik assemblyperson Najwan Halimi who publicly expressed his support for Maszlee to be named as Harapan’s Johor menteri besar candidate.

Najwan said this was consistent with Harapan's strategy during the Malacca polls last November where it named Amanah vice-president Adly Zahari as the coalition's chief ministerial candidate.

Malaysiakini previously reported that PKR was mulling to field Maszlee in the state seat of Layang-Layang and his name is also being floated as a potential menteri besar candidate.

Maszlee spent more than a year as an independent MP before joining PKR last year.

He was sacked from Bersatu in 2020 after objecting to Bersatu president Muhyiddin Yassin's decision to take the party out of the Harapan coalition.

Prior to joining politics in 2018, Maszlee spent most of his career in academia.

Layang-Layang is one of two state seats within the parliamentary constituency of Simpang Renggam, where Maszlee is the MP. The other is Machap.

Both are Malay majority seats with substantial non-Malay populations.

Even though Maszlee, who represented Harapan, won Simpang Renggam in the 2018 general election, both of the state seats under this parliamentary constituency were won by Umno.

In the last general election, Umno's Onn Hafiz Ghazi won Layang-Layang with a narrow 364-vote majority.

Onn Hafiz is the great-grandson of Umno founder Onn Jaafar and nephew of Umno veteran Hishammuddin Hussein. - Mkini