Osman has resigned as Johor MB, says Mahathir
KUALA LUMPUR: Datuk Osman Sapian resigned as the menteri besar of Johor on Monday, Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad announced yesterday.
He said Osman, who is the state assemblyman for Kempas, handed him two letters of resignation at their meeting in Putrajaya on Monday, one of which was addressed to the Sultan of Johor, Sultan Ibrahim Almarhum Sultan Iskandar.
“Johor is temporarily without a menteri besar,” Dr Mahathir told reporters at the Parliament lobby.
Dr Mahathir said the letter for the Sultan of Johor would be handed to the Ruler upon his return from a visit abroad.
Asked who would be appointed as the new menteri besar, Dr Mahathir, who is also Pakatan Harapan (PH) chairman, said the matter had yet to be decided but according to the agreement within PH, the Johor menteri besar should be from Bersatu.
“Three or four names have been proposed as the replacement,” he said.
Asked whether Osman had resigned by taking responsibility for the issue between the Johor government and Singapore, he replied: “We are not yet to say why he is stepping down but he has stepped down. There is a reason given he wants to step down, “he added.
Asked about an Umno Youth proposal to set up a royal commission of inquiry to investigate the irregularities in the Pilgrims Fund Board (TH), Dr Mahathir said the government is still trying to resolve the problem within the agency before it can provide a complete explanation.
“We have not finished looking into this Tabung Haji problem. We will table an explanation of the problem in TH. At the moment, we know there is a problem but we do not have detailed information. We have to know in detail what happened in TH,” he said.
Last Friday, TH announced a hibah (dividend) of 1.25 per cent, which amounted to a payout of RM913 million to depositors for the financial year 2018.
Asked about the status of the Pan Borneo Highway, particularly the Sabah portion, Dr Mahathir replied: “This involves a lot of money. We are careful about how money is spent.”
On March 26, Works Minister Baru Bian said no definitive decision had been made yet to ditch the project delivery partner (PDP) model for the Pan Borneo Highway in favour of the turnkey contractor model.
He said the idea proposed to the Cabinet was to replace the PDP model with another model to continue the remaining works on the mega project.