Umno deputy president Muhyiddin Yassin may have suffered the same fate as Anwar Ibrahim in being ousted as deputy prime minister but the former insisted that this would be the only similarity between them.

Muhyiddin stressed that he will not emulate Anwar in trying to "topple the government" after being removed from the government.

He went on to describe claims that he would take the same course of action, as "stupid".

"I won't do what (jailed opposition MP) Anwar (Ibrahim) is doing. I'm not going to topple the government," he told a rousing crowd at the Semporna Umno division annual general meeting today.

The ousted deputy prime minister said he was a part of the government institution for 40 years and it would be illogical for him to destroy what he had helped to build.

 

"I am not trying to topple the government which I helped to build. That’s just stupid.

"I would not call for everyone in Semporna to go to the streets to protest," he said.

Muhyiddin said this when talking about rumours which said he was going to be arrested, three days after being sacked last month.

Earlier today, his successor Ahmad Zahid Hamidi had told the Ampang Umno delegates that an Umno leader is leading an attempt to topple the government.

Citing "trusted sources", Zahid said there is an attempt to obtain statutory declarations (SD) of opposition MPs to claim that they have the voice of the majority.

"As the home minister, it has come to my knowledge that there are efforts to topple the current government... I can smell it (the efforts)," he said in his speech before officiating the Ampang Umno annual general meeting earlier today.