Former Kedah menteri besar Mukhriz Mahathir today defended the Citizens' Declaration which he said is not intended to bring down the BN government but only aimed to replace Najib Abdul Razak with another prime minister from the ruling coalition.

The Citizens' Declaration saw former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad and his allies coming together with the opposition and civil society to call for Najib's ouster over his scandals and to implement institutional reforms.

"It does not make sense to claim that Mahathir's actions will benefit the opposition including DAP.

"Will BN collapse if Najib steps down? BN still controls the majority of seats in the Dewan Rakyat.

"The only thing that needs to be done is to appoint a new prime minister from amongst BN MPs, not from the opposition," he said in a statement today.

Mukhriz said the opposition is on board with this as they acknowledge the urgency in "saving" the country from Najib's leadership.

"Logically, the opposition can easily win the 14th General Elections due to the rakyat's rejection of Najib, which will also mean that BN will be totally rejected.

"But instead, the opposition wants Najib to be replaced with another BN leader before the 14th General Elections. Why?

"Because they want to save the country from destruction from a leader who is abusing his power," he said.

Mukhriz reiterated that the declaration will not lead to the fall of BN and the opposition acknowledging the reality that they cannot wrest power from BN until the next general elections.

"The statement by a number of Umno leaders that the rakyat must wait for the 14th general elections endangers the interests of BN," he said.

Mukhriz warned if they were indeed to wait until then, the new prime minister will come from the opposition when it wrests power from BN.

"That is certainly not Mahathir's objective.

"For the security of the country and BN's position as the government, Najib must be replaced by other BN leaders as prime minister in the 14th general elections," he said.

Apart from calling for Najib's ouster and institutional reforms, the declaration also called for those who acted "in concert" with the prime minister to be removed.

Mahathir, who has accused Najib of corruption, is spearheading a movement to oust him.

The Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) had investigated deposits of RM42 million from state-owned SRC International and RM2.6 billion from an offshore account into Najib's personal bank accounts.

Najib had denied wrongdoing while the attorney-general Mohamed Apandi Ali had also cleared Najib of any offences.

However, the MACC is appealing Apandi's decision not to prosecute.