Kluang MP Liew Chin Tong suggested that a recent MACC leak which implicated Johor Menteri Besar Mohamed Khaled Nordin may be related to a tussle within Umno.

Liew, who is also Johor DAP chief, reiterated his previous view that there were attempts to replace Khaled who is seen to be closer to the Johor Sultan than Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak.

"My advice to Khaled is for him to be careful as the knife is out for him from within Umno.

"It is better for him to come clean on the allegations against him to enable him, to keep whatever credibility he may still have.

"In the event Khaled is ousted by Umno, at least he can stand tall in the eyes of the public if he is seen as an honest person," said the DAP lawmaker.

On Nov 27, DAP's Senai assemblyperson Wong Shu Qi (photo) when debating the Johor budget in the state assembly, questioned Khaled whether had received payments from developers for converting real estate from bumiputera to non-bumiputera status.

Wong based her question on a witness statement implicating Khaled, which was uploaded to the internet.

MACC later confirmed its witness statement was leaked and lodged a police report.

Wong had since been questioned by police while blogger Yusof Al-Siddique Suratman was on Friday arrested.

Yusof, who runs Milosuam.net, had shared a page of the witness on his blog.

Liew (photo) criticised the actions as a form of "harassment".

"The harassment against Yusof and Wong is just bullying tactics to conceal a real major crisis in Johor Umno.

"Anyone familiar with Malaysians politics would know that such revelation implicating the Johor menteri besar can only come from within Umno," he said.

Khaled had denied wrongdoing and described the allegations against him as slander.