Good morning, here’s what you need to know today.
Key Highlights
Johor MB crisis
Reconciling the irreconcilable
EPF warning
Johor MB crisis
It's been three days since BN won the Johor polls but a Johor menteri besar has yet to be sworn in.
This was despite BN positioning its Johor chief Hasni Mohammad as the indisputable choice to continue on as menteri besar during the election.
In another curious development, Hasni publicly proposed a younger candidate to replace him.
Context: Party sources indicated a "higher power" wants a new menteri besar.
Hasni's statement sets the table for him to gracefully bow out and justify the sudden change of position in BN.
Umno's Machap assemblyperson Onn Hafiz is reportedly the favoured candidate to replace Hasni. He is the great-grandson of Umno founder Onn Jaafar.
Other BN leaders, however, have abandoned subtlety to openly criticise the development.
Johor Bahru Umno chief Shahrir Samad admitted that there were initially whispers about replacing Hasni and the subtext of Hasni's statement has now confirmed such a move.
Shahrir added that he was embarrassed to have campaigned on the platform that Hasni would be menteri besar and did not know how to face delegates during the Umno general assembly starting tomorrow.
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Reconciling the irreconcilable
Pakatan Harapan leaders are sounding alarm bells about their future after their poor showing in the Johor polls, with Amanah's Faiz Fadzil warning the coalition could end up being a "tourist" in the 15th general election.
At the core of their concern is the significant split of opposition votes between Harapan and Perikatan Nasional (PN).
DAP's Bangi MP Ong Kian Ming suggested a flexible arrangement including between Harapan and PN but acknowledged the difficulty to reconcile between various parties and personalities.
This included the bitterness between PAS and DAP as well as Azmin Ali's faction in Bersatu and PKR.
Any such attempt to reconcile mortal enemies is also highly unpopular among their respective grassroots.
Mindful of this, DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng reiterated his call for the opposition to unite under a "big tent" but stressed that it should not include PN.
HIGHLIGHTS
 | Puad Zarkashi taunts Bersatu. |
 | Panel to tackle issues when border with S'pore reopens. |
 | This was during the 1MDB trial. |
EPF warning
Finance Minister Tengku Zafrul Tengku Abdul Aziz cautioned that the pension fund may be forced to sell its overseas assets if the government allowed the fourth round of withdrawals not intended for retirement.
This was amid increasing political pressure as opposition leaders are now also backing the populist move.
Tengku Zafrul also revealed that the dividend for conventional savings in 2021 could have been 6.7 percent instead of the announced 6.1 percent if not for earlier withdrawals.
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A daily galnce at Covid-19
22,030 new cases yesterday (March 14) brings the cumulative infections to 3,845,601.
92 new fatalities put the death toll at 33,899.
New cases by states
Selangor (4,388)
Johor (2,419)
Kedah (2,382)
Kuala Lumpur (2,214)
Penang (2,137)
Negeri Sembilan (1,359)
Terengganu (1,222)
Pahang (1,151)
Perak (1,122)
Kelantan (1,086)
Sarawak (965)
Sabah (622)
Malacca (564)
Putrajaya (159)
Perlis (153)
Labuan (87)
What else is happening?
Kuala Nerus MP Khairuddin Aman Razali has quit PAS amid growing discontent at the party leadership's insistence to work with Bersatu instead of Umno. He also accused the party of abandoning its much-touted "mature politics" by attacking Umno leaders.
Najib Abdul Razak's lawyers sought to suggest that there was a conflict of interest when justice Nazlan Mohd Ghazali sent the ex-prime minister to jail by linking his corporate days with Maybank with the multi-billion ringgit loans 1MDB took from Maybank.
Health Ministry Khairy Jamaluddin urged the public to reduce their dependency on the costly reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) tests for Covid-19 detection and instead go for the antigen rapid test kits (RTK).
HIGHLIGHTS
 | He is appealing High Court’s dismissal of his strike off charges bid. |
 | He also denies misleading auditors. |
 | S’gor must conduct a commission of inquiry - SAM. |
What are people saying?
 | By Andrew Sia |
 | By S Thayaparan |
 | By Malaysiakini readers |
