Amanah vice-president Husam Musa has suggested that Muhyiddin Yassin become the deputy prime minister after Dr Mahathir Mohamad hands over the premiership to Anwar Ibrahim.

In an interview with the Malay daily Sinar Harian, Husam opined that Muhyiddin, who is the Bersatu president and home minister, is an “extremely qualified” person to be paired with PKR president Anwar.

"I suggest Anwar take a Malay leader outside PKR as his deputy in exchange for Mahathir's willingness to take Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail, who is a non-Bersatu leader, to be his deputy.

"By taking Muhyiddin, it will help ease the power transition. Muhyiddin is extremely qualified due to his seniority and his wealth of experience," he said.

Husam claimed he was the first to suggest that Mahathir become the prime minister in a talk when Anwar was still in prison, and that he had been booed for the suggestion.

He added that he was confident that Mahathir would remain free of influence and ensure the power transition would not cause clashes among Pakatan Harapan coalition parties.

"Mahathir has survived waves of politics and I see his determination to put the country on the right track..I am confident that he has his own plan for when the transition will take place," he said.

Prior to this, Mahathir had re-emphasised that he would hand over power to his successor Anwar.

"I have kept to this promise that I will step down and give way to Anwar, that's something quite definite. There is no talk about who is going to be my successor or what is going to be done.

"My job is to prepare the country as much as possible so that it can be taken over by my successor," said the Harapan chairperson.

Meanwhile, Husam also quashed speculation that he was eyeing the menteri besar post in Kelantan.

"It has become a burden to me as I never said that I would be the menteri besar. People speculate things which are not in my heart.

"I am not interested to be the menteri besar. I spent most of my political career as the aide to the late Nik Abdul Aziz Nik Mat (the former Kelantan menteri besar)," he explained.

He also expressed disappointment that his old party PAS had denounced asset declaration, as it could actually be a "milestone" for Islam.

"It is as if we are commending socialists and communists for being better than Islam because they can declare assets while the Muslim leaders refuse to do so under the pretext that it's forbidden. I am worried about this," he said.

PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang had alleged that asset declaration was a communist and socialist concept, which may have been "dreamt up" by DAP.