UMNO should have the more significant portfolios in the Perikatan Nasional government as the party held the most seats in parliament, said Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah.

The Umno advisory council chairman said this should be the case despite the party losing in the general election.

And should there be a need for the Malay party to form the government with another party at the helm, Umno should hold the important portfolios, he said.

“We have widespread influence and we will ensure stability. We should be given the important portfolios because we have influence,” Tengku Razaleigh, popularly known as Ku Li, told Insight Talk.

Umno has 43 seats in the Dewan Rakyat.

The Gua Musang MP said he had quizzed party leaders when Umno was not given the lion’s share of seats in the cabinet for backing Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin.

“I asked party leaders why we did not helm the new government. We had given our support to avert a crisis.

“They did not have the answers.”

Several leaders have called for a cabinet reshuffle. The Finance and Home Ministries are viewed to be the more significant portfolios.

Tengku Razaleigh said many Umno members were opposed to working with Muhyiddin but had gone along for the sake of the country.

“We hoped for good cooperation despite a lot of us not agreeing to it. A lot of people who support Muhyiddin are traitors – people who had left us and people with issues that are unforgivable.

“We should not even be supporting them but we want to see a better situation, especially with Covid-19 affecting the country.

Second thoughts

Tengku Razaleigh said Umno leaders have had second thoughts about working with Bersatu in the next general election as the team-up was of no benefit to the Barisan Nasional lynchpin party.

“We are still thinking about it. What do we stand to benefit from standing together with Bersatu? We will have to fight for seats,” he said.

He said the two parties were sure to fight over the Malay seats and this includes Muhyiddin’s Pagoh consituency in Johor.

“My principle is simple: we will contest what was ours. Pagoh and Langkawi were our seats.”

Langkawi is Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s constituency.

Several of Bersatu’s seats were won via defections from Umno. Hamzah Zainuddin (Larut Matang), Mustapha Mohamad (Jeli) and Mas Ermayati Samsuddin (Masjid Tanah) were the Umno MPS who decamped.

The 83-year old veteran politician is confident Umno will win back those seats with just a little planning.

“We want to stand in Pagoh. We are confident we are going to win these seats with the right strategies.” – November 17, 2020.