FORMER prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad has revealed that his cooperation with Umno veteran Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah failed after the latter was not able to convince Umno lawmakers to withdraw support from Perikatan National (PN).

“Tengku Razaleigh has influence in Umno, if he could convince two or three people to withdraw their support, the government would have collapsed. However, no one wanted to leave their lucrative post,” he said in an interview with online portal Malaysia Post.

The Langkawi lawmaker added that he only agreed to work with Tengku Razaleigh because he said he could get people to withdraw support for the government.

“I was with him because he said he can convince Umno members to leave, but no one wanted to. If they left (the government) they wouldn’t have any more money, their struggle is for money,” he said.

Last November, Tengku Razaleigh withdrew his support for PN and prime minister Muhyiddin Yassin.

The Gua Mustang lawmaker also held a joint press conference with Dr Mahathir a day prior to the third reading of the Supply Bill 2021 in parliament, where a failure to pass the allocations would be taken as a no-confidence vote against PN.

The budget passed through a bloc vote with a majority of three votes, thwarting their efforts to move against PN.

One month later, two more Umno MPs – Machang MP Ahmad Jazlan Yaakub and Padang Rengas MP Nazri Aziz – followed Tengku Razaleigh’s footsteps to withdraw their support for PN.

On the very same day however, Muhyiddin announced an emergency declaration and suspended Parliament. – May 7, 2021.