THERE is no need for Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah to “revive” the old Umno as the Malay party remains intact and is no different from the current party, its leaders said.

Padang Rengas lawmaker Mohamed Nazri Aziz said Tengku Razaleigh has no reason to revive Umno, which was banned by the Registrar of Societies (RoS) in 1988.

“While he wants to restore the old Umno, he (Tengku Razaleigh) also told us to cancel the registration of the old Umno.

“Umno is now. Umno of Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s era is still Umno. There is no new or old Umno. Ku Li’s old Umno has been buried,” said Nazri.

He was commenting on the intentions of Tengku Razaleigh, popularly known as Ku Li, who wants to bring back the old Umno which was disbanded and resulted in then president Dr Mahathir forming Umno Baru.

Nazri said Umno before and Umno now are still the same party.

“What is the difference between Umno now and Umno before? The difference now is that former members may have died,” he told The Malaysian Insight.

Umno was banned following a court order on February 4, 1988. This came after a dispute over the party’s election a year earlier involving Ku Li, who had challenged Dr Mahathir for the presidency.

A group of Ku Li supporters disputed the party’s election results on the grounds that there were unregistered branches involved in the election, and they demanded a re-election.

On September 21 this year, while speaking in the Dewan Rakyat, Ku Li revived the history of the party spanning more than three decades.

He said the ban on Umno in 1988 was not a matter of law but a matter of politics.

Ku Li intends to “revive Umno 1946” and “restore” the original soul and spirit of the party.

Nazri felt that Ku li regretted that he was indirectly involved in banning Umno three decades ago.

“Maybe he feels guilty. For me, there is no difference between Umno now and the Umno of before. Umno is still Umno. It’s getting stronger with a membership of more than three million,” he said.

Nazri did not rule out the possibility of Ku Li taking such a stance because he was disappointed that Umno did not nominate him as the prime ministerial candidate after Perikatan Nasional chairman Muhyiddin Yassin resigned as prime minister on August 16.

Umno instead named its vice-president Ismail Sabri Yaakob as the candidate, who then took the oath of office on August 21.

“He (Ku Li) is disappointed that Umno did not pick him. He wanted to form the government when Muhyiddin fell.

“There is no real reason (to revive Umno 1946). I am also an old Umno member. Many of the Umno leaders are now old Umno members. They are the ones who gave their all for the party,” said Nazri.

Nazri added that Umno should not continue to entertain Ku Li, who had clearly distanced himself from the party.

“We are not discarding him. He is the one who left.

“Also, by not sitting with us (Umno) in Parliament and not giving support to Ismail Sabri, that also means he has withdrawn himself from the party.”

“If no action is taken, we will not consider him a member ... that’s all,” he said.

Umno Youth exco member Bastien Onn said the original Umno members have accepted the fact that the party had been replaced with the current party.

The Segamat Umno Youth chief said it is very difficult to differentiate between the two as most Umno members have forgotten what had transpired three decades ago.

“Most members have moved on. It is difficult to distinguish the old and the new Umno because a large number of the old party members have become members of the new Umno,” he said.

Bastien also said Umno members cannot be members of two parties.

“Any Umno party member who tries to form another party will automatically become the opposition. There is no dual membership,” he said.

An Umno leader, who declined to be named, said that if Ku Li continued with his intentions, he could not use the Umno name and might even find it difficult to get the approval of the RoS.

“He wants to create a new party. What is he going to name it? Who will want to approve (Ku Li’s party)? There is already an Umno now. If you want to build on Semangat 46, no one cares,” he added.

Ku Li had also resigned as chairman of the Umno advisory board, citing frustration with the Umno leadership. – October 7, 2021.