"Any politician who would want to play a role would want a seat in Parliament."

- Former prime minister Najib Abdul Razak

COMMENT | Umno veteran Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah, while debating the king’s address attempted to frame our current turmoil – “race relations, religious tolerance, economic issues and political instability” – as Umno losing its raison d'etre as a movement, as opposed to the 'crime syndicate' it has become as exemplified by the creation of Umno Baru.

The old Umno, the one before 1988, is the Umno Razaleigh (above) believes will save Malaysia and is worth reviving and he publicly claimed that the then judiciary did former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad a favour.

He said: "It is now clear Umno was declared unlawful and then deregistered for the ulterior purpose of capturing its leadership undemocratically and against the law. It was a decision without any legitimacy whatsoever and an abuse of political power."

Razaleigh, who is fondly known as Ku Li, of course, always nurtured the perception that he was the last honest man in Umno, a prince who reluctantly found himself consorting with...