This comes after former prime minister Najib Razak paid Ismail a visit at the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) yesterday, which was reportedly to discuss the nation’s policies and direction.

“Najib met Ismail to discuss issues related to the nation’s policies and direction, as though Ismail himself is the prime minister,” Kadir said in a Facebook post today,

“The old gang is back, with Najib having been Ismail’s boss and mentor.”

Kadir added that Najib’s visit also seemed to confirm that “Umno was back in power”, as it comes after the visit by Umno Youth chief Asyraf Wajdi Dusuki to Ismail on July 9.

“This is a show of force by Umno. Asyraf’s visit symbolised that Umno recognised Ismail as the de facto leader of the government with him handing over to the party vice-president a memorandum titled ‘The Rakyat’s Demands’,” he said.

“He did not hand over the memorandum to Muhyiddin Yassin although Muhyiddin is the prime minister.”

Kadir added that this evoked memories of the late 1990s when Anwar Ibrahim’s supporters started treating him as the de facto prime minister instead of Dr Mahathir Mohamad.

“History is repeating itself against Muhyiddin,” he said, telling his readers not to be surprised should the Bersatu president rejoin Umno for his own political survival.

Ismail was appointed Muhyiddin’s deputy on July 7. Later that day, Umno announced that it was withdrawing its support for Muhyiddin as prime minister.