He added that the “old Umno”, which was banned by the Registrar of Societies (RoS) in 1988 during Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s first tenure as prime minister, should not have been deregistered as the RoS had no authority to do so.

“The ‘old Umno’ which represented three million powerful members in the country since its independence, did not commit any offence that would have caused it to be banned,” he said in an interview titled “Umno is in a coma” with Malaysia Gazette last night.

The Gua Musang MP, who is also known as Ku Li, also took a swipe at the party leadership, saying their behaviour is one of the reasons for the need to revive the “old Umno”.

“The current behaviour of the Umno leadership is not liked by many quarters including our members. Therefore, this step should be taken as there is no other option to strengthen the party.

“Everyone can form a new party, but Umno has a lot of history and support. For me, there is no other way but to revive the spirit of the ‘old Umno’, and when it is awakened from a coma, it will be like a new party,” he said.

The Umno veteran added it was the dissatisfaction among members that may have led to Umno’s defeat in the last election, especially with many leaders and members leaving the party.