Tengku Razaleigh, better known as Ku Li, said Barisan Nasional’s (BN) win in the Nenggiri state seat by-election did not mean the Malays would return to supporting Umno.

“However, it does show that if we meet their demands and not just talk (about it) – but actually implement what we promise, I believe that they will support us.

“If we prove that we are sincere, it will increase their support for us and this perhaps would lead many (more) Malays back to Umno,” he told reporters at the World Trade Centre Kuala Lumpur.

Umno’s Azmawi Fikri Abdul Ghani reclaimed the Nenggiri seat in Kelantan last Saturday by securing a comfortable 3,352-vote majority, overturning BN’s loss by 810 votes last year to Perikatan Nasional.

Tengku Razaleigh was Umno’s director for the Nenggiri by-election, while Kelantan Umno chief Ahmad Jazlan Yaakub was operations director.

Asked whether the “green wave” remains a threat to BN, Tengku Razaleigh dismissed it as “just talk”.

“I don’t believe there is a green wave. It’s probably just PAS’s attempt to sell their propaganda,” said the Gua Musang Umno chief.

The term green wave was coined by politicians to describe the political rise of Perikatan Nasional in GE15, where PAS won 43 seats in the Dewan Rakyat, the highest number by any single party, while its partner Bersatu won 25 seats.

Yesterday, FMT reported that several Umno grassroots members played down the party’s Nenggiri by-election win, saying the BN lynchpin could not afford to thump its chest as it still had some way to go to regain Malay support.

The delegates met by FMT at Umno’s 2024 general assembly agreed with party vice-president Johari Ghani’s view that the Nenggiri victory could not be used to measure Malay support for Umno.