was widely believed to be funding and co-ordinating the suit. The event did not please Mahathir began making heated attacks on the judiciary and it was considered a judicial intervention of the political dispute triggering the 1988 Malaysian constitutional crisis. Mahathir immediately reconstituted UMNO as UMNO Baru (New UMNO), with only Team A members. Most of its leaders, however, were selected from Team A of the old UMNO, with Team B ignored. UMNO Baru was later announced the de facto and de jure party to succeed its predecessor, the original but 'illegal' UMNO, dropping the 'Baru' suffix and have the old UMNO's assets transferred over too. Razaleigh and his supporters which constituted Team B, had faced difficulties to register as members of Team A's newly formed UMNO Baru. With the personal support of former UMNO prime ministers Tunku Abdul Rahman and Hussein Onn, both of whom had also fallen out with Mahathir and unsuccessfully register "UMNO Malaysia", Razaleigh who had also failed registering "UMNO 46" had founded a new political party called Parti Melayu Semangat 46 (S46 or Semangat 46) instead. The number 46 refers to the year the original UMNO was founded. On 3 June 1989, Semangat 46 was officially registered with the electoral college. Among notable leaders that joined Semangat 46 were including Marina Yusoff, Ilyani Ishak, Rais Yatim, Harun Idris, Suhaimi Kamaruddin, Ahmad Shabery Cheek, Othman Saat, Salleh Abas, Mohd Radzi Sheikh Ahmad, Tengku Azlan Sultan Abu Bakar and Ibrahim Ali. In 1990, Semangat 46 also formed Gagasan Rakyat (GR) and Angkatan Perpaduan Ummah (APU) opposition coalitions. In the 1993 Malaysian constitutional crisis, Razaleigh strongly opposed the amendment for Rulers to be tried at court and their legal immunity be stripped. However, his efforts failed to bear fruit as it did not gain enough support. In 1996, Tengku Razaleigh disbanded Semangat 46 and rejoined UMNO. Return to UMNO Tengku Razaleigh return to UMNO as he has discussed earlier with Mahathir after the dissolution of Semangat 46 in 1996. Dr Mahathir dismissed allegations that he brought Razaleigh back to check the influence of Anwar Ibrahim in the party and government. As Anwar was sacked from UMNO in 1998, Mahathir himself brought Razaleigh back into the limelight again in June 1999 by making him the UMNO Kelantan liaison chief, a job the PM had held himself since 1987, Razaleigh could well been Mahathir's heir apparent if he had defeated