Six years ago, the Universiti Malaya Alumni Clubhouse set the scene for what would lead to Larut MP Hamzah Zainudin’s rise in Bersatu, who was then the party’s secretary-general.

It was there, in June 2020, that Bersatu president Muhyiddin Yassin chaired a party supreme council meeting to finalise the sacking of founding president Dr Mahathir Mohamad and his allies.

Four months prior, Mahathir had resigned as prime minister. With the subsequent Sheraton Move, sparked by defections of former PKR MPs led by then PKR deputy president Azmin Ali, Muhyiddin was named prime minister, and Hamzah became the home minister under the Perikatan Nasional-led federal government.

However, Hamzah’s return to the clubhouse today...