In 1977, having acquired substantial shares in "The Star", a Penang-based newspaper, he became the newspaper's chairman. His columns, "Looking Back" and "As I See It", were critical of the government, and in 1987 Mahathir banned the newspaper. This led to a split in UMNO, with Tunku himself and another former PM, Hussein, setting up a new party called UMNO Malaysia, but its registration was quashed by Mahathir, who set up his own UMNO Baru (New UMNO). Tunku later supported Semangat 46 (S46), a splinter group of UMNO led by Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah. He campaigned actively for the latter in the General election of 1990, but was already in very poor health. The well-educated, visionary Tunku stood in contrast to Mahathir's brand of nationalism, which promised to help ethnic Malays, who were purportedly economically and socially stunted by the aftereffects of the colonial British "divide and rule" system.