He said the tie-up was unlikely even though many “centrist Malaysians” would prefer this to a Perikatan Nasional government.

The Umno leader, who declined to be named, said a PH-BN government would be a more centrist and moderate administration compared to a PN one dominated by PAS and Bersatu.

“When the results came out, I received a lot of messages, people asking BN to work with PH, but I don’t see how it can happen.”

“The Borneo bloc will not work with DAP, and even for Umno, it will be difficult to work with DAP. The Malays won’t accept it,” said the source

The source said the reality was that Umno had not learnt its lesson from the 2018 general election.

“We lost in 2018 and then took shortcuts back into power. In the end, the people looked at us in this election and concluded that we had not changed enough.

“We do not deserve to be in government, and we need to earn the trust and support of the people. There are no shortcuts to this. Umno, BN must change.”

The source said he believed Umno must stay out of government even if it decides to break the deadlock between PN and PH.

“It would be better for us to have a memorandum of understanding with whoever we help form the government, that’s more likely to be PN.

“But we should not hold any Cabinet positions and should play our role as an opposition party while undergoing that reform process,” said the source.

In yesterday’s general election, PH and PN won the bulk of seats while BN trailed far behind, losing many strongholds to PN. At press time, PH held 73 seats while PN held 71. BN only managed to win 29 seats.

Umno is holding emergency meetings today on the party’s future following BN’s dismal performance at the polls.