Tun Salleh Abbas, the former Lord President of the Federal Court had contested for the constituency seat in the 1995 Malaysian general election under the Semangat 46 ticket, and lost.
Suhaimi, along with other big political names from the media-labelled Team B such as Datuk Rais Yatim, Datuk Radzi Sheikh Ahmad, Datuk Zainal Abidin Zin, Datuk Manan Othman, Datuk Ibrahim Ali, Datin Paduka Rahmah Othman and Marina Yusof, defected to Semangat 46.