It took a long time coming but it finally came after Umno Supreme Council member Isham Jalil was finally given the boot; and this was after persistently running down the party, and its president, for working together with Pakatan Harapan, and especially DAP.
As was reported by the Malay Mail on Dec 7, Umno supreme council member Datuk Seri Ahmad Maslan had confirmed in a terse message that Isham’s party membership had indeed been terminated.
Actually, rumours of Isham’s sacking started after he defied a call from party president Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi to attend the latest Umno supreme council meeting to explain his criticism about the top echelon’s decision to work with old political foe DAP, as a part of the coalition government led by Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim; however, in an apparent act of defiance he failed to show up.
Meanwhile, according to the report, another Supreme Council member Datuk Mohd Zaidy Abdul Kadir, said the decision to fire Isham was appropriate; he added that the act of dismissing Isham also proves that Umno does not compromise with any individual who tries to divide the party; thus, damaging the cohesion of its members.
Furthermore, according to Mohd Zaidy, it’s a decision that Isham himself would appear to welcome, as he seems to want to be fired from the party by expressing public views that were not in line with Umno’s aspirations.
In truth, Isham has been vocal towards the party on many occasions, particularly on its cooperation with DAP; apparently in a video posted on his Facebook page a day earlier he had claimed that Umno-Barisan Nasional's loss in the recent Kemaman by-election was due to its rejection by the Malays, as some Umno members were allegedly being lackeys (servants) of DAP instead of advocating the interests of the Malays and Islam.
Meanwhile, Tan Sri Annuar Musa, the ex-Umno warlord who himself was booted out from Umno after the 15th general elections late last year appeared to take a swipe at Umno president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi; according to him UMNO is drifting further away from the Malay instinct and sentiment due to his arrogant attitude.
Moreover, claiming that the Umno president had his own agenda, he said that the party members should look at an alternative like PAS which has consistently upheld the principle of modesty, openness, prioritising agreements and Islamic struggle; he then added that the statement by PAS deputy president Datuk Seri Tuan Ibrahim Tuan Man was accurate in that UMNO will continue to bootlick and lift up (menjulang) DAP!
Nevertheless, it's unclear what Isham’s next move will be but it's unlikely that he would be in a hurry to join either PAS or Bersatu; unless of course he was willing to ditch his own controversial agenda, which is to see his mentor and “Bossku” Najib Razak - whom he often alludes to as an innocent victim of the 1MDB scandal - freed from prison!
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