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“IT’S a relief.”
That was Datuk Tun Faisal Ismail Aziz’s reply when asked how he felt about his sacking from Umno, which some quarters have decried as unjustified, earlier this week.
According to the former Putrajaya Umno deputy division chief, being sacked is better than being suspended, as one can now openly say what needs to be said without having to carry the burden and responsibility of “saving” the party.
And boy, does he let loose.
On The Good, The Bad and The Ugly this week, Tun Faisal discusses the factors that led him to be fired for good from the party, after having been suspended for six years in March 2021.
He also weighs in on the current climate at both leadership and grassroots levels, likening the machinations of those politicking to either maintain their positions or to try to make reforms from within Umno as akin to a ‘Game of Thrones’.
It is perhaps no coincidence that he is a former press secretary to ex-minister Tan Sri Annuar Musa who was himself expelled from Umno last December despite being a veteran in the party.
Annuar had been very vocal in his criticisms of the leadership of Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi in Umno.
In an interview with Getaran, The Vibes’ Malay-language sister portal, last week, Tun Faisal asserted: “It has become a ‘jewel’ for the president to strengthen his power, because, in reality, the disciplinary board is not functioning; it hands down punishments without due process.
“My punishment from the board was not based on facts, which proves that it is just a ‘cartoon’.”
In a podcast interview with The Vibes, he goes deeper into what changed from the time he was an ardent supporter of Zahid to when he withdrew his support for the Umno president, leading to his six-year suspension from the party in March 2021.
What is next for this self-identifying ‘William Wallace’? Is there a ‘Robert the Bruce’-type character left, now that Khairy Jamaluddin and Tan Sri Noh Omar have also been sacked, who can bring together what he deems to be reformist factions from Umno?
Does the blood of Umno still course through his veins?
He answers unflinchingly that it does, but not the ‘Umno-Zahid Sdn Bhd’-type blood.
“That one is so deviated from the true path of Umno,” he says. – The Vibes, February 6, 2023
Presented by Petra News chief executive Datuk Zainul Arifin Mohamed Isa, executive director Datuk Ahirudin Attan (better known as Rocky Bru) and editor-in-chief Terence Fernandez
Produced by Shazmin Shamsuddin and sound edited by Ethan Phoon