‘Talk that I might be axed will not dissuade me’, says Isham

PETALING JAYA: There is talk swirling around that several Umno members will be kicked out of the party including myself in an upcoming meeting this week, says Isham Jalil (pic).

The Umno supreme council member on Monday (Sept 11) said that even though his name was in the list, he was not dissuaded by the rumour.

“It is up to the party leadership and the council if they want to fire me. My struggle has been sincere towards religion, race and country instead of personal gain.

“You can get rid of a person, but Allah SWT determines the kifarah (atonement of sin),” he said in a post on his Facebook.

Isham explained that he was grateful of no longer being Umno Information Chief, a position handed over to the party president on his own accord.

He said the position was not something missed by him as that would have tasked him to promote DAP.

He was thankful not to shoulder the task of urging grassroot members to support DAP, which was against his will.

“I am not crazy about position. I had twice turned down being a member of a government linked company (GLC) board.

“And I was told to resign. I will not resign because I was elected by grassroot members,” he said.

Isham’s post was in response to another council member, who made a video commenting about me earlier.

He said the council member had even accused him of skipping meetings to which he confirmed he missed three times due to a death in the family, mother being ill and having the flu.

In reference to the council member, Isham clarified that he never told Umno members not to vote for Pakatan Harapan or DAP.

He claimed that it was slander as he said in a live video a few months ago via Facebook that his focus would be in Umno areas.

“A Chinese paper wrote that the headline about me saying don’t vote for Pakatan, which was incorrect, but they subsequently corrected it and issued a correction.

“This was informed to the council via the WhatsApp group, perhaps the person didn’t read it and is trying to slander me without verifying. My position has been to focus on Umno, that’s all.

“Maybe my views are different from the party’s policy and direction, but I have never hit a fellow member of the Supreme Council openly on live video like him,” he said.

Isham added that he did indeed agree to join Pakatan in the Unity Government as info chief previously.

This he said was because the Yang-Di Pertuan Agong had ordered to form the government at the time.

However, he never agreed to go to the polls with Pakatan, adding that these were two different matters.

“The Yang Di-Pertuan Agong never told us to go to the elections with Pakatan, so don’t mix these two things.

“The council member also accused that there was someone behind me? Who is behind me? Perhaps the grassroot members,” he said.