Zahid: Umno Supreme Council sacked Isham Jalil for insulting party, not for criticising me

KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 9 — Umno president Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi has today divulged that the decision to sack Isham Jalil from the party was made by its Supreme Council.

Zahid told reporters that the sacking was not made by the party’s Disciplinary Committee, and need not be done by the committee.

“The decision was made by the Supreme Council,” he said.

Zahid also said that criticising the party president is acceptable but insulting the party was not acceptable within Umno.

“Criticising the president is not a consideration at all to initiate disciplinary actions, but when they insult their own party and ridicule Umno as a party that they are a part of,” he said.

He also clarified that there was no error in procedure because even if the disciplinary issue was brought it up, it would have gone to the Supreme Council.

“The Disciplinary Committee will bring it to the Supreme Council and the Supreme Council will decide, the decision is final.

Zahid said any decision would still be made by the Supreme Council, to prevent any “tikus membaiki labu” — referring to a Malay idiom meaning someone ignorant trying to fix a thing and resulting in the thing becoming more damaged.

He had yesterday used the same idiom when he agreed with Umno secretary-general Datuk Seri Asyraf Wajdi Dusuki’s assertion that the party can recover its reputation provided there is no internal dispute among its leaders.

On Wednesday, Isham defied a call from the party president to attend the Umno supreme council meeting here 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.

Earlier, Umno vice-president Datuk Seri Mohamed Khaled Nordin said the decision of the Supreme Council to sack Isham from the party came following his actions which were deemed to be a threat to the party.

He said party members should utilise the appropriate and established avenues when conveying their views or dissatisfaction on any internal matter.

On a separate note, Zahid also hit back at PAS vice-president Datuk Idris Ahmad’s recent remarks claiming that Umno should thank Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia and PAS for inviting them to join the cabinet during Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin’s tenure as prime minister.

“Datuk Seri Idris doesn’t know what Umno did, and actually he should thank us, before this, he was in the Opposition too,” Zahid said.

“Perikatan Nasional at that time was shaped because of Umno’s contributions because at that time, PAS had only 18 seats whereas Umno and Barisan Nasional as a whole had 68 seats, so they should thank Umno.”