SHAH ALAM - Umno Supreme Council member Isham Jalil reveals that his name may be listed as one of the members to be fired at the party's meeting this week for refusing to promote DAP.
Isham claimed that there were pro-DAP Umno supreme council members who told him to resign, but he refused to do so considering that he held the position because he was elected by the grassroots.
"I heard that this week, a few more Umno members will be fired in the meeting. There are rumours that my name may also be on the list.
"It is up to the party leadership and supreme council if they want to fire me.
"My fight is sincere because of religion, race, and the homeland, not because of personal interests. Men can expel men, but Allah SWT determines everything," he said in a statement on Facebook today.
Isham asserted that previously he handed over the position of information chief back to the Umno president as he understood that the post required him to promote DAP.
"I am thankful that I don't have to bear the task of telling our grassroots to support DAP because that is against my position.
"I am not crazy about positions. I had turned down the position of a board member of a government-linked company (GLC) twice," he stressed.
However, Isham said that the supreme council members had also made various accusations against him, such as that he had often been absent at party meetings and incited Umno members not to vote for Pakatan Harapan (PH).
"He said that I told Umno members not to vote for PH. This is not true. I had never told Umno members not to vote for PH or DAP. This is slander.
"What I said was that I would focus on the Umno area. You could see it in my live stream a few months ago on Facebook. The one who wrote the headline saying I said don't vote for PH was a Chinese newspaper, and that was not true," he said.
He explained that the party involved had already apologised to him and issued a correction.
"I had already informed the supreme council about this via a WhatsApp group a few months ago when this issue arose.
"You can ask another supreme council member to confirm. Maybe he didn't read it or attempted to slander me again without checking," he said.
According to Isham, the supreme council member had also claimed that he agreed to join PH in the Unity Government when he held the position of Umno information chief.
"Yes, I agreed because that was the order of the Yang di-Pertuan Agong to form the government at that time, but I never agreed to go to the election with PH.
"Being in government and going to the general election are two different things.
"His Majesty never told us to go to the election with PH. Don't mix these two things up," he stressed.