[Malaysia] Decision a likely political death knell for Isa

The Star, Kuala Lumpur

08 October 2005

Decision a likely political death knell for Isa

BY JOCELINE TAN

YESTERDAY was not the best of days for Tan Sri Mohamed Isa Abdul Samad.

He had driven up to Kuala Lumpur to fetch his cancer-stricken wife from a private hospital, where she had been warded for the past three days.The doctors did not have the best of news for him. They told the Umno politician that it would be better if Puan Sri Hazizah Tumin returned home to rest.

Isa was aware that the Umno supreme council would be meeting that afternoon and his political fate was hanging in the balance but he had little time to worry about it. Besides, the suspended Umno vice-president had grown quite exhausted, even immune, about the entire affair.

It had been more than four months since the Umno disciplinary board found him guilty of money politics in the Umno elections last year and suspended him for six years with eight others, including his political secretary Mohd Salim Sharif. Isa and his wife returned to their Nilai Springs home and shortly before the supreme council meeting began at 4pm, he received a call from the Prime Minister’s office, asking him to keep his phone line free from 5pm onwards for a call from the Umno president.

The call came in shortly before Maghrib prayer.

It was Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi who personally conveyed to him the news that his suspension had been reduced from six to three years. It was small consolation for the pint-sized politician. Isa will be 56 next month but the three-year suspension, equivalent to one term of political office in the party, effectively eliminates him from the next Umno polls.

But it is the high-profile nature of his case that has been like the political death knell for him after 22 years in politics. The cost of the suspension – the posts of vice-president and Teluk Kemang division chief. He would also have to resign from his Federal Territories Minister's post. “His political career is as good as dead,” said a supreme council member.

It is the first time that someone so highly ranked in Umno had been punished for money politics. The former Negri Sembilan strongman had won the vice-president's post with the highest number of votes, over Malacca Mentri Besar Datuk Mohd Ali Rustam and Agriculture and Agro-Based Industry Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin.

“I have no feelings,” Isa said in a brief telephone interview just before he left his house for terawih prayers yesterday evening. He also puzzled many people when he said he felt like laughing after learning of his fate. “It’s just his way of talking. I think he is upset, although he had been expecting it,” said Paroi assemblywoman and Puteri Umno secretary Bibi Sharliza Mohd Khalid.

Other Puteri politicians like Suraya Yaakob, who were at Umno's headquarters at the Putra World Trade Centre for a breaking of fast gathering, had flocked around deputy president Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak for more details. “I feel really sad because I thought there was some hope for him,” said Suraya, who is Puteri treasurer. Apparently, the appeals board had upheld the six-year suspension of Isa.

But the Umno management committee, which comprised top party figures, had recommended the reduction in penalty after studying the case and taking into account the way Isa had carried himself. Isa had kept a low profile throughout his suspension.

It is learnt that the supreme council agreed with the recommendation. The Isa case is the strongest signal from the Umno leadership against money politics. It couldn't have been an easy decision for the Umno leadership but Abdullah is determined to fight the scourge of money politics.

Isa told some people several days ago that “I feel this will be the end of my career.” He had added: “My only regret is that the end is so unpleasant.”