Muhyiddin and another former minister were purged from the government along with several menteris besar and grassroots leaders for being critical of the party leadership.
Muhyiddin is slated to face further action for not stopping his tirade against party president Najib Abdul Razak.
“We understand that now Umno has become the exclusive property of the supreme council and the voices of the grassroots are no longer heard…” Ismail told Malaysiakini.
He was responding to the proposal by supreme council member Nazri Abdul Aziz for the party’s disciplinary board to suspend Muhyiddin for his incessant outbursts against Najib.
Nazri’s proposal got the thumbs-up from fellow supreme council member Rahman Dahlan who agreed that Muhyiddin must face censure, but added that the matter would be decided by the disciplinary board.
Denizens of real democracies would laugh out loud at this description of Muhyiddin’s till now polite remarks as “incessant outbursts”.
In fact, for the past year of unfolding mega-scandal the DPM’s muted, almost timid-sounding tones have been letting Najib off the hook. It is an irony that only the old dictatorial warhorse himself, Dr M, has acted like a democrat, loudly voicing his concerns.
Others in UMNO have been sacked, not even for speaking out, but only for showing insufficient enthusiasm for Najib.
This is no longer a political party, it is a group of paid yes men, who have agreed to be run by one boss – they gave the job to the wrong man (or woman to be perhaps more precise) and now they are in a hell of a mess.