Isham Jalil

Isham has had a long history with BN and UMNO ever since he was at the early age of 10 where he had followed and accompanied his parents to political talks during election seasons.[8] As he was raised by parents who are UMNO stalwarts, Isham has helped his parents and UMNO campaign where in the 1986 Malaysian general election, he started putting up BN posters and helped write speeches for his father at the branch level for election campaigns.[9]

Currently, Isham is a member of UMNO under the Putrajaya division led by former Minister of Federal Territories and current UMNO Treasurer-General, Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor. Prior to that, he was a member of UMNO Sungai Buloh.[10] Before he was appointed as Member of the Supreme Council of UMNO,[11] Isham was also appointed and served as the State Information Chief of BN Selangor,[12] Isham was Information Chief of UMNO after GE-15 from November 2022 to March 2023 before being replaced by Minister of Law and Institutional Reform, Azalina Othman Said after he handed over the post to contest for the UMNO Supreme Council. Isham contested in the UMNO election in March 2023 and won the post placing 19th out of 85 candidates with a total votes of 42,340 and 101 UMNO divisions out of 191 nationwide.[13]

In the 2022 general election, he was hinted and expected to contest for the Shah Alam federal seat.[14][15] On 1 November 2022, he was confirmed to be nominated as a candidate representing the BN coalition to contest for the seat but eventually lost to Pakatan Harapan candidate Azli Yusof.

Described as a "Conservative nationalist", Isham believes that Malaysia should maintain its vision of cultural integration rather than forced assimilation in order to maintain racial and social harmony. He believes that Chinese and Indian vernacular schools should not be abolished and rejects the "Malaysian Malaysia" identity as it would exacerbate racial tensions within Malaysia.[16][17] In the case of meritocracy, Isham has the stance where it breeds injustice and it would promote selective discrimination due to its incomplete nature. From Astro Awani's three way dialogue with Bachok MP Syahir Sulaiman and Sunway University Professor Wong Chin Huat, Isham has stated that:[18]

I've said why meritocracy is not fair in Malaysia, why? Because meritocracy is based on criteria, and these criterias are written by humans, and if the criterias are not fair, then it can cause systemic discrimination. For example, students in Terengganu are among the many students who get the highest results in Malaysia every year, but if you want to compare their ability to speak English compared to students in Kuala Lumpur, it is very different, but if you want to give scholarships based on the language criteria alone, it will create systemic discrimination.

— Isham Jalil

The regression of Malaysia's grand old party after the 2022 Malaysian general election due to the failure of its current president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi has led Isham to advocate for BN and UMNO to persist in going solo.[19] He believes that in order to regain confidence and relevance, BN should have not joined with either coalitions PH or PN but instead continued in parliament as a separate independent block that could provide check and balance as a credible opposition. Although, BN eventually formed a unity-government with PH, Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS), Gabungan Rakyat Sabah (GRS), and Parti Warisan under the behest of the King of Malaysia, Abdullah of Pahang.

He has pessimistic views over the ruling Pakatan Harapan (PH) coalition particularly its largest member, the Democratic Action Party (DAP) where he claims that the party's ideology contradicts with the national constitution and blames them for their lack of commitment which caused BN to lose votes during the 2023 Malaysian state elections.[20][21][22] Isham also has the same negative notion and rejection towards Perikatan Nasional (PN). Previously, Isham was offered board seats for GLCs twice under the PH and also the PN government but he turned down the offers. [23]

Isham is known to be a strong supporter and loyalist of his former boss Najib Razak and has continued to pressure the government for his release where he has described Najib's prosecution as unjust and plagued with political motives.[24] He believes that Najib's presence was vital and crucial for BN's electoral success post-GE14,[25] particularly in both the 2021 Melaka state election and 2022 Johor state election where BN had won two-third majorities in both state assemblies, as well as various by-elections where BN had secured and swayed various seats such as in Semenyih, Cameron Highlands, Kimanis, and Tanjung Piai. Isham ardently believes that one of the three fundamental reasons of UMNO's loss of support and growing irrelevance is due to the absence of Najib.[26]

•  Malaysia :
  • Officer of the Order of the Defender of the Realm (KMN) (2017)[30]