With Ishak's passing, Umno loses great orator

The late Seremban Umno division chief Ishak Ismail had a long career as a lawmaker, but is best remembered as an entertaining orator.

Although he is not a prominent Umno leader at the national level, Ishak made regular appearances as a ceramah speaker during by-elections.

Ishak does not shy away from taboo topics to drive home his point, but nothing would match his performance during the 2009 Umno general assembly.

While representing Negeri Sembilan Umno, Ishak decided to share anecdotes on his early days in Umno with Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak and his current deputy Ahmad Zahid Hamidi.

Ishak claimed that he had once roomed with Najib at an army camp in 1986, when the latter was Umno Youth head.

A loud explosion was said to have occurred, following which a worried Najib asked Ishak for suggestions on what to do next.

Ishak then had the audience in stitches when the Ummo lawmaker revealed that he told Najib to check the lower regions of his anatomy and stressed the importance of courage to be prime minister. [Watch video here]

VCD sold like hot cakes

Ishak also ribbed Zahid by telling a story of their encounter and how the latter used to have a poor command of English and once asked to borrow "two zero dollars" instead of "twenty dollars".

The Umno general assembly that year sold VCDs of the speeches. Ishak's VCD reportedly sold 1,000 copies.

Ishak, 66, was born in Seremban and has been the Lenggeng lawmaker since 1995. He passed away last night. He is survived by his wife Norimah Ujang and four children.

He was trained in building surveying at the Liverpool Polytechnic and joined the Malaysia Building Society Berhad (MBSB) in 1984. He has been the Seremban Umno division head since 1988.

In 2015, Najib's former political secretary Shahlan Ismail helped broker a settlement which helped Ismail set aside a bankruptcy order. - Mkini