Here’s a brief history on the two Umno stalwarts.
Ismail Sabri Yaakob
Born Jan 18, 1960 in Temerloh, Pahang, Ismail completed his schooling at a number of institutions around the state before pursuing his LLB at the University of Malaya’s Faculty of Law in 1980.
After graduating, he briefly worked as a lawyer in 1985 before pivoting to politics, and was soon appointed a member of the Temerloh district council in 1987.
In 1995, he became a political secretary to then culture, arts and tourism minister Sabbaruddin Chik, and was appointed to the board of directors of the Pahang Tenggara Board and the Malaysian Tourism Promotion Board the same year.
Ismail continued to move up the ranks at the Temerloh Umno division, and became deputy head in 2001 before taking the top spot in 2004, the same year he became a member of Parliament by securing the newly-created Bera seat in the GE11.
After being re-elected in 2008, he was appointed youth and sports minister under Abdullah Badawi. A year later, under Najib Razak, he was appointed minister for domestic trade, co-operatives and consumerism.
In 2013, he was given the agriculture and agro-based industry portfolio, later being appointed as the rural and regional development minister in 2015.
In 2018, when Ahmad Zahid Hamidi ascended to the role of Umno president after Najib stepped down in the wake of Barisan Nasional’s defeat in the 14th general election (GE14), Ismail was made one of the party’s vice-presidents.
After the Sheraton Move restored Umno’s place in the government, Ismail was made defence minister and also named senior minister for security in Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin’s cabinet until his promotion today.
Hishammuddin Hussein
An Umno blue blood, Hishammuddin was born on Aug 5, 1961, and is the eldest son of Malaysia’s third prime minister Hussein Onn and grandson of Umno’s founder, Onn Jaafar.
He did his further studies at the University of Wales, Aberystwyth, earning his LLB in 1984. He then completed his Masters of Law at the London School of Economics in 1988.
He joined Umno upon his return from the UK, and after spending some time as a lawyer was soon elected to the Tenggara, Johor seat in Parliament.
Hishammuddin rose up Umno’s ranks, becoming the party’s youth chief in 1999 and was named the federal youth and sports minister in Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s cabinet the same year.
In 2004, he won the newly-created Sembrong seat and was made education minister under Abdullah.
The year 2009 was a busy one, with Hishammuddin being named Umno vice-president and home minister under then newly-elected Najib, who is also his first cousin.
He was then made defence minister after the 2013 general election (GE13), and spent just under a year as transport minister after MCA briefly withdrew from the Cabinet. The role was typically given to an MCA member.
In 2017, he was made a Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department (Special Functions) until the fall of the Barisan Nasional government a year later.
Upon his return to the government in 2020, Muhyiddin appointed him as foreign minister in March. He also replaced Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor as Barisan Nasional treasurer-general in October.
