Ismail Sabri bin Yaakob (; born 18 January 1960) is a Malaysian politician and lawyer who was the ninth prime minister of Malaysia from 2021 to 2022. A member of UMNO, he served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Bera since 2004. Ismail previously was the deputy prime minister in 2021.
Born in Pahang, Ismail started his career as a lawyer. He became active in UMNO before entering the Parliament of Malaysia as the Member of Parliament for Bera in 2004. Currently, he is the Division Chief of Bera of UMNO, a component party of the Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition. He also served as the vice president of UMNO from June 2018 to March 2023. As a result from the 2020–2022 Malaysian political crisis, he was formally appointed and sworn in as prime minister on 21 August 2021 following the resignation of his predecessor Muhyiddin Yassin.
Ismail served in several cabinet positions in the BN administration under former Prime Ministers Abdullah Ahmad Badawi and Najib Razak, from March 2008 to its 2018 general election loss. He was the 15th Leader of the Opposition in the Pakatan Harapan (PH) administration from March 2019 to its collapse in February 2020 amid the 2020 Malaysian political crisis. In the PN government, he was prominent in the country's response to the COVID-19 pandemic in his roles as Senior Minister for Security, and later during a 40-day stint as Deputy Prime Minister. He led a faction of his party (UMNO) that continued supporting Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin in June 2021, when the party withdrew its support over the government's handling of the pandemic. After this culminated in the collapse of the government and Muhyiddin's resignation, he successfully entered negotiations to become prime minister in August 2021 after garnering the support of the most MPs. As Prime Minister, Ismail Sabri lifted the Movement Control Order following the expansion of the vaccination programme and oversaw the Twelfth Malaysia Plan.
Ismail Sabri has attracted controversy for his comments in support of ethnic Malay pre-eminence in Malaysia.
Early life and education Ismail Sabri was born in Temerloh, Pahang, Malaysia. His parents are Yaakob Abdul Rahman and Wan Jah Wan Mamat who were originally from Kelantan. His father worked as a rubber tapper. His education began in 1967 at Sekolah Kebangsaan Bangau, followed by Sekolah Menengah Air Putih in Kuantan in 1973, and Sekolah Menengah Teknik Kuantan in 1976. He was a hawker when he was in primary school, selling limes on the roadside and fish at Pekan Sehari market, Temerloh.
After graduating from form six at Jaya Akademik, he continued his studies at the University of Malaya majoring in law in 1980. The title of his Bachelor of Laws (LLB) thesis is "Treatment of political detainees in Malaysia" ("Layanan terhadap tahanan politik di Malaysia"). This drew on the experiences of his older brother, , a leftist student leader who was detained without trial.
Early career In 1985, Ismail began his legal career as a lawyer. He was then appointed as a Member of the Temerloh District Council in 1987 and a Member of the Temerloh Municipal Council in 1996. In 1995, he was appointed Political Secretary to the Minister of Culture, Arts and Tourism, Sabbaruddin Chik. He also was appointed to the Board of Directors of the Pahang Tenggara Board (DARA) in 1995 as well as the Malaysian Tourism Promotion Board in the same year. Before entering Parliament in 2004, Ismail Sabri served as Chairman of the National Sports Complex.
Early political career
Following Ismail's appointment as a Member of the Temerloh Division UMNO Committee in 1987, he held several positions such as Temerloh Division UMNO Information Chief in 1988, Temerloh Division UMNO Youth Chief in 1993, and Temerloh Division UMNO Deputy Chief in 2001. He was appointed as inaugural Bera Division UMNO Chief in 2004 following the border redelineation process for parliamentary constituencies. Ismail Sabri was elected to Parliament in the 2004 general election, becoming the first MP for the new seat of Bera.
Ministerial career (2008–2018, 2020–2021) Minister for Youth and Sports (2008–2009) Ismail Sabri was re-elected in 2008 general election, and was appointed in the third cabinet of former Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi as Minister for Youth and Sports. He served in the position from 2008 to 2009 for a year when Abdullah resigned as prime minister and was replaced by Najib Razak who switched Ismail Sabri to another ministerial portfolio.
Minister for Domestic Trade, Co-operatives and Consumerism (2009–2013) In April 2009, under new Prime Minister Najib Razak Ismail became the Minister for Domestic Trade, Co-operatives and Consumerism (2009–2013).
The Malaysia Competition Act of 2010 was introduced under Ismail's tenure to regulate competition in the private sector. He also introduced the Menu Rakyat 1Malaysia (MR1M) program in 2011 that aims to help the people get food at affordable prices. As of February 2012, 1,314 food premises across the country were participating in the program.
Minister for Agriculture and Agro-Based Industry (2013–2015)
After the 2013 general election, in which Ismail retained his parliamentary seat, he was appointed as the Minister for Agriculture and Agro-Based Industry (2013–2015).
Ismail's ministry has introduced the 'Jihad Against the Middlemen' (Malay: Jihad Memerangi Orang Tengah) initiative which aims to eliminate the role of middlemen in the agriculture sector. Produce from the three agriculture sub-sectors, namely paddy, fisheries, and vegetables and fruits, are marketed directly to consumers through various platforms including Paddy Purchasing Center (Pusat Belian Padi), Fishermen's Market (Pasar Nelayan), Farmers' Market (Pasar Tani), and Agrobazaar Kedai Rakyat. Public Service Department of Malaysia claims that the income of crop farmers, fishermen, and livestock producers have increased as a result of this initiative, while consumers can obtain fresh products at lower prices than those offered in the public market (pasar awam).
Minister of Rural and Regional Development (2015–2018)
Ismail Sabri was appointed as the Minister of Rural and Regional Development (2015–2018) after July 2015 cabinet reshuffle.
Ismail's ministry launched Rural Urbanization (Malay: Membandarkan Luar Bandar) initiative in November 2015 to address people's needs and wants while keeping the rural development process on track. To encourage the younger generation to continue living and building their future in rural areas, basic rural infrastructure is expanded, particularly in underserved areas such as Sabah and Sarawak, as well as rural areas in peninsular Malaysia, including Orang Asli areas.
During Ismail's tenure in this position, Ismail came up with the concept of Mara Digital Malls in August 2015, which are essentially malls that sell IT products, but only from Bumiputera vendors. The initiative was intended to enable more Bumiputra traders to sell digital goods and IT gadgets, with lower rents than existing IT centres. Traders were given a six-month rental subsidy to establish themselves.
Senior Minister (Security Cluster) and Minister of Defence (2020–2021) In March 2020 following the change from PH to PN government, Ismail was appointed as Senior Minister of Malaysia (Security Cluster) and Minister of Defence under new Prime Minister, Muhyiddin Yassin to serve in the PN cabinet. His tenure involved conducting daily briefings related to security issues during the COVID-19 pandemic, including those related to Movement Control Order (MCO) restrictions. He criticised Al Jazeera for a documentary about treatment of immigrants during the MCO, demanding the network apologise for what he alleged was "false reporting". During the 2020 Sabah state election, Ismail Sabri told the press that voters who had travelled to Sabah to vote from other states would not need to quarantine upon their return.
Vice President of UMNO (2018–2023) After the defeat of BN and UMNO in the 2018 general election, Ismail contested for the UMNO vice-presidency in the subsequent 2018 UMNO leadership election on 30 June 2018 and won by the highest number of votes ahead of two other winners with lower number of votes, who are former Minister of Education Mahdzir Khalid and former Menteri Besar of Johor Mohamed Khaled Nordin. As he was the most-voted among the three party vice presidents, he is also the highest-ranking party vice president as the party first vice president. He is ranked the third after party president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi and party deputy president Mohamad Hasan. On 20 December 2018, he was tasked to cover the duties and act as the party deputy president in place of Mohamad who was covering the duties and acting as the party president during the period when Ahmad Zahid took the "garden leave" for over half of a year from December 2018 to June 2019. On 26 February 2023, he confirmed that he would only seek reelection as the Division Chief of Bera and not as the Vice President of UMNO in the 2023 UMNO elections. Following that, he stepped down as the Vice President of UMNO on 18 March 2023 after his replacement Wan Rosdy Wan Ismail was elected.
Power struggle with Ahmad Zahid Ahmad Zahid has repeatedly called for the next Malaysian general election to be held as soon as possible while Ismail Sabri remains uninterested and undecided on the issue. However, Ismail Sabri also promised to hold the election when the "time is right" and when he is confident that BN will win it and return to power. On 17 September 2022, he added that the election would not be too far away and reiterated that he would set the election date with four other top leaders of UMNO besides him who are the president, deputy president and two other vice presidents. Ahmad Zahid however, reaffirmed his strong stance for the election to be held as soon as possible or better immediately. Although having been named as the prime minister candidate of BN in the 2022 general election, the opposition has repeatedly accused that BN would not honour its promise of renominating its Member of the Supreme Council and incumbent Prime Minister Ismail Sabri as the prime minister if the coalition wins the election. Instead of him, the coalition would nominate its Chairman, higher-ranking and more senior Ahmad Zahid, who was also facing corruption court charges. However, Ismail Sabri has denied and played down the accusations, stressing that they were false and he would remain prime minister. He justified that the issue had been decided in the UMNO general assembly and even to the extent of branch meetings, where majority of the branches supported his reappointment to the position after the election and party presidents of other BN component parties namely the Malaysian Chinese Association (MCA), Malaysian Indian Congress (MIC) and Parti Bersatu Rakyat Sabah (PBRS) have also agreed with the decision.
Leader of the Opposition (2019–2020)
In March 2019, Ahmad Zahid stepped down as the Leader of the Opposition. The position of Ismail Sabri as the UMNO first vice president has allowed him to be appointed to replace Ahmad Zahid instead of UMNO deputy president Mohamad Hasan. Although Mohamad is ranked higher than Ismail Sabri as the UMNO deputy president, he was not an elected MP and did not satisfy the criteria to be appointed to the position.
Deputy Prime Minister (2021) In July 2021, Ismail was appointed as Deputy Prime Minister of Malaysia by Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin while retaining his substantive post as the Defence Minister. He was replaced by Dato' Seri Hishammuddin Hussein as Senior Minister of Malaysia (security cluster). The reshuffle was interpreted by media as a tactic for Muhyiddin to ease tensions within Perikatan Nasional by promoting UMNO figures into positions of power, as some members in the party had begun to challenge Muhyiddin's leadership.