By Niza Shimi
There’s a tweet by a political enthusiast @JonJonesSr about United Kingdom’s Prime Minister Rishi Sunak that reminds me of sacked former Youth Chief of the United Malays National Organisation, Khairy Jamaluddin (KJ).
The tweet from Jon Jones, “Rishi Sunak is a rich and clueless posh boy, detached from reality. We seriously need to stop voting for these tossers”, is about Rishi spending UK tax payer’s money allegedly to “repair his image”.
Of course, that has nothing with KJ but the description that Rishi is a “rich and clueless posh boy, detached from reality” seems to fit the no longer young KJ, now a politician without a party.
As a political observer with strong opinions myself, I have been following the progress of KJ since before his rise in UMNO.
Then a journalist, I was sent to cover a Harvard Project for Asian and International Relations (HPAIR) conference in 1998. The HPAIR conference with the theme “Asia in Transition: Beyond the Miracle” was co-hosted by the AIESEC Universiti Putra Malaysia and in cooperation with the Institute of Strategic and International Studies.
It was quite a big event for young people from around the world and was held from May 28 to May 31, 1998 at the then Putra World Trade Centre. Among the organisers was a young KJ and team member Nori Abdullah, both in their early twenties.
KJ was a young man going places and, together with friends Omar Mustapha and Zaki Zahid, had made a name for himself as having co-founded Ethos, a glitzy business magazine that ceased operations during the 1997 Asian financial crisis.
Perhaps the sacking of then Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim (now the 10th PM or PMX) on September 2, 1998 hogged news headlines for years that KJ’s rising star in politics was overlooked. It was all about the Reformasi movement. Nurul Izzah was still a teenager.
But in 2001 KJ married Nori, daughter of then DPM Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi (Pak Lah) and his star began to shine brighter.
(Tun Abdullah replaced Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad (Tun M) and became PM5 from 2004 to 2009 when the latter retired as PM4 and from politics. Tun M would later resurface to become PM8 when Pakatan Harapan won the 14th general elections in 2018.)
Back to the HPAIR event, even then KJ stood out as he had the kind of academic credentials and dynamic personality that was uncommon among Malaysian youths. I was impressed and, to me, KJ was on his way to a stellar career in whatever field he chose.
But whether it was a good or bad decision, he chose to be in politics. Now in 2023, KJ was recently sacked from the party he chose to pledge his loyalty and allegiance to, UMNO. Did he choose the wrong career or is he in the wrong political party?
Back in 1998, KJ was a typical idealistic young person newly returned from living and studying abroad that he seemed awkward around the locals, especially the kampong folks. Not for lack of trying but I think he never quite fit in with UMNO’s grassroots.
He always seemed, as Jon Jones tweeted of Rishi Sunak, “a rich and clueless posh boy” among the more rustic kampong Malay-ness of UMNO. Where Malays use subtlety with berkias (hints) and sindiran (sarcasm), KJ is blunt, brutal and in your face.
Perhaps he made many missteps, tread on many toes and is seen to have gotten an unfair advantage in UMNO as the son in law of Pak Lah. (KJ was elected as Member Parliament for Rembau in 2008 when Pak Lah was PM.)
But KJ has proven that he can hit the ground running, especially in his recent stint as the Minister of Health. He has previously served as Minister of Science, Technology and Innovation and Minister of Youth and Sports.
Some say that is precisely what makes KJ a threat to the less able but politically ambitious in UMNO.
Perhaps KJ suffers from the same impatience to be PM that Anwar did when he got sacked as DPM in 1998. KJ doesn’t hide his ambitions. He didn’t enter politics to be a follower, that’s for sure. But is he a team player? Apparently, UMNO doesn’t think so. But you can’t be PM without a party.
Seeing how politics has evolved since 1998, I can’t blame young leaders with potential for staying away. It seems politics is a road to nowhere if you don't know how to play the game. Can KJ get his act together and be PM one day? Perhaps not in UMNO.
Niza Shimi is a content creator under the Newswav Creator programme, where you get to express yourself, be a citizen journalist, and at the same time monetize your content & reach millions of users on Newswav. Log in to creator.newswav.com and become a Newswav Creator now!
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