Akmal Saleh has hinted that he might resign as Umno Youth chief.
Whether this would be good or bad for the country remains an open question. A random street survey across Malaysia would likely produce sharply divided answers—almost certainly along racial lines.
Personally, I do not think Akmal will actually resign. Or at least, I do not think he will leave politics altogether and return to medicine. As the American comedian Chris Rock once put it, “A man is only as faithful as his options.”
In life, all of us want to succeed, but no one can succeed in every field. Sooner or later, we choose the arena where our chances are highest. For Akmal, that arena is politics, not medicine.
The medical profession today no longer offers easy money, status, or prestige. If Akmal were exceptionally gifted or deeply passionate about medicine, he likely would never have left it for politics in the first place. More plausibly, he entered politics because the odds of success there were better. It is against human nature to abandon a field with higher prospects and return to one with fewer.
Akmal may be a competent doctor, but competence alone is no longer enough to find happiness, success or satisfaction in the field of medicine today. This is not the 1970s or 1980s, when a medical degree almost guaranteed a comfortable life. Medicine, like many professions, has undergone its own inflation. Today, only those who are genuinely talented or deeply passionate tend to thrive. Those who are neither often struggle—a reality many doctors themselves openly acknowledge. Among professionals, doctors arguably complain the most about the gap between what is demanded of them and what they receive in return.
Akmal’s political rise, by contrast, reveals where his real strengths lie. Just two years ago, most Malaysians had never heard of him. I certainly hadn’t. Then came the KK Mart socks controversy, and almost overnight he went from obscurity to ubiquity. His name was suddenly everywhere—headlines, social media, coffee shops, WhatsApp groups.
Since then, Akmal has been a constant feature of Malaysia’s political drama. He has publicly clashed with ministers such as Nga Kor Ming and Teresa Kok, traded barbs with Umno figures like Lokman Adam and Nazri Aziz, and repeatedly placed himself at the centre of emotionally charged controversies—halal ham, the “Allah” socks, the upside-down Jalur Gemilang, alcohol at official events.
Most recently, he locked horns with Puchong MP Yeo Bee Yin over her response to Najib Razak’s failed bid for house arrest. That confrontation led to his boldest move yet: calling a special Umno Youth convention to debate withdrawing Umno’s support from the unity government.
At the convention’s conclusion, Akmal openly urged Umno to leave the Madani government and revive cooperation with PAS under Muafakat Nasional. Umno president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi shut this down swiftly. Umno would remain in the unity government until the next general election; cooperation with PAS was dismissed as a thing of the past.
Then came the twist.
In a Facebook post, Akmal hinted that he might step down as Umno Youth chief. He said he had done his best and delivered the message as clearly as he could, implying that any failure lay with himself. If their intentions were sincere—for religion, race, and nation—then, God willing, their time would come.
Whatever one thinks of his methods, it is hard to deny that Akmal has a knack for politics. The issues he champions almost always capture public attention, which is a rare and much sought of talent in this field. Public attention is fickle and and short-lived. None of us know what the public will be interested in, and even if we manage to ride on a subject that the public is interested in, they will quickly tire of it an move on to another subject, leaving us scrambling to look for the next subject that the public will be interested in, so that we can pitch ride and make our name by using that subject as our vehicle. The competition for public attention is also extremely fierce - ministers, opposition leaders, academics, think tanks, influencers, media, and analysts are all competing for it. Very few can consistently ride it, and even if we can ride it, we often can't ride on it for very long.
Akmal however, has managed to do so for nearly two years, and he often is able to do by using the most unexpected subjects —socks, sandwiches, flags. No other youth chief or state assemblyman has achieved anything comparable. Remarkably, he has also done this without patronage or help. Despite leading the youth wing of a diminished party and holding only a state seat, he has done with remarkable success what higher ranked more and more well positioned politicians with better patronage have failed to do .
Given this, the real question is not whether Akmal can quit politics, but whether he truly means it. Is this a genuine exit, or another calculated move by a shrewd politician—one timed neatly with the upcoming Umno elections?
My view is that even if Akmal, in a moment of frustration, genuinely feels like stepping aside, his own options will pull him back into politics within days.
Why?
Because he is, by most measures, a talented politician—or at the very least, one with sharp political instincts. That is the only explanation as to how he has managed to rise rapidly from obscurity to ubiquity without sponsorship from above. No one elevated him; he elevated himself by creating opportunities and taking risks.
Such instinct makes it unlikely that he is equally gifted or passionate in medicine. As the saying goes, the gods measure before they give. It is rare for someone to excel in more than one demanding field, especially ones as subtle and unforgiving as medicine and politics.
So to Akmal’s supporters, there is little reason for alarm. Even if Akmal truly leaves because he is truly dejected, he will eventually return, because his options will lead him back to politics.
As for his detractors, I am quite sure it is premature to celebrate for the same reason.
Even if Akmal does step down as Umno Youth chief—something I doubt—we have almost certainly not seen the last of him. Short of fate intervening, or a catastrophic political error, Akmal Saleh is likely to remain a fixture of Malaysian politics for years to come.
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