Some view Khairy Jamaluddin as the future of Malaysia’s biggest political party, Umno. However, there are those within the party’s current leadership who believe the health minister’s ascension to the top hierarchy is still a long way off.
As such, moves to get Umno deputy president Datuk Seri Mohamad Hasan to replace Khairy for the Rembau parliamentary seat in the next general election is a test of Khairy’s loyalty to the party, says Associate Profesor Dr Azeem Fazwan Ahmad Farouk.
“It is a power play by Umno. They want to see if he would agree to move out of his constituency or fight it,” added Azeem, director of Universiti Sains Malaysia’s Centre for Policy Research and International Studies.
“It is to test Khairy’s loyalty. But it looks like he has not taken the bait, as he has said that he would give up the seat. Khairy wants to portray himself as a party man, and it looks like he is not falling for the move, or is not about to show his hand.”
Khairy, the son-in-law of former prime minister Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, had on Sunday, revealed that he was asked to contest elsewhere in the upcoming election. He stressed that he was a “party man”, and that people know of his loyalty to Umno, as he had “never jumped” (to any other party). He added that he would await instructions from the party’s leadership over where to contest.
Khairy has taken on former Umno president Datuk Seri Najib Razak and current party supremo Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamid publically on several occasions since 2018.
Right after BN was booted out of Putrajaya in May 2018, Khairy said that Umno leaders became delusional, adding that “we got drunk on our own Kool-Aid and we got carried away.” He also spoke about the waning grassroots support for Najib and the leadership.
In 2019, Khairy expressed his unhappiness over Najib’s appointment as head of BN’s advisory board. A year later, Khairy said he hoped for Umno to rejuvenate, move forward, and not be ensnared in Najib’s corruption cases.
Najib is currently serving his 12-year jail term and will have to pay a fine of RM210 million after the Federal Court recently affirmed his conviction and sentence in the SRC International case.
While managing the National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme in 2021, Khairy took Najib to task for ignoring his repeated explanations about the vaccination rate in the country.
In August 2021, Khairy admitted having trust issues with Ahmad Zahid after an audio recording between the latter, and opposition leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, suggesting the two were working hand in hand, surfaced.
Azeem said it did not matter if Mohamad or Khairy stood for the Rembau seat, as an Umno candidate would likely win.
He added it could also be a calculated move on Khairy’s part as he knows that even if Umno-Barisan Nasional (BN) were to win the next general election, it would be by a slim margin.
By sitting out the 15th general election, Azeem said Khairy could get back in touch with the grassroots and then be seen as the “saviour” or “leader” in the following polls, by trying to get a higher majority for the BN coalition.
“That could be the thinking, but the days of Umno or BN having two-thirds, or a large majority in Parliament, are over,” said Azeem.
“I expect a delay in forming the government after GE15 as no coalition would be the dominant force,” he added.
