Khairy Jamaluddin as a dead man walking, after being given a ‘stern warning’ by the UMNO

March 26, 2009I was one of the many who counted Khairy Jamaluddin as a dead man walking, after being given a ‘stern warning’ by the UMNO[Photo]disciplinary committee one week before the UMNO Youth election.On the assumption that the disciplinary committee was taking ‘instructions’ from incoming UMNO president and soon-to-be 6th prime minister of Malaysia, the warning was clearly a signal that Najib Abdul Razak did not want to see Khairy in the ranks of UMNO leadership.It was then a two-horse race between Mohd Khir Toyo and Mukhriz Mahathir. All that was left for Khairy to do was to decide if he wanted to throw his support behind either candidate or sit back and take his defeat graciously and let Khir and Mukhriz ‘duke it out’. But Khairy managed to pull off one of the most improbable victories in UMNO general assembly elections history. He polled 304 votes, enough to defeat Khir (252 votes) and Mukhriz (232 votes). This was a remarkable achievement for Khairy especially given the circumstances surrounding him leading up to the polls.He was seen as largely responsible, rightly or wrongly, for helping Abdullah Ahmad Badawi win one of the largest majorities in Parliament in Malaysia’s political history in 2004, and also for bringing the Barisan Nasional to its worst electoral defeat in 2008.He was seen as one of the most hated figures in Malaysian politics, certainly in the public realm, and some may say within UMNO as well. Without the protection of the outgoing PM, the daggers were already out to kill Khairy off, including many who were jealous of his meteoric rise to power on what they thought were the coat-tails of his father-in-law.Khairy was the underdog going into this race, receiving the fewest nominations out of the three contenders for the UMNO Youth chief position. The ‘stern warning’ he received was supposed to put away any doubts about his viability as Hishammuddin Hussein’s replacement.How did Khairy pull off the improbable, or some may even consider, the impossible? It is impossible to answer this question definitively since we are not privy to the internal motivations for each of the 304 delegates who voted for Khairy. But with the benefit of hindsight, which is always 20/20, one may be able to piece together a story of how the improbable was made real last night in the halls of the Putra World Trade Centre.Being ‘ultra’ and ‘moderate’Khairy had to first convince the UMNO Youth delegates that he could effectively defend the rights of the Malays. His background as a son of a diplomat and a product of Oxford were seen as potential liabilities with UMNO Youth because he could have easily been slapped with the label - by the media and by others outside UMNO - of being a (gasp) ‘progressive’ or ‘moderate’ who would concede away Malay rights to the non-Malays, especially since many of his close childhood and college friends were non-Malays.Hence, the playing of the ‘ultra’ card, which he has done (some may say effectively, others may not be as charitable) since being elected unopposed to the position of Youth deputy chief. He never gave up playing this card all the way up to the UMNO Youth elections – with his castigation of Tok Guru Nik Aziz Nik Mat over the question of Malay rights and the NEP, with his call for Mohd Nizar Jamaluddin’s citizenship to be taken away for going against the will of the Perak sultan and so on and so forth.He could not be seen as ceding too much of the ‘ultra’ ground, especially since Khir Toyo, the former Selangor Menteri Besar, and whom many thought was the frontrunner to win the Youth chief post, was seen as a more ‘genuine ultra’ than Khairy as well as Mukhriz.After having defended his ground by vociferously defending Malay rights, Khairy then went on to make a case for being the most suitable Youth leader to take on the opposition. His debate against Husam Musa, whom many think is a likely contender for PAS deputy president, just before the Kuala Terengganu by-election was part of his overall strategy to make this case.The fact that he ‘goaded’ Husam into bringing up the issue of the Islamic state and thereby causing a temporary schism between DAP and PAS would no doubt have been used by Khairy as a key campaigning point. Proof, if you will, of his ability, even as a seemingly down-and-out Youth leader, to create disunity within the opposition and score some much-needed political points.Khir Toyo too tried to make a similar case by taking on the Selangor government and specifically targeting Teresa Kok and Khalid Ibrahim. However, the tables were turned on him when more and more scandals associated with the previous state government were unearthed and linked directly to him.No doubt Khairy would have used this as campaign material against Khir Toyo, that the electorate, especially those in Selangor, are finding the former Menteri Besar to be more and more unpalatable as more and more evidence is uncovered.Khairy’s alternative media blitzI have always thought that the revelation of Khir Toyo’s ‘blemishes’ would not affect his chances among the UMNO Youth voting delegates. After all, why would they care about the public image of UMNO Youth and the electoral appeal of its leader?At a time when Malay rights are seemingly being assailed from every angle, wouldn’t they want a true ‘ultra’ to champion their cause instead of a few ‘fake’ ones in the form of Khairy or even Mukhriz?There is probably some truth to this kind of reasoning, at least on the part of some delegates, but in a three-corner fight, all Khairy needed to do was to find a handful of delegates who would buy into his message of UMNO Youth needing greater electoral appeal.After all, a swing of 30 votes in Khir Toyo’s favour would have given him the Youth chief position. But if Khairy could find a handful of more ‘astute’ UMNO Youth delegates who could see where he could take the party as opposed to where Khir Toyo or even Mukhriz could take the party, he could get to the finish line ahead of his two rivals.Hence, his ‘media blitz’ strategy of granting one-on-one interviews to Off the Edge, The Nut Graph, Malaysiakini and the New Straits Times in the lead-up to the elections. He was the only one of the three candidates to have this ‘media blitz’ as part of an overall strategy to give himself a ‘makeover’ and to make the claim that he is capable to give UMNO Youth a similar ‘makeover’ as well.This strategy may have seemed strange to some who wondered if Khairy was running for the position of UMNO Youth chief or if he was lobbying for votes from the larger public, especially those who follow the alternative media more than the mainstream media.Many of us doubted if the public would actually believe that Khairy was sincere in his intentions of giving himself a ‘makeover’ but the primary audience for Khairy, at least in the short term, was not the general public but UMNO Youth delegates. This strategy paid dividends if we see it in the context of appealing to the handful of more ‘astute’ UMNO Youth delegates.Khairy used this ‘media blitz’ as part of his strategy to convince these delegates that only he was capable to speak the same language as those who read the alternative media, that only he was capable of reaching out to the younger voters who speak a different language from that spoken by members of UMNO Youth, that only he was capable of giving UMNO Youth a ‘makeover’ that would make them more appealing to the general public.Of course, not all UMNO Youth delegates would find this necessary or even palatable. But then Khairy’s strategy was never one of trying to win a majority of votes among the delegates. If the Youth wing was truly split between the three candidates, then all he had to do was to win a plurality of votes, which meant that he had to find and then target some of the more ‘astute’ delegates who could ‘see the light’ and vote for him based on his ‘marketability’ and ability to ‘remake’ his own image as well as that of UMNO Youth.His power of incumbencyOne further point that needs to be made here is the power of incumbency. One has to remember that in his capacity as UMNO Youth deputy chief and as someone having direct access to the PM’s ear, Khairy would have cultivated many ties and helped out not a small number of delegates within the UMNO Youth ranks.While some may say, perhaps a little uncharitably, that all UMNO Youth delegates care about is access to power and money, there probably are still some delegates who would have voted for Khairy based on loyalty and remembering past favours which he has rendered to them. Unlike Mukhriz, Khairy has had much more opportunities to cultivate these ties, to dispense favours and in so doing, perhaps demonstrate his worth as a leader of the Youth movement.It is hard to gauge the effect of the ‘stern warning’ which he received from the UMNO disciplinary board a week before the casting of the ballots for the Youth election. Many of us, myself included, thought that this was a death dealing blow to Khairy. But he did not over react and perhaps may have used this opportunity to cast himself as a ‘victim’ of a harsh and arbitrary disciplinary committee that was being used to further the ends of a certain leader within Umno, whose own popularity is in question.Could Khairy have benefitted from some of the anger directed at the decision to bar Ali Rustam from contesting the deputy president position? Could the fact that Khir Toyo was let off ‘scot-free’ harmed him more than helped him?After all, there was no question that all three candidates were probably using some form of financial ‘incentives’ to entice delegates to vote for them. Why target Khairy specifically and not the other two candidates? With the benefit of hindsight, we now know that the ‘stern warning’ probably did not hurt Khairy’s chance of winning the election. It probably helped him a little.But it was the combination of the other factors – convincing UMNO Youth delegates that he could effectively defend Malay rights, that he was the best leader to take on the opposition, that he has the capacity to ‘remake’ himself and UMNO Youth as well, and his cultivation of ties and dispensation of favours during his time as deputy chief which probably saw him to the finishing line ahead of Khir Toyo and Mukhriz.Najib fails to kill Khairy offWhat are some of the political implications of Khairy’s improbable victory? The first and most immediate implication has to do with Najib’s power and influence within UMNO. If the ‘signal’ which was sent by Najib was not sufficient to ‘kill off’ Khairy’s chances to become the next UMNO Youth chief, one has to wonder if the suspension of Mohd Ali Rustam is sufficient to pave the way for Muhyiddin Yassin to win the post of UMNO deputy president and hence become the next DPM of Malaysia. We will find out within the next 12 hours.Even if Muhyiddin manages to beat Muhammad Muhd Taib for the position of deputy president, the damage to Najib has already been done. (It would also hurt if Muhyiddin’s margin of victory turns out to be narrow).Khairy will no doubt play the role of the loyal Youth chief but he will remember what Najib tried to do to him. And when the time comes when Najib’s back is against the wall (and that time will most certainly come) and if it is not politically expedient for Khairy to support Najib, then the daggers will be unsheathed, presumably, not only by Khairy but also by others, including Mohd Ali Rustam.This is a clear sign that there will be multiple centers of power that will be undermining Najib from within which makes his challenge of trying to govern the country in the midst of a serious global economic slowdown even more daunting.The second implication arising from Khairy’s victory is that Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s influence within UMNO is clearly on the wane. This perception will be cemented if Muhammad beats Muhyiddin in the deputy president’s race since Mahathir clearly favours the latter over the former.Even if his blog (chedet.com) remains one of the most popular blogs in the country, Mahathir did not achieve what he set out to do after
[Photo]Abdullah promised to step down as UMNO president and Prme Minister. He failed to ‘kill off’ Khairy’s ambition of becoming UMNO Youth chief and he failed to help his son, Mukhriz, win the much-coveted post, despite lobbying intensely for Mukhriz and giving ultimatums and issuing threats to Najib.No doubt, this means that Mahathir will continue to attack Najib and hold him personally responsible for not doing more to help Mukhriz – which will be entertaining for journalists as well as political analysts such as myself – but one has to seriously question the ‘pull’ which Mahathir still has within the ranks of Umno leadership.Formidable enemy for the oppositionThe third implication has to do with how Khairy will act in his new position of UMNO Youth chief and how the opposition will react against him. For Khairy, the challenge of convincing the public that he can make a serious attempt at ‘remaking’ himself and UMNO Youth in time for the next general election will be a daunting one.He first has to convince the 582 UMNO Youth delegates who voted against him that it is in their best interests to support him as their new UMNO Youth chief.  Then he has the unenviable task of reaching out to the larger electorate.Convincing a handful of delegates, many of whom may be indebted to Khairy for one reason or another, is much easier than convincing the larger electorate, especially for those who still remember Abdullah’s own promises of bringing substantive reforms to the country after the 2004 general election.The opposition has a formidable political enemy in Khairy. He is not that easy to pigeon hole, unlike Khir Toyo. Their strategy to engage Khairy in political warfare will no doubt be more complicated compared to the situation where Khir Toyo was the Youth chief. No doubt, many in the opposition are already planning how to take on Khairy and no doubt, Khairy is relishing that challenge.

But for now, he can rest on his laurels, just for a while, and reflect on how he pulled out this improbable, and some may even say, impossible victory.ONG KIAN MING is a PhD candidate in Political Science at Duke University. He can be reached at im.ok.man@gmail.com.Categorized in Politics
MAR26Sorry, is that all you can say to us, Malaysians, after messing up, Mr. Prime Minister?5 Commentswww.malaysiakini.comPM: I’m sorry for my shortcomingsMarch 26, 2009[Photo]Outgoing prime minister and UMNO president Abdullah Ahmad Badawi has apologised for his weaknesses and imperfections.“In my years of public service, there have been times that I have erred. I too have not been able to fulfill my promises,” he told delegates in his opening address at the UMNO 59th general assembly in Kuala Lumpur.“For all my mistakes and all my shortcomings, it has never been my intent to waver from the responsibilities of serving my people and my country to the best of my abilities. Only the Almighty is perfect. I acknowledge here that the weaknesses and imperfections are my own and today, I seek your forgiveness. I have tried to carry out my responsibilities with sincerity and honesty,” he added.The prime minister also expressed his gratitude to God for having placed him in this noble position. “I pray that the Almighty will bless me so that I have peace of mind and soul,” he said. Abdullah also acknowledged the contributions of his colleagues in UMNO and Barisan Nasional, friends in the administration and Malaysians in general. Abdullah who took over in 2003 is scheduled to hand over the reins to his deputy Najib Abdul Razak after the UMNO assembly.‘I never betrayed UMNO’Meanwhile, Abdullah said he was exposed to UMNO’s struggles during his formative years. “It is therefore inevitable that I would[Photo] inherit the UMNO spirit. I have held fast to an unflagging conviction that has prevented me from ever betraying UMNO and has led me to steer clear from those who seek to destroy it. I have never denigrated UMNO. I have never made offensive remarks about UMNO. And certainly, I have never deserted UMNO, even though there was a time when I was insulted by certain members of UMNO,” he said.“Indeed, one’s loyalty is truly tested when the party is faced with grave challenges, during a time of difficulty and when one has no position or standing within the party,” he added. Abdullah said it was with a deep sense of love for UMNO and a grave sense of responsibility to the party and the Malay race, “I have chosen not to defend my position as president of UMNO I have chosen to pave the way for a younger leadership, even though many within the party and the government asked me to defend my post,” he added.Support the new leaderThe outgoing premier said that he is passing the reins to younger captain to steer the ship and called on all quarters to support Najib. “A younger leader who has the maturity and experience to navigate the nation to greater heights.I urge everyone to give him the undivided support to enable him to bring us to greater success. I pledge to give my undivided support to the new president of UMNO - to the new prime minister of Malaysia,” he added.Speaking on his tenure as prime minister, Abdullah said he sought to introduce several mechanisms to strengthen the administration, to make it more transparent, efficient and just, to enhance the public delivery system.