Malaysia: UMNO youth rises to the
top By Phar Kim Beng
Khairy
Jamaluddin, better known as KJ to his friends, has been
experiencing a meteoric rise in his political career
lately.
Having resigned as the special assistant
to Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi (or Pak
Lah), who is also his father-in-law, Khairy has received
more than 120 nominations to stand for the No 2 seat in
the UMNO Youth party, the youth wing of the United
Malays National Organization (UMNO), the party led by
Abdullah and the dominant force in the National Front
ruling coalition.
Khairy only needs 29
nominations from the party's 191 divisions to to be
eligible to contest in the September party elections,
but based on his showing so far, there are few doubts
that by the time the division meetings for the UMNO
Youth wing end next Thursday, July 22, he will have won
the deputy chief's post uncontested.
The
division meetings began hardly a month ago, and they are
already creating a frenzy. UMNO elections these days are
typically decided before the voting even begins. By the
time the contenders go for election in September, almost
everything has been fixed. Thus the "nominations" from
the division meetings can serve as an accurate measure
of the eventual election outcome.
The avalanche
of support for Khairy, at least at the UMNO Youth level,
is impressive indeed; his closest challenger for the
deputy post, Mukhriz Mahathir, has received only six
nominations.
But perhaps more noteworthy is the
fact that Khairy, a PPE (politics, philosophy and
economics) graduate from the University of Oxford, has
been able to achieve all that he has while still at the
age of 28. The age of UMNO youth members extends from 18
all the way to 40.
For what it is worth, Pak Lah
has taken a neutral stance to Khairy's run, affirming
that if the UMNO Youth divisions would like "Khairy as
their No 2 man" then he, as the party president of UMNO,
would not oppose it.
So far, his strongest
support has come from Hishammudin Hussein, who is
contesting for the UMNO Youth presidency and, like
Khairy, is set to win uncontested.
Hishammudin
is the Malaysian education minister and the son of
Malaysia's third prime minister, Hussein Onn. He is said
to have "discovered the unique talent" of Khairy, and is
receptive to the idea of working closely with him in
UMNO Youth. Given such an open endorsement, opposition
against Khairy has been small.
His critics say
Khairy is young, talks too much and too fast, and is too
abrasive. They are also quick to point out his
relationship to the prime minister.
Some UMNO
divisions have chosen not nominate to Khairy Jamaluddin
as a candidate for the No 2 post to send the message to
other divisions that Khairy should not be nominated
simply because he is Pak Lah's son-in-law. While the Pak
Lah element cannot be discounted, over the past few
years Khairy has been holding his own. Moreover, it
seems his backing is due largely to the strong support
and chemistry he has received from Hishammudin, not his
father-in-law.
Still, some representatives on
the ground continue to sneer that Khairy is at the top
by virtue of his relationship to Pak Lah, though there
seems to be no denying that Khairy is a well-liked and
well-respected young talent.
Just exactly what
those talents are is still beyond the grasp of the
increasing throngs of people who are now observing
Khairy's every move. But the "KJ factor" is making an
impact in a tangible way.
On Wednesday, upon
news that Khairy might soon join ECM Libra, a company
co-owned by Kallimulah Hassan, currently the
editor-in-chief of the pro-government New Straits Times
newspaper, ECM Libra's shares rose from RM0.11 to RM1.90
(50 US cents) on a volume of 561,000 shares.
Stock analysts have pointed out that it was the
mention of Khairy's crossover into the financial-service
sector that led to the share's price inflation.
And despite his increasing stature, Khairy also
deserves some credit for not leveraging his connection,
something often ignored by his detractors.
During the most recent general election, Khairy
played a leading role in organizing the campaign on
behalf of Pak Lah. Together with a few "comrades" from
his days at Oxford whom Khairy has taken into his
confidence, he was able to serve as a chief strategist.
Yet Khairy, who hails from Rembau, Negeri
Sembilan, did not contest in the general election. By
opting out, he helped Pak Lah avoid the accusation of
nepotism at a time when the campaign was based on the
prime minister's integrity.
Khairy later
resigned from his post as the prime minister's special
assistant because Abdullah wanted him to head Khazanah,
one of the country's most powerful government-linked
companies (GLCs). His candidacy for the position,
however, was scuttled by his detractors, who found him
too young to head such an important company. Khairy
changed his mind in order to run for the youth party
spot when the nominations kept coming in.
Although he has been known as the "most powerful
28-year-old" in Malaysia, his views are firmly
practical, yet idealistic; indeed, quite representative
of modern Malaysia.
Khairy's views are both
progressive and pro-free trade. Educated at United
College in Singapore before going to Oxford and then to
University College London for his master's degree in
political theory, Khairy has always embraced a very
cosmopolitan outlook.
Khairy is also in favor of
struggling for justice and freedom, although he stays
away from garnishing issues with ideological rhetoric,
as had been the practice of former deputy prime minister
Anwar Ibrahim and his cohorts, whom Khairy clearly
detested as early as 1997.
At one stage,
Khairy's e-mail domain was "Hang Kasturi", a historical
15th-century Malay figure who believed in the importance
of truth, rather than blind faith in the establishment.
The idealism that burns in Khairy has not
changed, although his attempt to translate this idealism
into his own political beliefs has led others to view
him as impatient, almost aggressive.
Khairy
believes that the "subsidy mentality" that has been
plaguing the Malay mindset is a bane, especially in the
age of globalization and the knowledge economy.
According to this mindset - exemplified by the
National Economic Policy that began in 1970 - every
Malay is entitled to every form of government support,
from securing seats at the local university to getting
fertilizers; from receiving a scholarship to go abroad,
to getting a discount for homes and property.
Having received a top-notch education without
the help of the Malaysian government, indeed only by
virtue of what his mother Datin Rahmah Abdul Hamid was
able to provide, Khairy went through life by a different
route. Khairy did not benefit from any government
largess.
Khairy believes that the privileges and
benefits that have helped the advancement of the Malay
cause since 1970 must eventually cease. The goal, says
Khairy, is to prevent Malays from relying on government
crutches all the time. Such a prospect is neither
appealing nor advantageous to Malays should they want to
compete in the open world.
At the height of the
1997 Asian financial crisis, Khairy resolutely affirmed
the importance of "free trade" and the need for Malaysia
to compete on an even keel, even if the hazards of
globalization were apparent. In other words, the choice
to shield and shelter the Malaysian economy in a
globalizing environment was a non-starter. Rather, it
was up to Malaysia to strengthen its comparative and
competitive advantage at all points along the way.
Having embraced and espoused free trade, Khairy,
who was then writing for Ethos, a magazine that he
co-founded with a group of progressive Malaysian
students then studying at Oxford, reasoned that it was
incumbent upon Malaysia to change.
Such a
position was brave, as Malaysia, led then by Mahathir
Mohammad, was adamant in the belief that the
depreciation of the ringgit was due to currency
manipulation. Khairy would have none of it, and offered
an analysis based on the weakness of the Malaysian
economy rather than one due to unwieldy international
financial forces.
Change also impacts his view
of Islam, which is both moderate and modern. Perhaps
echoing the moderate Islam promoted by Pak Lah, Khairy
is able to understand that Malaysia is a multicultural
country whose standing in the international system is
dependent on preserving a progressive and liberal form
of Islam. This is in keeping with the demographic
reality of the country, where Malays, Chinese, Indians
and indigenous races continue to co-exist peacefully.
Pak Lah has repeatedly said that younger leaders
are needed to take over Malaysia by 2020. It is in this
context that he has been quietly supportive of Khairy's
goals and political pursuits, knowing full well that it
is the likes of Khairy that will inherit the mantle of
leadership.
As for Khairy, he has already shown
the mercurial talent to help Pak Lah win the election
last March. Now he has to show that he is capable of
winning more campaigns on his own. Only then will his
detractors be silenced, or join him in droves.
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