KJ testing the waters....

KJ question rumbles in Umno
Analysis by JOCELINE TAN

Newsmaker Khairy Jamaluddin caused ripples when he said he might not defend his Umno Youth leadership next year ­— is he testing the waters or is he about to move on to a bigger playing field?
GOOD-LOOKING people usually have it easier in life and politics.
In Parliament this week, Rembau MP Khairy Jamaluddin was looking good again now that his “Private Khairy” crew-cut – a result of his Territorial Army stint – has grown out and been restyled. But the tall, dark and handsome politician has not been having it easy in his politics going by his statement to the Malay news portal Agenda Daily that he was seriously thinking of not defending his Umno Youth post next year.
Many people in Umno were startled because he had put in so much to win the post and, besides, he did not strike them as a quitter.
Kota Belud MP Datuk Rahman Dahlan, who sits three places from Khairy in Parliament, claimed to be more amused than shocked.
But he said: “This is not the Khairy I know. He doesn’t give up easily but he has been under a lot of pressure. I’m not sure what’s on his mind.”
Khairy’s aides were taken aback. They learnt of it the same way as everyone – through the news portal and they were, as one Umno Youth official put it, “pretty freaked out”.
But the effect of his statement is still rippling. His action was obviously quite calculated and there are a few ways to read it.
First, Khairy is testing the waters. Few politicians and especially one as ambitious as him would let go so easily. Moreover, he must be aware of talk that the party election is likely to be postponed until after the general election and he is doing this to gauge the feedback from the wing and that will help assess his support on the ground.
Second, he is genuine about it. Becoming Umno Youth chief has not been what he expected and he is still struggling to close the rifts caused by the acrimonious contest after more than a year.
The perception that he is not the Umno president’s choice as Youth chief has also deepened. His endgame might be to go for one of the 25 supreme council posts which would be less of a hassle than the Youth wing.
Third, the Umno division meetings over the last month have been another reality check.
His deputy Datuk Razali Ibrahim apparently had twice the number of invitations than him to officiate at the AGMs of the wings whereas Datuk Mukhriz Mahathir is still being courted by the Youth ground.
His detractors think the subtext to his statement has to do with the fact that he does not have a government post whereas Razali and Mukhriz are deputy ministers.
He knows he may not win next year without a government post and his supporters are adamant that a government post would solve his problems.
His attempts to re-invent himself as a modern and open-minded Malay leader has won him praise as well as criticism.
Putrajaya Youth chief Datuk Zaki Zahid, Khairy’s friend and political ally, insists this is the “real Khairy”, someone who will not stomach what a group like Perkasa stands for.
Khairy has been trying to put his recent past of keris-waving and ultra-Malay rhetoric behind him. He has joined calls for a review on laws controlling the media, spoken up against penalising the Chinese after the Hulu Selangor by-election and tried to interpret the Prime Minister’s 1Malaysia vision.
The hurtful part is that most of the criticism has come from his own party – for example, his attacks on Perkasa and Datuk Ibrahim Ali did not sit well with many Umno members.
The top Umno leadership understands the need for pluralistic politics but the rural Malay grassroots who form the Umno bedrock identify with what Ibrahim is saying. Some of them even feel these are issues the Youth leader of a Malay nationalist party should articulate but instead Khairy runs down Ibrahim.
One of his Umno friends had told him that as a Malay politician, “you don’t gain if you befriend Ibrahim but you have much to lose if you attack him”.
Issues affecting Malays and non-Malays are often mutually exclusive and this has put Khairy in a difficult place. Of course, some see his attacks on Perkasa as indirect shots at Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad who has lent his weight to the group.
But said Rahman: “He is trying to bring a new culture into politics. He believes Malay rights are protected in our constitutional monarchy and Malays have no need to be jumpy over perceived threats.”

tunku : i hope kj had realized that he has no solid supports from the youth or other wings of Umno.he can see that from the invitation that he gets to officiates the AGMs at division level.it is a shame when your deputy is more popular than you.this is not because he is against perkasa or ibrahim ali, nothing to do with that. this is because how he, his father in-law and the cronies like kalimullah,zaki ahmad,reezal merican, azeez rahim etc 'raped' the wealth of this nation.people hates them.even with reezal merican, zaki ahmad in youth top post, with azeez in Umno MT, and few minister and deputy minister in his favour,kj still can't get the full support from the movement or from the top leadership.the best for kj is to shy away from politics and do business from the money he 'earned' during the tenure of his father in-law or join anwar the moron.i am sure they will be a great pair of destruction to this nation.lastly, kj need not test the waters as the reflection of the waters is so clear that people hates him.