‘Let’s see’ - KJ on challenging Zahid for Umno top post

 

Khairy Jamaluddin has not ruled out challenging Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, the person responsible for sending him to his political doom in last month’s general election, for the Umno presidency.

“Let’s see,” the former health minister offered a brief response when asked if he would consider vying for the top post in the Umno polls, expected to be held early next year.

For the general election, Khairy had to vacate his Rembau parliamentary seat in Negeri Sembilan for Umno number two Mohamad Hasan, who is aligned with Zahid.

The son-in-law of former premier Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said he had little choice but to opt to contest in the PKR stronghold of Sungai Buloh in Selangor after the Umno leadership left him in the dark.

During the campaign period, the Umno candidate was also forced to counter Pakatan Harapan’s claim that a “vote for him is a vote for Zahid”, whom the coalition had denounced as corrupt but later accepted as a partner when the election resulted in a hung Parliament.

Umno president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi

Khairy also did pull his punches in targeting Zahid, vowing to “cleanse” Umno and restore its graft-tarnished image if he is re-elected as an MP.

“The media should not compare me to (my party) president (Zahid) but this is the truth and the reality. I and other friends want to return Umno as a noble, clean, and evolving Malay political body with good leaders that can be trusted like it was in the past,” he said.

Despite his attempts to distance himself from Zahid, who is on trial for 47 corruption-related charges, and pleading with PAS supporters to back him, Khairy lost to PKR’s R Ramanan.

To add salt to the wound, Zahid was later appointed as a deputy prime minister after BN allied with Harapan and its chairperson Anwar Ibrahim.

Before the general election, Khairy said that former premier Ismail Sabri Yaakob should contest for the Umno top post while he and Hishammuddin Hussein would decide on who would go for number two.

In the previous Umno polls in 2018, Khairy mounted an unsuccessful bid for the number one post against Zahid and veteran Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah. - Mkini