UMNO is moving further right, but KJ is positioning himself at its centre

The former Youth and Sports Minister Khairy Jamaluddin is never short of opinions, and he isn’t afraid to voice them out. Khairy recently tackled a few popular issues faced by Malaysians over the past months in an interestingly liberating manner.

In a recent video interview released by R.AGE, Khaiy voiced his thoughts about his background, ICERD, his reaction to Barisan Nasional’s defeat in GE-14, UMNO-PAS collaboration, Najib Razak’s popularity, PH performance, and more.

KJ spoke about how ICERD can be ratified through public syndication. He claims the government didn’t soften the ground for the case and the Malay and Muslim community felt challenged. But he countered it saying the community was never under threat, but the issue turned into a game for some people.

When questioned about PH’s governing performance, he graded them with a ‘D’. He justified that the promises made in PH manifesto was largely unkept. He also added that the cost of living hasn’t improved and some ministers are underperforming.

Furthermore, Khairy is not afraid to attack UMNO members despite he himself is from the same party. KJ took shots at Tun Faisal Ismail Aziz, with both calling each other ‘irrelevant’ on Twitter.

Subsequently, KJ also didn’t take sides during the whole ‘Taliban – Communist’ labelling in the Dewan Rakyat. Further proving his neutral outlook on things.

Meanwhile, Lokman Adam also blasted KJ saying he would never be UMNO president. As a response, KJ said if he were to be the party president, he would sack Lokman for having the IQ of a carrot. On a recent note, KJ took another jab at Lokman regarding the assault on UM students.

Internal quarrels aside, it’s been reported last September that people expected Khairy to jump out of UMNO following the UMNO exodus. But alas he stayed with them. He then called for immediate change in leadership after the mass exodus.

Another rumour circulated about his departure was during his lunch with Nurul Izzah Anwar and Rafizi Ramli last December, whereby media reports the possibility of them forming their own political party. That rumour was quickly dismissed by Rafizi.

But what came after was Nurul’s resignation recently as a Parliament member. Her surprising departure garnered mixed reactions, where some call it weakness, and others see it as defending her principles.

At the same time, this does not entirely discredit the rumour on Nurul and Khairy’s joint venture into a new political party. Is this the kickstart of Khairy’s new party? Only time can verify how true the rumour is.