KJ finds his seat in Selangor

Khairy Jamaluddin

KHAIRY Jamaluddin had been making jokes about his pursuit for a seat to contest.

Actually, it is no joke at all because it was only this week that he appears to have settled on a suitable seat.

Khairy is headed for Selangor in the general election after failing to secure a seat in his home state Negri Sembilan.

The Sungai Buloh Umno division has opened its door to Khairy but there are still several hurdles before he can be confirmed as the Barisan Nasional candidate.

Sungai Buloh is an MIC seat and Umno will need to find a replacement seat for MIC because political parties never willingly give up a seat even if they have zero chance of winning it.

Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi will also have to agree to the exchange and that could pose a little problem because relations between the Umno president and Khairy have not been sunshine and everything nice.

The Umno president is famous for his megawatt smiles and man-hugs but he also tends to hold grudges. He has not forgotten remarks made by Khairy a few years ago when he was struggling with multiple corruption charges.

But this is not an easy election for Barisan. Ahmad Zahid needs to put aside his personal feelings and focus on the prospect of Khairy taking back Sungai Buloh which has been won by Pakatan Harapan since 2008.

The Health Minister is what is known as a parachute candidate but he will not be landing in a safe seat.

Selangor is enemy territory for Umno, the state is staunchly pro-Pakatan and Khairy will be in the fight of his life.

PKR’s Sivarasa Rasiah won Sungai Buloh by a massive 26,634-vote majority in 2018 whereas MIC is guaranteed to lose again after three successive losses.

Khairy, 46, was left without a seat after the Rembau constituency was claimed by deputy Umno president Datuk Seri Mohamad Hasan.

Negri Sembilan had become a hill too small for two tigers.

One would think that someone like Khairy would have little problem landing a seat but this is Umno politics where seats are jealously guarded by local warlords.

The door is only open in seats which Umno lost in 2018.

Even Kuala Pilah where Umno lost narrowly to Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia was not available to him.

Things were so dire at one point that Kepala Batas MP Datuk Seri Reezal Merican offered to step aside so that Khairy could contest the seat that is synonymous with his father-in-law Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi.

The hero in Khairy’s journey for a seat is no other than Selangor Umno chairman and Tanjung Karang MP Tan Sri Noh Omar.

Barisan has been pounded like sambal belacan after three successive general election defeats and Noh has been on a political quest to bring new talent and big names to Selangor.

Noh sent out feelers to Khairy around the same time when he approached Tengku Datuk Seri Zafrul Tengku Abdul Aziz to contest in Kuala Selangor.

“Noh wants to signal that Umno has quality material. Our roots are in the Malay heartland, but we have to prepare to be an urban party in the near future,” said a close associate of Noh.

Noh and several trusted officials met with Khairy on Tuesday before the latter left for a World Health Organisation (WHO) meeting in Manila.

It is understood the team has agreed on Khairy contesting in Sungai Buloh and they also worked out the steps to take for that to materialise.

Noh had given Khairy a choice of five constituencies - Sungai Buloh, Shah Alam, Gombak, Sepang and Kapar.

They are known as “kamikaze seats,” extremely difficult for Umno to win.

Sungai Buloh offered the least resistance because the Umno division chief, Datuk Megat Firdouz Megat Junid, is both a friend and political secretary to Khairy.

Megat Firdouz would be able to cut through the division red tape to bring in Khairy.

Khairy is a brand name even among the fence-sitters and Noh believes Khairy can inject some wow factor into Selangor.

“Khairy can shine in Selangor, people here are aware of his management of the pandemic,” said the above close associate of Noh.

Apparently, only Noh and Barisan secretary-general Datuk Seri Dr Zambry Abdul Kader have been genuinely interested in helping him.

During their meeting, Khairy told Noh that he will “forever remember” what he has done.

It is ironic that being a top-notch minister is apparently not enough in any party.

That the Umno leadership did not do more to help him with a seat makes it seem like Umno does not appreciate quality and that being a yes-man and kissing hands takes one further in politics.

At the same time, Khairy needs to come down from his high horse, to be more of an Umno man.

It has been a humbling time for him, a moment of realisation that the cliche about the party being greater than the individual is not just a cliche.

Can Khairy undo PKR’s stranglehold on Sungai Buloh?

It is too early in the day to predict but if he makes it, he will be hailed as a warrior and he could become Umno’s new hope in Selangor. If he loses, he is still young enough to fight another day.

Selangor could get quite as exciting as what is happening in Perak with Khairy in the fray.