KUALA LUMPUR: Khairy Jamaluddin says his remarks about becoming the Umno chief and Prime Minister sometime in the future was to let Malaysians know that the party has a succession plan.
“For now, it is Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob’s turn to become Prime Minister,” he said in reference to Barisan Nasional’s stand that the Umno vice-president is its choice for premier if it wins in GE15.
“(But) we need to give them certainty that this is the option they have.
“There is a need for planning and continuity – otherwise, they may be confused as to who would be the next Prime Minister.
“I’m ready for this, just not today,” said the Barisan candidate for the Sungai Buloh parliamentary seat on his campaign trail yesterday in Bandar Baru Sungai Buloh, one of the neighbourhoods in the Selangor constituency.
On Tuesday night at a rally in Saujana Utama, Khairy had declared his intention to lead Malaysia someday in the future by becoming the Umno president and Prime Minister should he win the Sungai Buloh parliamentary seat.If elected as MP, he promised to work on addressing unresolved issues and championing causes in Sungai Buloh, though he warned that not all problems could be fixed as certain matters fell under the jurisdiction of the local council or state government.
Fist bump: Khairy greeting a trader at a hawker centre during his walkabout at Bandar Baru Sungai Buloh. — SS Kanesan/The Star
“I am a nice guy. I am willing to work with Opposition politicians for the betterment of the people,” said Khairy, in reference to possibly having to work with the Paya Jaras and Kota Damansara assemblymen, both of whom are from PKR and under the Pakatan Harapan-led Selangor government.
“I plan to table an annual report for Sungai Buloh to detail my expenditure for the constituency, such as for whom and for which area.”
The Paya Jaras and Kota Damansara state seats fall under the Sungai Buloh parliamentary seat in Selangor.
He joked that “KJ”, his initials, also stood for “kerja jalan” (work in progress) and promised to work hard for Sungai Buloh voters if he is given the mandate.
Sungai Buloh will see a seven-cornered fight.
Khairy will be up against Ramanan Ramakrishnan (Pakatan Harapan-PKR), Mohd Ghazali Md Hamin (Perikatan Nasional-PAS), Akmal Yusoff (Pejuang), Ahmad Jufliz (Parti Rakyat Malaysia) as well as independent candidates Syed Razak Alsagoff and Nurhaslinda Basri (Sifu Linda).
R. Sivarasa from PKR won Sungai Buloh by a 26,634-vote majority in GE14 in 2018.
