By Johan Jaaffar

Khairy Jamaluddin never ceases to amaze us. Words like clever, conceited and boastful are at various times, used injudiciously to portray him.

But no one doubt his tenacity, commitment and conviction. KJ as he is popularly known, is all that and more. He is a charmer and he knows that. In equal measure he can be as inscrutable and as he is enigmatic The “KJ-ness of KJ”, is a brand worth looking into. Perhaps, like the movie Being John Malkovich someone should come out with something entitled “Being Khairy Jamaluddin”. Yet to his army  of enemies and detractors, he is  a fluke. He  is pretentious even narcissistic.   

But KJ is not without substance. I can bet there are many among us who missed him helming a ministry. He was in fact one of the best remembered ministers of health the country has ever known. He was in a class of his own among the ministers of his time. He knew his subjects well and he is meticulous.

Undoubtedly he has good communication skills. His command and control on communication is above average among his peers who are largely dependent  on mediocre media officers. He was among the first cabinet members who utilised social media the fullest and effectively at that.

KJ  is not afraid to be a contrarian. He is after all an uncommon  politician. In the party that tolerates only the “Hang Tuah” type, he is the “Hang Jebat” with a cause. He tries hard to be  a party man, but in much of his political career, he is still “an  outsider”.

He is one of the  supposedly shining stars  in the political castellation.  But in a party where submission to the norm is almost a faith, he is merely a twinkling little star up above the sky so high, occasionally dimmed to make way for normalcy to prevail.

Like the stars in Shakespeare’s plays, KJ’s political existence is to exemplify  how fate is inevitable. It is however not  about the black and deep  desires as posited in Macbeth’s fatal ambition. Or like the character Romeo in Shakespeare’s most famous play, intending to shake the yoke of inauspicious  stars. KJ is all about what a young politician aspires to be. He aims high. You can’t blame him for peeping at the most coveted position of all   – that of the Prime Minister. He is after all a PM-material.

Unlike  Macbeth, he is not a walking shadow or a poor player that struts and frets his hour upon the political stage.  He is more than that. He has a mind of a strategist. And a good one at that. That  makes him dangerous. At least to people who might find him to be a threat.  

After all he has made his mark in politics. Like him or hate him, KJ has helped redefined political culture and in doing so, redefined himself. For the last decade or so, KJ is one of the most interesting characters in Malaysia politics. His rise is nothing but spectacular.

Some would argue he has laid out his strategy from Day One.  Like a chess game. Marrying the daughter of a Prime Minister was one of those moves, just like a pawn meandering along the corridors of acceptability and status, waiting for the chance to open the way for  his Knights and King.

When Pak Lah was PM he was riding high.  He  was one of the infamous  Fourth Floor Boys. They were accused of  masterminding  every move Pak Lah made, for better or worse. They were the most powerful power brokers in the political corridors. And certainly the most hated.

KJ took time to undo the negative image of “budak raja” (literally the king’s boy). In the palace of the old, a  budak raja was vested so much power that he can even kill anyone in the name of the raja. KJ reinvented himself. He endured the time when he held no government post while  he was helming the youth wing. But he persevered.  He was later made a minister and survived three Prime Ministers.

He did the “Camilla  Thing” with finesse. Camilla? Yes, the  current Queen Consort to King Charles III. Her  affairs with Charles while Princes Diana was still alive were scandalous. When Diana died in 1997, Camilla  was the most hated woman in the United Kingdom. Call it image rehabilitation, over the last two decades  or so, she reengineered the trajectory of her acceptability index to a point that the majority of Britons have forgotten all her earlier transgressions and “sins”.

Of course KJ is no Camilla. The circumstances too were different. But the make-over was similar. Not many people remember his Fourth Floor Boys days. And he has proven his worth as a loyalist to the party and for his work ethics. He won elections and he was a minister helming at least three ministries.    

Then came the 2022 election. He lost hid bid to win the constituency of Sungai Buloh. But he won (his own words) the selfie. It is a constituency that he was destined to lose.  He lost but his  popularity intact,  in fact risen.  When UMNO fired him, he took the verdict  fearlessly, and treating it just like any other political misadventures. 

KJ is no ordinary bloke. He has perfected the art of reinventing himself.  Like Camilla he understands the importance of image rehabilitation. Like Beckham he is a brand. It is the political KJ that suffered the indignity of losing in Sungai Buloh. But KJ the brand is still strong. His firing is a new high in his political trajectory. Not many people take such a blow with dignity. Most whine, fret and complain. KJ said what needed to be said and moved on.

Only a fool doth think he is wise, say some when he joined  HotFm. He is no fool but certainly it is a  wise move to join the most popular  radio station in town. He will reach out to 3.5 million listeners  a week. Rain or sunshine, every morning people who got caught in Lembah Kelang’s notorious jams will listen to him, the new kid on the airwave.

HotFM is a radio for the young, the kind of people KJ should be talking to. He is for now the messiah of hope and the arbitrator of hopelessness every morning. Lest we forget the voice matters for now. The  Real KJ’s has a look of  actor Pierce Brosnan at his grumpiest.

How many politicians can talk directly to that many listeners directly. It is a move only the smartest of politicians would have envisioned. And KJ is hot, just like the radio.

But will he survived politically? Will he remain outside the party and wait until the time will come for him to re-join?  Perhaps there is such a thing as a born-again UMNO? Or will he join another party hoping that it will be another stepping stone  in the grand KJ move in the unpredictable game of political survival?

Or we are looking at the demise of political KJ?

• Tan Sri Johan Jaaffar is a National Journalism Laureate. He was a columnist for the NST, Berita Minggu, The Star and Sinar. He was once a stage actor, playwright and director. He was also the former Chairman of DBP and Media Prima Bhd.