POLITICAL analysts claimed that dismissed UMNO leaders Khairy Jamaluddin and Tan Sri Noh Omar seemed to be playing the waiting game rather than joining other political rivals as they realise their wrong move will certainly end their political careers.
Analysts believed that Khairy’s situation is made much more risky with his desire to become prime minister at some point, and that neither Khairy nor Noh will be able to rejoin UMNO unless poor performance in the upcoming elections in six states forces party president Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi and his faction to resign.
According to political analyst and professor of Asian studies at the University of Tasmania James Chin, Khairy has never ruled out his desire to be prime minister.
“Khairy, being highly ambitious, will not leave UMNO behind because he is planning to be the prime minister in the future,” he was quoted as saying by FMT.
“He has never denied his ambition. It will be a problem if he joins PAS or Bersatu, because he will just be one of the many people there.
“If he makes a comeback to UMNO, he will be in a much better position. Right now, he is in cold storage, but if he hangs around, he has a chance to make a comeback once party president Zahid and his gang are forced out.”
Meanwhile, Universiti Malaya Associate Prof Dr Awang Azman Pawi noted that Khairy and suspended Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein’s actions indicate that they realise their only chance of becoming prime minister is through UMNO, especially given the current political circumstances.
“They are not brave enough to form a new party in the post-15th General Elections (GE15) political scenario, while Khairy knows he is finished if he runs on a Perikatan Nasional (PN) ticket and loses.
“Hishammuddin will lose his seat if he joins or forms another party, but Khairy, who is currently not an MP, does not want to risk his political career either,” the news portal quoted him as saying.
Nusantara Academy for Strategic Research senior fellow Dr Azmi Hassan said Hishamuddin’s suspension could be lifted if he remained silent during the state elections, and that the Sembrong MP, Khairy, and Noh knew their political careers lay only with UMNO, but they needed to be accepted back into the fold first.
“Khairy and Noh are opportunists. They will look at the state elections results and join PN if it does well. If PN does not, they will sit it out and wait for changes at the top of UMNO before making their re-entry,” he said.
Azmi added that if PN wins by an overwhelming majority, Khairy and Noh will most likely join Bersatu or PAS officially, and that if PN fails, both can always return to UMNO, though they may face difficulties as long as the deputy head, vice-presidents, and Supreme Council members are dominated by Zahid supporters.
On this matter, Chin opined that if Bersatu and PAS perform well in the state elections, many unelected and senior UMNO figures may shift over in preparation for the next federal election, although such is a high-risk approach.
“The Malay vote is split in so many ways. It looks like PAS is the strongest of all the Malay parties, but UMNO people cannot survive in PAS because the members of PAS do not like them,” he remarked.
“If UMNO people try to reinvent themselves in PAS, they will get nowhere, so the chances of climbing the PAS ladder are almost zero.”
Echoing this, Azmi said if PN secures a landslide victory, Khairy and Noh would likely join Bersatu or PAS officially.
However, if PN does not make any headway, both “can always go back to UMNO”, although they may encounter difficulty so long as the deputy head, vice-presidents and Supreme Council members are dominated by Zahid loyalists, he reckoned. – June 29, 2023
Main pic credit: Facebook/Khairy Jamaluddin
