The re-election of Khairy Jamaluddin as Umno Youth chief augurs well for his party as I see him as a moderate in his political and religious beliefs.

Being educated overseas stood him in good stead. He can articulate very well in both English and Bahasa Malaysia, something I find lacking in some of our politicians. One just has to watch some of them on television giving press conferences to draw your own conclusions.

Khairy Jamaluddin has been branded as a young upstart in the past and being the son-in-law of a former prime minister when the latter was still in power did not help matters. There are a lot of green-eyed monsters out there hoping to get a piece of the action, and when denied things could turn nasty.

Another former prime minister who is not his greatest fan even cast aspersions on him being the Fourth Floor boys to whom the then presiding prime pinister would constantly consult.

I am equally proud that Khairy Jamaluddin is an MP from my home state of Negri Sembilan. I am certain many within his party have grudgingly admitted that he is prime minister material.  However, for him to get to that pedestal he has to bid his time and pay his dues.

There are still many warlords that continues to hold much clout within Umno and they certainly do not wish to see someone they still considered as ‘wet behind the ears’ to rock the boat with a supersonic rise to power.

Besides being touted as prime minister material in the future, I see Khairy Jamaluddin as equally qualified to be the menteri besar of my home state just like how our current prime minister became the MB for Pahang when he was still in his late 20s (if I am not mistaken).

At the moment the politics in our country are being tainted by several riff-raffs masquerading as politicians some of whom are leaning too much to the right and causing a great deal of discomfort to the silent majority within the ruling coalition and to non-Malays following the political developments.

For a multi-racial and multi-religious country like Malaysia, politicians must be very careful whenever they open their mouth to say something which can be construed as defamatory and incendiary.

The likes of Ibrahim Ali, Zulkifli Noordin and their ilk of similar thinking should be rejected outright. The fact they are still around and making nauseous statements goes to show that there are people within the majority partner in the ruling coalition who continues to give them their wholehearted support despite the prime minister’s urging for all Malaysians to unite under his 1Malaysia slogan.