The coast is clear for the ' boy wonder ' to win the Umno Youth deputy head's post as he seems to be the most 'eligible person' in town with others either too shy to stand against him or have been convinced not to.

Sometimes I wonder what is happening to Umno Youth as its leaders are a far cry from the early days when they were respected and feared. Where are the likes of Harun Idris, Syed Jaffar Albar, the lion of Umno, and Musa Hitam all who rose from Umno Youth to be leaders in their own right.

Those were the hungry years of politic and it is a well-known fact that the party's youth movement was the vanguard of the Malays rights and acted as a ginger group to check and balance the powers of the president.

Nowadays, due to the economic prosperity of the country, Umno youth leaders comprise young datuks who can't even articulate their point of view well. History has shown that the movement would even act like a thug to disrupt conferences which offend the government's sensibilities.

The present youth head happens to be the son of a former prime minister. Khairy, with good luck, will be the first son-in-law of a prime minister to head the movement, three years down the road when the present chief steps down to go for a higher post in Umno.

History again shows an Umno Youth head from a humble background doesn't stay long on as he might be arrested under ISA (Zahid Hamidi), or be caught up in a sex scandal (Rahim Thamby Chik) or worse still, be thrown into jail (Anwar Ibrahim) for having the audacity to go against the party president.

The days when the son of a farmer from Kedah or a fisherman's son from Besut could aspire to climb the ladder in Umno to the top are over. Today, you have to be a blue blood with the right pedigree and the necessary papers from an Ivy League university to be considered the right stuff to helm our country.

How lucky to be the son-in-law of the premier and to rest on your father-in-law's laurels not unlike Najib and Hishamuddin who rested on their fathers' laurels to climb the ladders of politics.

All the best to you, Khairy. Your political star is riding high and the road to the premiership seems to be yours for the taking after, God willing, Najib and Hishammuddin have had their turns.