I was one of the many who counted Khairy Jamaluddin as a dead man walking, after being given a ‘stern warning’ by the Umno disciplinary committee one week before the Umno Youth election.

On the assumption that the disciplinary committee was taking ‘instructions’ from incoming Umno president and soon-to-be 6th prime minister of Malaysia, the warning was clearly a signal’ that Najib Abdul Razak did not want to see Khairy in the ranks of Umno leadership.

It was then a two-horse race between Mohd Khir Toyo and Mukhriz Mahathir. All that was left for Khairy to do was to decide if he wanted to throw his support behind either candidate or sit back and take his defeat graciously and let Khir and Mukhriz ‘duke it out’.