COMMENT If asked why I bother with Khalid Ibrahim, I think I would reply somewhat in the manner of Sancho Panza .

I was hired by Khalid’s office in October 2010. Three years later, I was dismissed from the same, my services either being no longer required, or deemed to expensive (you know how Khalid is with money).

In all the time I’ve known him, before and since working with him, I’m certain I’ve never had a conversation with him lasting more than 3 sentences.

When I went to his Hari Raya Open House this year, he greeted me warmly, and I think tried to get me to eat what he thought was excellent rojak. I say I think because he was stuttering and mumbling so much that I really have no idea what he was trying to say exactly.

As I finish my long winded retrospective on the Kajang Move with my thoughts on Khalid, I will briefly do the obligatory politically-related analysis, including areas that could perhaps be improved on. I say obligatory, because I’ve probably exhausted the subject, and I’m certain I’ve exhausted myself.

Towards the end, I will thus try to focus on how Khalid as a human being has led his life and how it has influenced how I want to lead mine.

Never descend to mudslinging

In the weeks and months to come, I predict that Khalid will be made the scapegoat and whipping boy for the likes of Azmin Ali and Anwar Ibrahim. Already the latter has fired his first shot.

People treat Khalid like a punching bag because like a punching bag, he does not punch back. For years, Azmin (left ) and team have been firing salvo after salvo, but Khalid maintained an almost stony silence - just as he did these last nine months.

He is liable not to respond at all, unless someone questions his integrity with regards to managing what belongs to the rakyat. Almost this alone, we must admit, tends to provoke a response, as he seems to take such accusations to heart.

Khalid takes a dim view of mudslinging. I doubt anyone could find more than ten instances on record of Khalid making anything resembling a personal attack, or a political low blow against anyone.

The strength of his disdain for that type of politics is not reflected in him saying how much he thinks it is bad; it is reflected in his absolute refusal to sink to that level, no matter how bad the attacks against him are.

I am happy to see those who work with Khalid, such as lawyer Edmund Bon, employ the same restraint when faced with criticism. Faekah Husin lets a harsh comment rip once in a while, but if you know her, you might see that what she says in public in fact reflects great restraint on her part as well.

I admit that I have not always kept to the same standard in my own writing but I hope that in time I can approximate Khalid’s approach and commitment to dignified politics.

Stubbornly anti-feudal

I believe the best part of Khalid’s politics to be his anti-feudal stance.

Where Anwar and Azmin spend their whole political careers building up a feudal network of allies and supporters, Khalid clearly does not invest any time in recruiting either - a fact clearly reflected in the considerable lack of political allies throughout the Kajang Move.

He secured more than a third of the vote in PKR’s deputy president race at one point yet not a single party leader stood up for him.

This is because there is no (feudal) margin in supporting Khalid. There are no contracts, no positions - in essence, no rewards. Spending the whole day trying to suck up to Khalid not only yields no results, it is likely to land you in his bad books.

Instead of feeding a network of supporters, Khalid believed in building institutional strength. He trusted civil servants while his colleagues vilified them, and instilled a sense of integrity and professionalism that had not been seen in the civil service for decades.

This is why Khalid’s vibrant farewell was attended largely not by the politically inclined, but by normal civil servants - every day Malaysians that are a large part of both the middle ground, and Umno’s major support base.

The fact that Khalid appeals to this crowd explains why support for Pakatan in GE13 went up in Selangor, but remained stagnant or went down virtually everywhere else. This in itself is of course also a threat to the likes of Azmin and Anwar.

Integrity first

Khalid’s other general strengths are mostly in the area of integrity and management.

I am confident that allegations against Khalid - such as we are likely to see more of very soon - will amount to no more than the type of unsubstantiated allegations made with regards to the Bank Islam case and so on.

Some people truly believe that they need to drag others down in order to pull themselves up.

I also acknowledge the fact that if Khalid wanted to play feudal politics, or abuse power to enrich himself, he had more than ample opportunity to do so.

In the end, I believe that Khalid’s obsessive attention to detail will ensure that all the documents and paperwork will vindicate his decisions as being done according to proper procedure, and in accordance with the highest standards of integrity and transparency.

Khalid’s managerial success is exemplified by cases such as Alam Flora , where he works tirelessly to weed out inefficiences and corrupt middlemen.

His adherence to proper procedure while still achieving what the rakyat wants can be seen in his handling of the Kampung Sungai Terentang case .

Khalid’s entire work ethic can fundamentally be summarised in four simple words: talk less, work more .

Lastly, I truly appreciate Khalid’s dedication to keeping his word. Even as the most vicious accusations regarding Bank Islam were flying left, right and center, Khalid refused to reveal details that could have easily vindicated him. In his view, he signed a nondisclosure agreement, and having given his word, he would keep it, no matter the cost to his own personal career.

What Khalid could have done differently

Now we come to how we might use Khalid’s experience to think about how things could have been done differently.

Khalid seems to truly believe that if you do what is right, you will turn out alright - that it is action, rather than perception, that is paramount.  

This is a double-edged sword. I full heartedly agree that action is more important than perception. What we do is more important than what people think we do.

I think however, that what people think we do is important as well.

On one end of the spectrum are career politicians like Azmin or Lim Guan Eng, who think through how the public perceives each and every one of their actions. On the other end are people like Khalid, who do not seem to care at all.

A medium seems to be the best option, where what we do is still more important, but where what people think is also important. Some appreciation of what it takes to ensure that the public has an accurate picture of our actions may be part of the idea of good governance as a whole.

I believe Khalid was right in not ‘feeding’ politicians to develop a network of allies. However, it is possible to work at at least making politicians in one’s government feel like they are being listened to, even if one does not always listen to what they tell you to do a hundred percent of the time.

One’s dedication to the spirit of consultative government must be real, even if the consultative process is painful and irritating.

I accept that there are many different, possibly equally valid arguments about when the procedurally correct time was for Khalid to step down.

I interpret Khalid’s definition of the procedurally correct time to be when all three Pakatan parties formally and conclusively withdrew their support for him.

The one thing I would point out here, however, is that given the position of the palace - which for better or worse has shown itself to be fairly impervious to outside pressure - the timing of Khalid’s resignation would have had no bearing on the events that followed. Whenever he resigned, the situation that played out from that point onwards would have been the same.

Living humbly

As mentioned, I have had little to no direct interaction with Khalid. Most of what I know about his life I learnt from stories his staff tell.

I remember being moved by how his family lives. There is no maid in his house. If you visit, drinks are typically served by his wife or children. Said children are known not to be afforded any particular luxuries - I hear one drove a Kancil for quite a while. Extravagance is an alien thing.

The positive influence Khalid appears to have on his family extends to his staff. It is clear that very few politicians like working with Khalid. The converse is true for professionals who work under him.

I have nearly never met any non-politician who has spent significant time working with Khalid who did not come out with a sense of respect for Khalid’s principles.

This is true of the small staff that he keeps, but also true of the Selangor civil service in general - as was evident the day he left office.

Having myself experienced people I don’t know and who don’t know me saying nasty things, I note the difference in opinion between people who have worked with Khalid or spent time with him, and people who have not.

Khalid fits the profile of many individuals I know who have not only achieved significant financial success, but have managed to maintain it - which is another challenge completely.

This profile includes a complete avoidance of the many habits and lifestyles that can ruin a man. While most of the other players in this game have been blackened by some scandal or another, this video is the closest anyone has ever gotten to implicating Khalid in a sex scandal, or scandal of any sort for that matter.

If Khalid is guilty of any vice, it is perhaps the one with extremely visible consequences - especially near the waistline.

A man, all in all

In politics and in his personal life, Khalid seems to be of one mind with Leo Tolstoy. I was recently introduced, by someone who influences me even more, to The Anna Karenina Principle.

This principle derives from the opening line of the novel: “Every happy family is happy in the same way; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.”

Where once I thought this meant that every happy family is boring, my best friend explained to me long ago that what it actually means is: there is only one way to be happy - by always walking the straight and narrow, in every aspect of our lives.

I think that it is not worth walking this path in search of material rewards or power. Khalid’s own path (until now at least) clearly shows how it can sometimes end in the exact opposite.

What I do believe ,however, is that walking that path is its own reward.

It has taken me some years to understand and internalise this, but more and more, I see how it is true of everyone I think highly of - from former menteri besars to schoolteachers that no one will ever hear of.

Hamlet spoke of his father: “He was a man. Take him for all in all. I shall not look upon his like again.”

The good thing about Khalid and Malaysia is, I believe we will see his like again. I think that while maybe only a few Malaysians will look up to his example of statesmanship over politics, those few will be the ones that will one day give us the Malaysia we deserve.

Lose, and start again

Lastly, I think I learnt from Khalid perseverance and conviction. I have often held that faith and patience will see us through most things in life.

When people quote Rudyard Kipling’s If, I sometimes think it a little cliche and corny, and I am not a big believer in gender constructs of what it means to ‘be a man’.

Having actually reread it, however, I understand why Khalid used this poem in one of his last addresses to Selangor’s civil servants.

I leave the reader, and the Kajang Move, with Kipling’s unadulterated words, and a simple thank you Tan Sri - it has been an honour. You walked your talk and blazed your own path; now it is our turn to do the same.

“If you can keep your head when all about you

Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,

If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,

But make allowance for their doubting too;

If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,

Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies,

Or being hated, don’t give way to hating,

And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can dream - and not make dreams your master;

If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim;

If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster

And treat those two impostors just the same;

If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken

Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,

Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,

And stoop and build ’em up with worn-out tools:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings

And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,

And lose, and start again at your beginnings

And never breathe a word about your loss;

If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew

To serve your turn long after they are gone,

And so hold on when there is nothing in you

Except the Will which says to them: “Hold on!”

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,

Or walk with Kings - nor lose the common touch,

If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,

If all men count with you, but none too much;

If you can fill the unforgiving minute

With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,

Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,

And - which is more - you’ll be a Man, my son.

Previous articles :

Kajang lessons - feudalism cant beat feudalism

Kajang lessons 2 - many wrongs to make a right

Kajang lessons 3 - target the law, not the palace

NATHANIEL TAN admits that he hs not always kept to the same standard in his own writing   but hopes that in time he can approximate Khalid’s approach and commitment to dignified politics. He is looking to change his Twitter experience @NatAsasi .