It is odd that the man elected as Umno Youth chief was not appointed a minister, but if you believe Khairy Jamaluddin, he harbours no bitterness.

"No, I'm not hurt," he said of Prime Minister Najib Razak's decision to leave him out of the cabinet. "I took it in good faith."

He hinted that when his father-in-law Abdullah Ahmad Badawi was in power, he did not get the support he needed from the party to push through his reforms.

NONE "I hope the same problem does not arise. That's why I gave my undivided support to the reforms (espoused by Najib) as Umno Youth leader," Khairy told Malaysiakini at the sidelines of the Asean100 forum in Bangkok organised by regional magazine Asia Inc last week.

The 33-year-old Rembau parliamentarian, who is the youngest Umno Youth chief in the party's history, gave a bold speech a fortnight ago.

In his maiden speech as leader at the Umno Youth general assembly, he exhorted party delegates to shed their siege mentality .

"It wasn't easy to make the speech, but I did it because I don't want him (Najib) to have the same big problem that Pak Lah (Abdullah) had. He is the conductor who is conducting the masterpiece. (But) the orchestra's playing the same old symphony.

"It is important to me in my limited role as Umno Youth chief that I show I'll be there, and I'll take the risk of pushing the message even though it's alien to some people."

Not a chameleon

Khairy said he was not deterred by the rather unenthusiastic response from the floor to his speech.

"The fact that after I spoke, during the debate, during the speeches by the delegates, even if they didn't touch directly on what I said, the fact that they didn't say anything inflammatory (and) incendiary, is a message that they may not fully understand or appreciate yet, but the chief has said something so you got to toe the line."

The new Umno Youth chief argued that he was not a chameleon but still very much the same man he was before joining the Malay-based party despite having made remarks which upset certain ethnic groups when he was deputy leader.

"One, on personal level of course, there's a certain political evolution or maturing process that takes place. Secondly, I don't view my position today as completely divorced from before. May be the difference is in rhetoric."

He stressed that he had never gone out to "alienate any particular segment of the non-Malay community".

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