UPDATED 11.15AM | Mohamed Khaled Nordin (above) has been described as a "gem", who had wrongfully been discarded by the people in a social media posting shared by his son. 

This posting, shared by Akmal Saufi on Instagram in aid of his father's campaign for the upcoming party polls, was allegedly written by his friend. 

The post by a Anak Watan Johor hinted that Khaled had been "sacrificed" during the last 14th general elections in the midst of overall anger against former premier Najib Abdul Razak, and said it was now the time for his supporters to redeem themselves.

"We regret that we had to sacrifice Dato Khaled to topple Dato Najib. But we had no choice, that was the only way," read the post uploaded by Akmal Saufi.

"With the overwhelming desires of the new Johor Menteri Besar, now we realise that we had discarded a gem in front of us.

"We now realise (our mistake). Now we want to redeem ourselves and right our wrongs," it further read, in an obvious dig against the new Pakatan Harapan Johor Menteri Besar Osman Sapian.

Akmal Saufi had himself contested and lost the contest for one out of 20 Umno Youth exco positions in polls held last Saturday.

The post by Anak Watan Johor also pointed out Khaled's various achievements during his tenure as menteri besar, including building some 16,000 affordable houses within five years from 2013.

This was on top of increasing the allocation for Malay reserve land up to over 555,000 hectares or 29.4 percent of the state's overall size, he added.

"We believe that his ability can be used wisely by the party.

"With Dato Seri Mohamed Khaled, even as the opposition, the Malays will be protected and Umno will still be respected," it reads.

Khaled was also further described as an architect of modern Malays.

In GE14, Khaled had contested and lost in both the Pasir Gudang parliament seat as well as the Permas state seat.