With hand gestures and sound effects, KJ tracks Anwar’s location

In the latest instalment of the ‘Keluar Sekejap’ podcast, Khairy Jamaluddin noted that Anwar Ibrahim does not have a fixed location along the political spectrum.

Rejecting the description that he is a “centrist”, the former health minister said the Pakatan Harapan chairperson was more fluid.

“That is PMX (Anwar) from the start.

“Since the early days of his career, he has been someone who moves along the spectrum,” he added, with hand gestures and sound effects to indicate the shifts.

However, Khairy refused to brand Anwar as a “lalang”.

“I don’t like the word ‘lalang’. Because at the end of the day, you can change your mind. Doesn’t mean because you change your mind, you are suddenly a ‘lalang’.

“Look at what is happening today. For DNAA, it is the biggest ‘lalang’ moment in Malaysian history,” he added, referring to the discharge not amounting to an acquittal granted to Umno president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi over his corruption charges.

Pointing out that Anwar has always been “flexible”, he remarked: “You can say it is negative or call it chameleon politics. Or you can call it pragmatic politics.”

Khairy also referred to the “great Malay nationalist” Dr Mahathir Mohamad to illustrate that changing the goalpost is commonplace in politics.

“When he (Mahathir) needed the support of non-Malays, he came up with Vision 2020 and Bangsa Malaysia. He also moved on the spectrum. When he saw the rise of political Islam, he went the other way. So it is all about flexibility,” he added.

LGBT issue

The issue of Anwar’s position arose following a discussion on his recent interview with CNN’s Christiane Amanpour where he spoke about the issue of the LGBT community in Malaysia, which amplified his conundrum of safeguarding Harapan’s support base and winning over conservative voters.

“One advantage this PM has is that he can do such interviews. Not all PMs can do it. There might be PMs who might avoid a ‘panas’ (hot) interview… But Anwar took it,” said Khairy.

“And the issue which became controversial was that which is linked to the LGBT and (raid on) Swatch (watches). I think he did as best as he could. What more can you say?” he asked.

According to Khairy, a Malaysian prime minister has only two ways of answering questions concerning the LGBT community.

“One, you can answer it the ‘Mahathirian way’ saying, ‘No to gays. Full Stop'... But Anwar is not that, he wants to be this guy who is malleable and intellectually trying to say there is no harassment, but we cannot accept. The majority cannot accept but we don’t harass,” he added.

Although describing the prime minister’s answer as “perfectly decent”, Khairy said it perhaps did not win over either side.

“He did not win over the right wing, which is most of the Malay community… you don’t win over the international audience as well,” he added.

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