YOURSAY | 'PM aspirant also needs mass charisma, connection to grassroots.'

KJ aspires to become PM but not obsessed with 'lifelong ambition'

PinkJaguar7289: Khairy Jamaluddin can aspire to be prime minister, but ambition alone does not build a road to Putrajaya.

His first test is not media interviews, podcast popularity, or elite approval - it is whether grassroots Umno members can accept him again sincerely.

If he wants to succeed, he must first rebuild trust from the branches upward, then help make BN strong again, like during the eras of Dr Mahathir Mohamad, Abdullah Ahmad Badawi and Najib Abdul Razak, when the machinery, discipline, and Malay grassroots support were still solid.

Khairy is articulate and intelligent, but national leadership also requires mass charisma. Former US president Bill Clinton, former UK prime minister Tony Blair, and now Tamil Nadu Chief Minister C Joseph Vijay had that emotional connection with ordinary voters.

Khairy has the brains, but does he have the warmth, grassroots appeal, and instinct to make people feel he belongs to them? That is the real test.

OrangeJaguar9341: Khairy may be articulate, more intelligent than the last few prime ministers, and more charismatic than most MPs. But what he lacks is a set of uncompromising principles and moral integrity. That disqualifies him from the prime minister’s office in my book.

Khairy said he considered setting up his own political party, but “chose not to do so for the sake of Malay unity” because he did not want to “further fragment the Malay voter base”. That says it all.

There is zero appreciation for the multiracial fabric of Malaysia. There is no real vision for the country.

Anyway, I suspect that anyone comfortable in Umno is also comfortable with corruption. Certainly not my idea of a prime minister.

Ranjit Singh Malhi: Khairy, with due respect, no politician or Malay political party alone can make Malaysia great again without first transforming the mindset of Malays at large.

True national progress requires not merely political rhetoric, but a genuine shift towards excellence, integrity, critical thinking, inclusiveness, and a stronger sense of shared national purpose.

It is my personal view that many Malay political leaders have, for far too long, enriched themselves and their cronies while misleading the rakyat through the oft-repeated slogan “demi bangsa, agama dan negara” (for race, religion, and country).

RainbowHuman1963: Umno's downfall partly stemmed from Mahathir's obsession with eliminating opposition, believing that emulating aspects of PAS would eventually result in Kelantan voting for BN.

Reducing the secular elements of the administration and civil service actually strengthened PAS and weakened Umno.

As much as the comment section here tends to be largely unimpressed with Khairy’s past, he could be the least bad option for changing Malaysia’s old guard, akin to what Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is trying to achieve in his country.

Add to that his friendly relations with Singapore, and the synergy between the two nations could produce spectacular outcomes over the next one to two decades.

Coward: It is too early, and Khairy is not ready for the Umno presidency, let alone the premiership. His actions so far have undermined his own efforts to become prime minister.

For example, he threw the party under the bus when it became clear that his parliamentary campaign was not going well. He projected a different persona through his podcast, only to revert to his old self after being readmitted into Umno.

Even outside Umno, his podcast appearances were timid. Much of it had only novelty value, and once that faded, people stopped paying attention to it.

Overall, he is not an interesting prime ministerial candidate.

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