KJ, this generation’s Anwar
Hazlan Zakaria, The Ant Daily
In all likeliness, cabinet member Youth and Sports Minister Khairy Jamaluddin, more popularly known by his moniker of KJ, is the current generation’s “Anwar” given the circumstances and attributes that he seems to share with Opposition leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim in how they started and rose to their lofty station in Umno and national politics.
This was the observation made in an interesting discussion with some friends the other day, in all unlikeliness fellow poets and performers at an awards event to honour the memory of a late national laureate Usman Awang and how his legacy and works continue to inspire unity to this day.
It was perhaps remarked by others before but this is our take on the matter based on that same premise, ours on the sidelines borak analysis of KJ and Anwar and their similarities in how they rose to power.
First and foremost, both are outsiders who quickly rose through the ranks of Umno after being plucked out of the blue and dropped into the lap of luxury so to speak by reigning prime ministers.
Anwar owes his station to being former PM Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad who managed to lure the young Abim upstart into Umno, while KJ observers say he got in through his Machiavellian use of the good offices and via marriage to the daughter of former PM Tun Abdullah Badawi or Pak Lah as the mild mannered politician is fondly known.
In Anwar’s case, it was a calculated decision by Mahathir, one of his attempts at breaking the stranglehold of the traditional warlords on Umno grassroots and the grip of the blue blooded Malay elites on top Umno posts and populate it with those he thought were made in his own image. That Anwar was perhaps too ambitious for him to tolerate is another story altogether.
In a way, this is akin to how he elevated former Selangor MB Khir Toyo and others to replace, shock and disrupt the traditional Umno leadership. Kinda like how he replaced civil servants, teachers and activists with businessmen and contractors in Umno.
While for Pak Lah, he was the vehicle for his very ambitious son-in-law in KJ’s calculated quest for power.
But by extension both Anwar and KJ owe their opportunity to Tun M, for just as he plucked Anwar and put him into the political rat race, so did his decision to pick Pak Lah as his successor when he stepped down as PM in 2003 had enabled KJ’s plan at political ascension.
Both also came into the party outside of the stringent party ‘Mandarins’ apparat structure, and have not paid their dues and run the rigmarole of the usual merry-go-round that aspirants to higher positions usually have to in the Malay party’s rather rigid and seniority based stepladder.
In both cases, traditional party warlords looked upon them with both contempt and helplessness as they not only defy established traditions but excel beyond expectations as both used government facilities accorded to them by their patrons to secure their positions.
As current lingo would describe, they are ‘disruptive innovations’ introduced into the tradition political mix so to speak.
Anwar certainly used his reported facility with certain enforcement agencies, various ministries and especially the Finance Ministry to grease his way up.
While KJ arguably did the same in his much famed fourth floor days and his in-law’s lubricated corporate experience.
Just as Anwar unseated and neutralised all rivals in Pemuda Umno and made it his own, so did KJ use his gained advantage and facility to cement the youth wing into his own demesne when he put his people in all top positions, unseating even the takeover attempt by Tun M’s son, Datuk Seri Mukhriz Mahathir.
Ironic that for Tun M who was the first to disrupt the elite royal linked political dynasty that ruled Umno, his finishing move was to try and install his own progeny as his own political dynasty.
Learning perhaps from his former mentor Tun M, Anwar too built his own dynasty in lead opposition party PKR with his wife and daughter well in place.
Though KJ has yet to show if he has the same dynastic intent for his ‘tiger cubs’.
But while KJ is this generation’s Anwar, he does have attributes that he does not share with and differs from Anwar in certain matters.
First of all Anwar is a demagogue, a public speaker that can move crowds and ooze charisma from every pore, that is his greatest gift perhaps that catapulted him to such heights.
As they said of him, when he speaks at the Universiti Malaya speaker’s corner back in those days, whole classes would be empty as students left their studies to listen.
Anwar is, or appears to be, a man from and of the people.
But while KJ oozes charm as well, he has more a model’s magnetism than a demagogue’s charisma. He is more like a looker that can elicit cogent response from the ladies plus youths and metro-sexual men than the stately and leadership figure that Anwar managed to pull off.
I still remember lady friends not usually impressed with politicians making rather complimentary comments on KJ based on his appearance alone.
And indeed KJ knows how to use popular culture to accentuate his appeal, observe his magazine cover pix, cinematic appearances, paramilitary Rejimen Wataniah post and well planned out tight outfits. Another plus point is that he knows how to use concern for youths as a vehicle to project his image to the next generation voters.
But as Anwar appears to be one of the masses who rose to lofty station and hides his arrogance slightly better, KJ seems more like an elitist manipulating the system as he aspires to power and carries that baggage with him, which puts off some people.
Just look at his tailored suits, regal but slightly aloof mannerism and the unfortunately named clothing store Emperor’s New Clothes, out of all names? One can be forgiven if they view KJ as the privileged upper crust brat that rode the system for his upward mobility.
They also differ in the mechanism they used to reach their goal. For Anwar it was popular politics and the student activism movement, his ongoing affair with power of the people, from and by the people. Something he oozed since his saudara Anwar days to his now multi-titled Federal Opposition Sivaji The Boss’ existence and his extensive links with far reaching overseas network and international recognition.
Until today, Anwar’s is a well-respected voice that is listened to overseas, thanks to his networking in his youth activism and Islamic circles.
And he was and perhaps still is the darling of the foreign press. Though in this, it was by way of careful manipulation and planning. While he may appear down to earth now, Anwar is said by those in the know as having a history of buttering up the foreign press and have had glowing articles expounding his virtues appear if not directly commissioned.
For KJ however by pundit’s accounts, it was by conscious and careful manipulation of the system and his family’s diplomatic community background, get into the right school…(cough) Oxford (cough), intern for a prominent socio-political publication like The Economist, show visiting Tun M around the university grounds, and oh…marry into the right family. In other words he made all the right moves, but lack the appearance of struggle that Anwar’s journey emphasised.
And as tales has it, KJ would have been a son-in-law to Anwar if not to Pak Lah, as some accused him of targeting the daughters of DPMs for his upward mobility.
