Safe pair of hands in Hisham

The perception was that he came into Umno with a silver spoon in the mouth but Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Tun Hussein has earned his stripes. He is seen as a reliable face and he is in the running for bigger things. 

Joceline Tan, The Star

DATUK Seri Hishammuddin Tun Hussein’s office was buzzing with activity.

The Australian Air Force chief was there to make a courtesy call and there were uniformed personnel going up and down the narrow corridors of his fifth floor office in the Defence Ministry.

The Defence Minister had been swarmed by interview requests ahead of the Umno general assembly. It was one of those weeks where there were simply too few hours in a day.

It has been a busy year and, as KRA strategy director Amir Fareed Rahim noted, it has also been a good year for the Umno vice-president.

His appointment to a second portfolio earlier this year caused ripples because it was, rightly or wrongly, seen as a foot in the door to bigger things in Umno.

“The perception out there is that the appointment has reinforced his seniority not just in the Cabinet but also in the party,” said Amir.

It places him squarely in the third most senior spot in the party.

The most logical explanation is that the new post was to leverage on the personal ties between Hishammuddin and the powerful Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman or MBS as he is known. The two met several years ago in their capacities as Defence Ministers and the friendship has bloomed.

“I look on him as a brother. He is someone young, dynamic, visionary, with a sense of conviction,” said Hishammuddin who is treated as a preferential guest in the kingdom.

There have been occasions when the Saudi government would send a private jet just to fly Hishammuddin to Riyadh for meetings. A lot of it has to do with the Malaysia’s reputation in the eyes of the Saudi government and also Hishammuddin’s personal image.

He recalled King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al-Saud telling him why the Saudi government decided to establish the Malaysia-Saudi Arabia Counter-Terrorism Centre here.

“His Majesty said it is because he believes that Malaysia represents the true face of Islam,” he said.

Close ties with Saudi Arabia is a big deal for Malaysia not only because of the oil money but because that is where Islam’s most holy city is located.

The Defence Ministry is not the most coveted portfolio for ambitious Umno leaders but somehow, Hishammuddin has made his work relevant to contemporary issues like militancy and terrorism.

His defence duties take him out of the everyday life of the average Malaysians but it has given him access to the international stage and that has taken his image to another level. It allows Malaysians to see a new side of him and he had been able to see the big picture much more clearly.

“To be a complete leader, you need to be tested at different levels,” said former Umno MP Tawfik Ismail who also hails from a famous Johor political family.

His friends know him as Hisham or by his nickname H2O (Hishammuddin Hussein Onn). The Hishammuddin of today is a far cry from his Umno Youth days when he was slammed as “Kerismuddin” for waving the keris at the wing’s assembly. Like many young Malay leaders then, he wanted to underscore his Malay credentials.

He also laboured under the perception that he entered Umno with a silver spoon in his mouth and there was resentment among his peers.

There have been ups and downs and he learnt that an elite upbringing can be a double edged sword. He had a wake-up call in 2013 when he contested the Umno vice-president post in 2013. He struggled behind Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi whose humble roots and kampung touch resonated with the delegates.

He almost lost to Datuk Seri Mukhriz Mahathir and was hospitalised for chest pains that year, no thanks to his decades-long love affair with cigarettes. He has given up smoking, he eats healthy, exercises and seems more grounded about life and work.

Age and experience have also made him more tolerant and accessible and ordinary people can sense that.

During the deluge in Penang, he went down with the troops in several parts of Penang. When he arrived at a low-cost housing area, the housewives flocked around him.

He was dressed in combat fatigues, no different from the next army personnel, but the ladies seemed to sense that he was the big man and one of them had clung onto him. You could see the surprise on his face but when he realised that they were seeking assurance about the flood situation, he wrapped his arms around the lady as she laid her head on his shoulder.

“Natural disasters do not differentiate between colour of your skin or between rich and poor. I’m very proud of the work the armed forces did over there. They were monitoring the situation and had begun deploying as early as 1am,” he said.

The armed forces have been pillars of assistance in the floods that strike the east coast annually. There is a black-and-white photograph in his office showing an exhausted Hishammuddin with his head in his hands that were wrapped around his knees as the army helicopter hovered over Kelantan looking for a spot to land during the 2013 deluge.

“That was a heartbreaking experience. People had no houses to go back to,” he said of the Kelantan floods.

Earlier this month, he was at an event to hand out cheques to family members of the MH370 crew who perished. Hishammuddin sort of held out both hands when he saw the four-year-old son of one of the deceased staff. The boy dashed across the floor and flung his arms around Hishammuddin in a tight hug. It was quite a poignant moment for everyone and it spoke of Hishammuddin’s ability to empathise.

The boy later amused everyone when he said he wants to marry his mother, at which Hishammuddin said: “You’ve got to invite me to your wedding.”

“He has been cool-headed in a crisis, he stays calm and knows what to say. People see him as a safe pair of hands, they feel they can trust him,” said Amir.

It is interesting how his image in the eyes of the party has shifted.

“Politics is about experience. He has gone through a journey of experiences and he’s a better man today,” said Finance Minister II Datuk Seri Johari Abdul Ghani.

Hishammuddin has injected professionalism to the party’s resolutions committee which he has headed for the last three years. Every year, he gathers personalities from different fields to speak to Umno leaders as they prepare for the party’s general assembly.

“It brings more content and depth to the thinking process at the Umno general assembly. This year, we heard from people at the top of the corporate world to the micro entrepreneur and the youth. It helps us get a grip of how people feel out there,” said Johari.

Hishammuddin is increasingly seen as Prime Minister material for the way he has committed to his two portfolios and the way he interacts with people from high to low.

“At the moment, he is quite a good alternative, he’s definitely in the running,” said Tawfik.

Hishammuddin is quite uncomfortable about this topic and he refuses to go anywhere near it. He said posts and positions have to take a secondary place to the priority of winning a strong election mandate or else “we have to succumb to all kinds blackmail and unreasonable demands”.

He is also articulating issues that reflect his seniority in the party and what he says these days is taken more seriously than three or four years ago.

The Umno general assembly next month will be very much about locking in the Malay support because there are now more Malay parties out there fishing for the Malay vote.

The Malays-and-Islam rhetoric will dominate but, said Hishammuddin, it is a complex world out there and the Umno narrative also has to appeal to the larger population.

“If we win without the support of non-Malays, we will pay a cost as a nation. Whether we like it or not, we are all stakeholders in Malaysia and that has to be translated into support. My biggest fear is not about losing the general election, but winning it without the support of the non-Malays,” he said.

Is Johor in danger given Pakatan Harapan’s ambition to capture the state?

“I will give my 101% to make sure it doesn’t fall. Everyone will play their part from the Sultan to the Mentri Besar and the division chiefs”.

Asked what he meant by the part to be played by the Sultan, he said: “We are lucky to have a Sultan who is in tune with the people in the state.

“He knows Johor inside out, he feels the pulse. My take is that people out there cannot demonise the royal court, the military and the police without there being an impact on the nation as a whole.”

Going up in Umno is like climbing a greasy pole. One wrong move and down you go.

But Amir said: “I see him as an institutional player. He has undergone a transformation and he has learnt to see politics as a marathon race, not a sprint.”