KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 9 — Former Umno Youth chief Khairy Jamaluddin Abu Bakar has conceded today that Perikatan Nasional (PN) lacks good politicians at the top to lead the coalition in this state election campaigning.
In an interview with The Edge Malaysia published today, the former Rembau MP said that PN is too reliant on only three heavyweight politicians.
“I think one thing PN lacks is that they are a bit thin at the top. They don’t have good front people, front men and women who can lead at the top. So they’re very reliant on Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin, Datuk Seri Muhammad Sanusi Md Nor and Tan Sri Abdul Hadi Awang, who have to do the heavy lifting.
“They don’t have a slate of people to go around,” he was quoted as saying,
Muhyiddin is PN chairman and Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia president, Abdul Hadi is PN deputy chairman and PAS president, while Sanusi was the outgoing Kedah menteri besar and Kedah PAS chief.
On the other hand, Khairy, who Umno sacked in January this year, said Pakatan Harapan (PH) is too reliant on its chairman Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim.
Khairy said both PH and Barisan Nasional who are now federal allies, can do much better during the campaigning period.
“PH is quite reliant on Anwar as well now. They could run this campaign much better.
“So, bereft of any big mistakes and all things being equal, this campaign by chatter, campaign in WhatsApp group, this disquiet of the Malay community — which actually I remember in the last general election had blindsided me, I didn’t expect PN could win so much in Sungai Buloh and they did — it’s reminiscent of that,” he said.
Earlier this week, Khairy was witnessed on the campaign trail for PN’s Jeram candidate in Puncak Alam, Datuk Harrison Hassan, who was formerly Sungai Buloh Umno deputy chief.
In June, Khairy was reported to have given his backing to PN for the upcoming state elections after a meeting with the coalition’s chairman Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin.
In January, Khairy and several senior leaders were sacked from Umno for violating party rules, such as contesting as independent candidates and helping Opposition candidates during the general election (GE15) that previous November.
