Who will be the next Ketua Pemuda?

Today, Pergerakan Pemuda UMNO bahagian Pekan will hold its mesyuarat perwakilan bahagian pemuda. The youth delegates in Pekan are focussed on two things:-

1. To elect their own ketua pemuda as the current one has passed the 40 year age limit.

2. And to nominate the contenders for the UMNO youth post a national levels.

Pekan is the seat of the current DPM and the incoming PM. To secure nomination from here is a victory of great strategic and psycholical value. It can be interpreted as an endorsement and support from the future PM.

When it comes to interpreting who Dato Najib wants, that’s a difficult one. His typical response will be, all these contenders are ‘his’ people in the sense that all are UMNO members. you will never get a clear indication from him. You cant get anything from his unflappable demeanour unless of course you bombard him with issues that rankle him- such as submarines, or sukhoi or Mongolia. Otherwise, the man is cool as a cucumber.

What must the delegates in Pekan and later, the UMNO youth delegates in PWTC in March 2009 consider? They must consider the most important thing. Dato Najib’s comfort level with the contenders.

In the end, all other objective considerations are thrown out. Take intelligence for example. Khairi is a an Oxon graduate where he read PPE. Mukhriz is a graduate from Japan. Khir Toyo is a dentistry graduate. Realy there’s nothing to differentiate in terms of brain quality.

Sakmongkol has purposely written KJ’s degree as being an Oxon product to reject all those pretenders telling all and sundry, they have degrees from Oxford or Cambridge universities. If you graduate from these institutions, your degree will never mention University of Cambridge et etc. There’s a joker in Pekan, who styles himself as a PhD but with and MBA written on his card. How low can you be?

Who is Najib comfortable with? Sakmongkol tells you from his personal observation. On a ranking of 1 to 3, where 3 is the highest, the ranking would be as follows:-

Mukhriz Mahathir 3

Khir Toyo 2

Khairy Jamaluddin 1

Sakmongkol has no beef with any of these contenders. KJ is a brain-box anytime better than the current UMNO youth head. Mukhriz is a refined fellow not politically brutal like the father. He is the Malaysian Hsien Loong to Singapore’s combative and politically thuggish LKY. Mukhriz is a Mahathir with a humane face. Khir Toyo represents the common man, making good. From humble beginnings to sky high achievements. They are all good.

But Mukhriz has certain advantages that the others don’t have. It will be important for people in Pekan and later, the country to allow Najib to secure the most important political legitimacy and endorsement-from the Malaysian François Leclerc du Tremblay (1577-1638 otherwise known to us as L’eminence grise of Malaysian politics. The larger than life Tun Mahathir.

That and Najib’s comfort level will secure Mukhriz the Pekan nomination and victory at national levels.