Khairy’s declining popularity: Question mark hangs on Khairy’s potential to be the future PM of Malaysia

Khairy’s declining popularity: Question mark hangs on Khairy’s potential to be the future PM of Malaysia


7 Mar 2025 • 4:00 PM MYT



TheRealNehruism
Writer. Seeker. Teacher

Image credit: Beautiful Nara


Khairy’s views and opinions actually have no intrinsic value. You can say it is educated and informative, but there are a lot of other views and opinions in the country which are as, if not more educated and informative than Khairy’s. However, none of their views and opinions are quoted by most if not all the media outlets in the country nor are they treated as if it is equal to the opinion of a minister or the prime minister either.


So why is Khairy’s views and opinion alone that is being given such a special treatment?


Well, the answer is not that Khairy’s opinions are particularly insightful, in that they give you a glimpse of reality in a way that no one has thought of before, or that it is so powerful, that it is capable of moving the hearts and minds of a large number of people.


Instead, Khairy’s opinion is treated as special and valuable, well above that of his peers, equals and superiors, because Khairy is seen as a potential future Prime Minister of Malaysia, even if he is a nobody today.


There are three reasons why a person’s views and opinions are worth listening to.


The first reason is because it will open your mind and give you a deeper and more comprehensive view of reality.


The second is because it moves the hearts and minds of a large number of people.


The third reason is because it comes from somebody who is in a powerful or high position, or who has the potential of reaching a powerful and high position.


Khairy’s worth is chiefly tied to reason number 3.


His views and opinions interest hundreds of thousands of people in the country, because he is seen as someone that will be able to become powerful and reach a high position in the future, despite the fact that he is a nobody today.


However, that Khairy’s viewership on his podcast has dropped from a high of around 250k to 100k plus in recent times, is a sign that a doubt has set in on whether Khairy will be able to make it to the top in the future.


If people do not believe that Khairy will be able to make a comeback and rise to the top, Khairy’s views and opinion will be seen as no more important than the average person’s views and opinion. One of the signs that that is happening, is that Khairy's viewership is facing a significant and drastic drop.


That the viewership of Khairy’s podcast has dropped by around 40 percent or more is a sign that people are having doubts about Khairy’s potential to reach the top.


Now why are people starting to have doubts about Khairy’s potential to make a comeback?


Is it because after listening to nearly 150 episodes of his podcast, people have come to the realisation that Brand Khairy might not be as valuable as they had earlier presumed?


Or is it because the views and opinions that Khairy espoused in his podcast has made it difficult for people to judge whether he stands with them or against them?


Politics, we must understand, is more about identity than it is about objectivity. People want to hear their politicians tell them things that will reassure them that their politicians stands with them, not against them. Of course, people will also expect that their politicians to not be foolishly partisan all the time, and have a degree of objectivity as a sign of their intelligence, but when push comes to shove, people expect their politicians to only be objective to the point that it doesn’t overturn their identity.


In his 100 plus podcasts, has Khairy and his co-host Shahril, become so objective, that they have lost their identity, to the point that no one knows who they stand for anymore?


Or conversely, through his many podcasts, has Khairy developed a distinct identity, to the point that many of his former supporters and followers can now clearly see who he identifies with, and thus are abandoning him because they have deduced that he doesn’t identify with them ?


No matter how smart or handsome you are, the people who identify with PH are not going to support or follow you, if you develop a distinct pro-PN identity, and vice versa.


Sometimes, it is not good for a politician to speak their mind too much, to the point that everyone knows what they stand for. A degree of silence and mystery is not a bad idea, because it will allow people to presume that you are with them, simply because you have not said enough to make anyone feel that you are against them.


Or perhaps it is just the case that after 145 episodes , people might just get tired of listening to Khairy’s views and opinions?


What is the point of listening to hundreds or thousands of hours of his opinion, when nothing happens? If you keep talking and talking and talking, but not even a leaf drops because of it, you might start to look impotent and delusional.


In your mind you might see yourself as a giant who’s due it is to be heard and taken into account, but in reality you might just be a dwarf that no one bothers about.


Whatever the case might be, the drastic drop in viewership in Khairy’s podcast is a clear sign that Khairy should do something to turn things around.


As a rule, when things are going well, you shouldn't change anything, but when things are not going well, you should change something. If things have gone so bad, that your viewership has dropped by 40 percent, then not only should you change something, you should probably think about changing things in a drastic and intense manner, in order to turn things around.


Khairy is not in the position he is in today solely because of his talent, intelligence, look and skills.


A big part of why he is here today is due to the momentum that he has generated by gaining important positions in the last few years and decades.


From being a part of the fourth four boys, to then becoming the son-in-law of the prime minister, to then becoming the Umno youth chief and serving in various capacities as a minister, it took years and decades to build the momentum that made him a person of standing today.


What took him decades to build can vanish in a year if he is not careful.


Once the people who identified and supported you leave you to identify and support somebody else, they might leave you forever, and the momentum that they create in leaving you, might wash away the standing that took you years and decades to build.


Personally, I think Khairy is still a person of weight in the landscape of Malaysian politics today, but if he continues to prevaricate about his future move, and looks too comfortable being a podcast host, I have doubts whether he will still be a person of importance in the near future.


Look at Ambiga. Look at Mahathir. They used to be a big deal just a few years ago too, especially Mahathir.


Look at them now? From being at the top of the world, in just a few years, they have now been relegated to the fringes, where their present stature is not even a sixteenth of what they used to be at their prime.


If Khairy doesn’t act in a decisive manner to inform everybody about his future plans, I will bet 1 ringgit and 35 cents that he will also find himself relegated to the same zone that Ambiga and Mahathir are in, in the not too distant future.

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kt recalls:

During AAB's pm-ship, and with Khairy as one of the 4th Floor Boys, he was immensely disliked (maybe even 'hated') by a certain very-senior politician. KJ was then 'seen' as 'bullying' a sacred 'son' in the ways important s-i-l would have bullied important son, wakakaka.

Then Najib and sequentially Anwar, took over as Someone's Public Enemy No 1. But was KJ by then sparecd or just relegated to a lower rank on the hate-list?

I suspect KJ has (had?) ambitions to return to power (maybe even the pm-ship) via UMNO, but alas, UMNO isn't doing that well nowadays. So KJ waits, perhaps until UMNO can umno-rise most of PKR (in reality its splinter group with a dash of Chinese and Indians) to enable the Mothership to rise like the phoenix from the ashes again. Or, KJ will soon seek 'greener' pastures (PKR), just before GE16th.