Khairy Jamaluddin

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This is a Malay name; the name "Jamaluddin" is a patronymic, not a family name, and the person should be referred to by the given name, "Khairy".

Khairy Jamaluddin
Chairman of UMNO's Youth Wing
Incumbent
Assumed office  26 March 2009
Preceded by	Hishammuddin Hussein
Member of the Malaysian Parliament for Rembau
Incumbent
Assumed office  8 March 2008
Preceded by	Firdaus Muhammad Rom bin Harun
Majority	5,746
Born	10 January 1976 (1976-01-10) (age 33) Kuwait City, Kuwait
Political party	UMNO - Barisan Nasional
Spouse(s)	Nori Abdullah Badawi
Relations	Son-in-law of Abdullah Ahmad Badawi
Children	Jibreil Ali Timur Abdullah
Alma mater	University of Oxford University College London
Occupation	Politician
Profession	Journalist
Religion	Islam
Website	http://www.rembau.net/

Khairy Jamaluddin Abu Bakar (born 10 January 1976) is a Malaysian politician, and the son-in-law of former Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi. Since 2008, Khairy has been a member of the Malaysian Parliament representing the constituency of Rembau. He is also the Chairman of Barisan Nasional Youth (the youth organisation of Malaysia's governing coalition), and the Head of the youth wing of the UMNO political party. At UMNO's grassroots level, he holds the post of Youth Chief in the Rembau division, and also heads the UMNO branch in Gadong (the birthplace of his father).

Contents 1 Personal background 2 Political Views 2.1 Journalistic Independence and the Printing Presses and Publications Act 2.2 Internet Censorship 2.3 Teaching of Maths and Science in English 3 Controversies and criticism 3.1 Debate challenge to an opposition leader 3.2 ECM Libra 3.3 Allegation of undue influence by former Malaysian Prime Minister 3.4 Alleged affair with Maya Karin 3.5 Statement about non-Malays 3.6 Leading of protest 3.7 Allegation of interfering with the Murder Trial 3.8 Allegation of bribery for the UMNO Youth Chief post 4 Participation in football 5 External links 6 References

[edit] Personal background

Khairy is the only son of former diplomat Dato' Jamaluddin Abu Bakar and Dato' Rahmah Abdul Hamid. Khairy's late father, Datuk Jamaluddin Abu Bakar, was a senior official in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, retiring as the Malaysian High Commissioner to the United Kingdom. Khairy's mother, Dato' Rahmah Abdul Hamid, has been heavily involved in volunteer work throughout her life. Khairy's grandfather, Penghulu Abu Bakar, was a community leader in Kota, Rembau.

Khairy was born in Kuwait City, Kuwait. He had his secondary education at the United World College of South East Asia in Singapore, and his university education at Oxford University and University College London (UCL) in the United Kingdom. While at Oxford, he studied at St Hugh's College, and graduated with a Bachelor's degree in Philosophy, Politics and Economics (PPE). In 1998, he completed his Master's degree in Legal and Political Theory at UCL.

After leaving university, Khairy worked as a journalist for a period. He served as a presenter on the talkshow Dateline Malaysia. He also had a stint working for The Economist in 1999. Thereafter, Khairy became a Special Officer in the office of Abdullah Badawi, who was then the Deputy Prime Minister of Malaysia. He was Abdullah's Deputy Principal Private Secretary from 2003-04.

In October 2001, Khairy married Abdullah's daughter Nori Abdullah. The couple have two sons, Jibreil Ali Jamaluddin Abu Bakar and Timur Abdullah Jamaluddin Abu Bakar.

[edit] Political Views

[edit] Journalistic Independence and the Printing Presses and Publications Act

Khairy believes that Malaysia should and could repeal the Printing Presses and Publications Act, and abolish the annual Home Ministry licensing requirement, through the creation of an independent body which will enforce a self-regulatory mechanism similar to the United Kingdom’s Press Complaints Commission.^[1]

[edit] Internet Censorship

In August 2008, the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission blocked access to the popular site, Malaysia Today. Khairy spoke against the move, citing that the move was a “blatant and crude employment of state power” and “is inconsistent with the widening of democratic space.”^[2] Khairy also said that such move will only alienate young urban voters from the ruling party, and is at odds with the Multimedia Super Corridor Bill of Guarantees – a 10-point Bill that prescribes zero Internet censorship.”

[edit] Teaching of Maths and Science in English

Following concerns about the declining command of the English language among students, the Malaysian Ministry of Education implemented a policy whereby Science and Mathematics would be taught in English in Malaysian Government schools. The policy was implemented from January 2003.^[3] In September 2008, Khairy called for the reversal of the policy, citing that the policy had failed and only caused burden to students. ^{[4] [5]}

[edit] Controversies and criticism

[edit] Debate challenge to an opposition leader

In September 2005, Khairy challenged Parliamentary Opposition Leader Lim Kit Siang to a debate in Parliament. However Lim told him not to ask any Member of Parliament (MP) to debate unless he himself became an MP. Khairy declined and later argued that he had meant to ask Lim to debate the matter in Parliament, and did not challenge him to a debate.

[edit] ECM Libra

Around late 2005, Khairy was involved in a merger between ECM Libra Capital Bhd and the government-linked Avenue Capital Resources Bhd, which resulted in the creation of ECM Libra Avenue Bhd.^[6] The matter was taken up by the Malaysian Parliament's Public Accounts Committee, as according to the Committee's chairman Datuk Shahrir Abdul Samad, “We want to know how the decision making process was done because it involves two well-known personalities, Datuk Kalimullah Hassan and Khairy Jamaluddin.”^[7] On August 10 2006, the committee concluded that the merger was done according to procedure.^[8] On August 11, Shahrir Abdul Samad said: “In terms of legality – the role of the regulator in assessing the value of the companies and mergers, processing the undertaking of mergers and (protecting) interests of minority shareholders – all have been adhered to,” ^[9] On 12 August 2006, Khairy sold his entire holdings in the company.^[10]

[edit] Allegation of undue influence by former Malaysian Prime Minister

Khairy is perceived as too close to the halls of power, and has been singled out by former Malaysian Prime Minister Tun Mahathir as an undue influence. ^[11] On this allegation, Khairy replied that "I am a pretty easy scapegoat. [But] the decisions Dr. Mahathir is unhappy with are entirely made by the Prime Minister and the cabinet." ^[12]

[edit] Alleged affair with Maya Karin

In August 2006, it was alleged in the media that Khairy had taken the popular Malaysian actress Maya Karin as his second wife. Both Khairy and Maya strongly denied this.^[13][14]

[edit] Statement about non-Malays

In August 2006, The Star reported that a Chinese daily quoted several leaders criticising Khairy for allegedly saying that non-Malays would take advantage of a weak Umno to make demands.^[15] To this Khairy said that “Leaders from the other parties may have misinterpreted my statement.” ^[16]

He further said that “A weak Umno would lead to various parties making demands and this could affect unity in the Barisan”, and referred to the issues raised by the Chinese election watch group Su Qiu in the 1999 elections by saying that “Umno was weak at that time and people took advantage of that.”^[17]

[edit] Leading of protest

In 2006, during a visit by US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in Kuala Lumpur, Khairy, together with members of the ruling UMNO party and some members of the Malaysian Islamist party PAS, led a demonstration to the venue of the meeting where he handed over a memo to demand Israel's withdrawal from Lebanon and the suspension of the military operation there.

[edit] Allegation of interfering with the Murder Trial

In the ongoing trial of the murder of Mongolian translator Altantuya Shaariibuu on October 19, 2006 there were implications that link the Prime Minister and his son-in-law with interfering with the trial. With his sedition trial due in October 2008, blogger activist Raja Petra Kamaruddin alleged in his statutory declaration in which he said that Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi had been made aware of a full report by military intelligence on the involvement of his deputy premier’s family. Badawi gave the intelligence report to his son-in-law, Khairy Jamaluddin, for safekeeping, according to Raja Petra’s statement. ^[18]

[edit] Allegation of bribery for the UMNO Youth Chief post

In 2009, Khairy contested as a candidate for the new UMNO Youth Chief after his predecessor, Datuk Seri Hishamuddin Hussein released his position. He was rivalled by Mukhriz Mahathir and Khir Toyo. However, a controversy was sparked when Khairy was allowed to contest for the post even though he was found guilty for being involved with money politics by the UMNO Disciplinary Board^[19], while others who were found guilty for the same offence, such as Mohd Ali Rustam who was supposed to contest for the UMNO Vice President post, were not allowed to contest for their respective posts. However, Khairy denied the allegation, as stated in his blog^[20]. Nevertheless, Khairy's name was not included in the latest Malaysian Cabinet Minister line-up of the newly appointed Malaysian Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Abdul Razak.

[edit] Participation in football

Khairy holds a number of high profile positions in the Malaysian football scene, and is involved in a number of football-related associations.

In 2006, Khairy teamed-up with radio DJ Jason Lo (who he attended high school with in Singapore) to produce the reality TV show MyTeam. The show, which was televised on TV3, brought together a squad of unknown football players selected at trials held around Malaysia to form a team to take on the Malaysian national football team in an exhibition match. The event drew much publicity, and MyTeam put up a creditable performance in losing 2-1 against the national side. MyTeam were invited to enter the Malaysian Premier League in 2007. The team merged with an existing club, Perak UPB FC, to form UPB-MyTeam FC, at which Khairy became the President and Lo the Deputy President. After finishing runners-up in the Premier League in 2007, the club was promoted to the Malaysian Super League for the 2008 season. A second season of the show, MyTeam2, was broadcast in 2007 (MyTeam2 took on the Indonesian national football team, losing 2-0).^[21]

On September 9 2007, Khairy was chosen uncontested as the Vice President of the Football Association of Malaysia (FAM) during the 44th FAM Congress, to serve from 2007 to 2010, replacing Tengku Mahkota Pahang Tengku Abdullah Sultan Ahmad Shah.^[22]

[edit] External links

• Official website

[edit] References