KHAIRY Jamaluddin today said the decision to contest the Sungai Buloh parliamentary seat in the coming general election was not one that he willingly accepted, claiming that he was left with no other options.

He was responding to Barisan Nasional (BN) chairman Ahmad Zahid Hamidi who earlier said the caretaker health minister wanted to contest in Sungai Buloh and that was why he was fielded in the Pakatan Harapan (PH) stronghold.

“He asked for it. He asked for the seat to be given to him, that is why I endorsed him,” Zahid told reporters after attending an event in n Titiwangsa last night.

Khairy, meanwhile, said he had to “work on his own” and pull strings to secure himself a seat in the national polls because Umno had left him in the dark over his future.

“I had no choice because the party leadership had not given me any signal on which area I was to go to. I was left alone,” Khairy told the press today after visiting SME Aerospace in Sungai Buloh today.

“I knew I had to leave the Rembau parliamentary constituency.

“At that time I had no choice, I had to do something on my own.

“So, I took the initiative to meet with Noh Omar (Selangor BN chairman) and Vicky (MIC president S.A. Vigneswaran) as there weren’t many other seats available. Only two or three more were available.

“So, I said ‘okay’, I’d choose Sungai Buloh, but to say I wanted it from the beginning… no.

“I was waiting for a signal from the leadership. Nothing (came) and all the seats, one by one, started becoming unavailable. So, I came here,” Khairy added.

The former youth and sports minister, who had won the Rembau parliamentary seat in the last three consecutive general elections, was shown the door after BN decided to field its deputy chairman Mohamad Hasan in the seat. 

Since then, he had cast doubt on his political future and had remained tight-lipped when questioned by the media about next his possible destination. 

Clarifying on the selection of Sungai Buloh seat further, Khairy said he was not even invited to have a discussion regarding his potential seat allocation prior to nominations being finalised.

Khairy said he had spoken to Noh Omar about his conundrum and claimed he was invited to contest in Selangor. 

“I wasn’t given any signal, I wasn’t invited to discuss. The candidates’ nominations were nearing and I had to do something for myself.

“That is when I called Noh Omar and he said, ‘brother if there is no place, why don’t you come to Selangor?’”

“Then we met with the MIC president and asked for a swap because this was their seat,” he said. 

Khairy admitted that to a degree, he had asked to be allowed to contest in Sungai Buloh but reiterated that it was effort he had put in to secure himself a seat. 

“To say I asked (to contest in Sungai Buloh) yes. To some extent. 

“But I had to work to get a seat because there was no seat,” he said. 

Despite the situation, Khairy said that he wanted to stop the public bickering with Zahid about this issue and focus on winning the seat for BN. 

“I don’t want to prolong the controversy with the Umno president. It is not good for us to talk through the media. 

“I don’t want to quarrel with the president. The bottom line is, I’m here, representing BN and hope I can win,” he said. 

It will be a seven-cornered fight for the Sungai Buloh seat where Khairy will take on PH’s R. Ramanan, Perikatan Nasional’s Ghazali Hamin, Pejuang’s Akmal Yusoff, Parti Rakyat Malaysia’s Ahmad Zukri Faisal and two independent candidates. – November 10, 2022.