Project Petaling Street Blog

OON YEOH, an experienced local journalist cum editor, makes his debut in this month's Chrome magazine leaving his readers with many questions toward the local political scene..

Everybody knows the name Khairy Jamaluddin—the country's most powerful 29-year-old. Yet how many people know who the real KJ is? It's hard to figure him out because he's such a contradiction.

He's said to despise nepotism. Yet, at last year's UMNO annual powwow, he gladly accepted the Deputy Youth post uncontested. Lest anyone thinks that this reflected the wishes of the delegates, remember all the booing when he was introduced to the crowd?

He's said to abhor cronyism, yet when he quit his job at the PM's Department last year, the first job he aimed for was that of COO of Khazanah Nasional. That gig fell through after the Wall Street Journal ran a story on it, sparking a public outcry.

So, what did he do next? Join an international financial house like Merrill Lynch to prove his mettle? No, he became a director at ECM Libra, a financial services company partly-owned by Kallimullah Hassan, editor-in-chief of the New Straits Times and a close ally of Pak Lah.

He's said to be a brilliant spin doctor who played a key role in managing Pak Lah's general election campaign in 2004. Yet, he so oversold Pak Lah's anti-corruption stance that anything but a wholesale rolling of heads after the polls would not have satisfied a public expecting nothing less. Until now, people are wondering when the anti-corruption drive is going to start.

He's said to champion meritocracy. "… he believes the 'subsidy mentality' that has plagued the Malay mindset is a bane, especially in an age of globalisation," wrote Phar Kim Beng in an NST article last year. Phar knows Khairy from his days as a student in the UK.

Yet, at this year's UMNO meet—even as Pak Lah was warning that the government cannot continue to be Santa Claus—Khairy was calling for a revival of the New Economic Policy with its 30% equity quota for Malays.

Click here to continue reading: Will the real KJ please stand up?