KUCHING: The appointment of Khairy Jamaluddin Abu Bakar as the Minister of Youth and Sports would enable the state to strengthen further its coordination with the federal government to ensure the state is not left behind in the planning of programmes and projects development.
Assistant Minister of Youth Development Abdul Karim Rahman Hamzah who knows the national Barisan Nasional (BN) Youth chief personally, believed that the state could overcome many development issues with Khairy at the helm.
“The appointment of Khairy as the Minister of Youth and Sports is spot on considering that he, being an UMNO and BN Youth chief, is still young. Being a person in his 30s, I see him as a minister who is pro-active and healthy which makes him very qualified to lead and bring the goals of youth development in this country to a higher level.
“Furthermore, I can see that he is a person who loves sports. His appointment would enable the country to meet the aspiration and needs of the youth in this country,” he told reporters when met before the start of the Dewan Usahawan Bumiputera Sarawak (DUBS) Kuching branch annual general meeting at the Youth and Sports complex here yesterday.
When asked if there were any major programmes and development planning that the state would immediately focus on following the new appointment, Karim said all existing programmes in both the urban and rural areas would be continued.
He pointed out that various youth and sporting programmes were being organised throughout the year and expected these activities to be enhanced further, considering the already strong working relations between the state Youth and Sports Department with its federal counterpart.
Khairy, 37, is a former Football Association of Malaysia (FAM) deputy president II. He graduated with a bachelor’s degree in Philosophy, Politics and Economics from Oxford University, United Kingdom and a Master’s degree in Legal and Political Theory from the University College London.
The Rembau MP (Negeri Sembilan) started his political career as a speech writer for former Prime Minister Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi when the latter was still a deputy prime minister in 1999. Khairy was made his deputy principal private secretary in 2003 when Badawi became prime minister.
He was also a television presenter and host for NTV7’s ‘Dateline Malaysia’ programme in 1998 and a writer at The Economist in 1999.
Khairy joined UMNO in 1998 and has held several divisional party posts. In the 2004 party polls, he won the post of UMNO Youth deputy chief uncontested and went on to win the Youth chief post several years later.
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