Khairy Jamaluddin Abu Bakar (Jawi: خيري جمال الدين ابو بكر, Malay pronunciation: [xai̯ɾi dʒamaluden]; born 10 January 1976), also known as KJ, is a Malaysian politician and blogger who served as the Minister of Health from August 2021 to November 2022 under Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob. He is currently a presenter on Hot FM and co-hosts the political podcast Keluar Sekejap with Shahril Hamdan.
A member of the United Malays National Organisation (UMNO), he was the MP for Rembau from 2008 to 2022 and led the party’s youth wing from 2008 to 2018. He served as Minister of Youth and Sports from 2013 to 2018 under Najib Razak. Following the 2020 political crisis, he joined the Perikatan Nasional government. He became Minister of Science, Technology and Innovation under Muhyiddin Yassin from 2020 to 2021. During the COVID-19 pandemic, he was appointed as the Coordinating Minister for the National COVID-19 Immunisation Program (PICK), before being made Minister of Health. In the 2022 general election, Khairy contested the Sungai Buloh seat, a Pakatan Harapan stronghold, and narrowly lost—slashing the majority from 26,634 to just 2,693 votes.
Khairy Jamaluddin Abu Bakar was born in Kuwait City, Kuwait. He is the only son of a former diplomat, Dato' Jamaluddin bin Abu Bakar, a Malay of Minangkabau descent and Datin Dato' Rahmah binti Abdul Hamid, an ethnic Malay housewife of Kedahan ancestry. His father was a senior diplomatic officer in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, retiring as the Malaysian High Commissioner to the United Kingdom. He died of throat cancer. Khairy's mother, Rahmah Abdul Hamid, has been heavily involved in volunteer work throughout her life although she was a housewife and never had an employment history, whilst his late paternal grandfather, Abu Bakar, was a community leader in his hometown of Kampung Kota, Rembau.
Khairy had his secondary education at the United World College of South East Asia in Singapore and furthered his tertiary studies 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 Ahmad Badawi, who was then the Deputy Prime Minister of Malaysia. He was Abdullah's Deputy Principal Private Secretary from 2003 to 2004.
He was selected as a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. He has written for major publications including The Economist, Time and the Wall Street Journal.
He became closely involved in football during his pre-parliamentary career. He 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 (with whom he attended high school in Singapore) to produce the football-based reality TV show MyTeam.
Rise to prominence (2008–2013)
Under the prime ministership of his father-in-law (2003–2009), Khairy became well-known within UMNO and Malaysian politics generally. He became the deputy chief of UMNO's youth wing and served as a close personal adviser to Abdullah. Khairy's perceived influence on Abdullah was criticised by many including Abdullah's predecessor Mahathir Mohamad. 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."
On 9 September 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 then, Tengku Abdullah Sultan Ahmad Shah.
In the 2008 general election, Khairy was elected to the federal Parliament for the seat of Rembau in the state of Negeri Sembilan. The following year he was elected as the Chief of UMNO Youth, defeating Khir Toyo and Mukhriz Mahathir.
In his first term in parliament, Khairy involved himself in contentious policy debates. He expressed his view that Malaysia should 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 of the system similar to the United Kingdom's Press Complaints Commission. He also spoke against the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission's blocking of the popular and often anti-government website Malaysia Today, citing that the move was a "blatant and crude employment of state power" and "is inconsistent with the widening roads of democratic highways." He also called for an end to the Mahathir-era policy of teaching science and maths in English. In September 2008, Khairy called for the reversal of the policy, citing that the policy had failed and only caused burden to students. He regularly debated non-government and opposition figures in public, including Ambiga Sreenevasan on the transparency of the Election Commission of Malaysia (EC), and senior Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) leader, and close Anwar Ibrahim ally, Rafizi Ramli on higher education loans.
In 2010, Khairy signed-up the Rejimen Askar Wataniah or Territorial Army as a reservist after completing one month of basics recruit training in Negeri Sembilan and Johor in May 2010. He then completed a five-week basic static parachuting course conducted by the Army's Special Warfare Centre with 78 others to earn his paratrooper jump wings in February 2011. In January 2014, he was appointed as the Commander of the 508 Territorial Army Regiment located in Rasah, Negeri Sembilan. On 26 October 2016, Khairy was elevated from the rank of 'Colonel' to 'Brigadier-General' effective 14 January 2015. This makes him the first Cabinet minister to be a commissioned reserved military officer rank after going through various courses conducted by the Territorial Army, and he continues to lead the 508 Territorial Army Regiment until his resignation in 2018 after the GE14 quoting his presence was no longer welcomed.
Ministership, COVID-19 pandemic and expulsion from UMNO (2013–2023)
After retaining his parliamentary seat in the 2013 general election, Prime Minister Najib Razak elevated Khairy to the Cabinet as Minister for Youth and Sports. Later in 2013, he was re-elected to the presidency of UMNO Youth.
During his ministerial post, Malaysia successfully hosted the 2017 SEA Games and emerged as the overall gold medals tally winner. Just before the 2018 general election (GE14), Khairy and his ministry was put in charge of Najib's launched Transformasi Nasional 2050 (TN50) concept but it had somehow fallen through due to the GE14 results, which saw the downfall of the BN federal government. Khairy also lost his cabinet position despite retaining his parliamentary seat.
When Najib's statement attributing BN's loss in the GE14 to Pakatan Harapan's false promises, Khairy wrote: “We lost because of 1MDB. The End.” On 19 November 2018, he said Umno members should accept the reality of the 1Malaysia Development Berhad scandal, as denials will continue to hurt the party.
Khairy returned to Cabinet in March 2020 to serve as Minister of Science, Technology, and Innovation under new Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin's administration led by Perikatan Nasional (PN) following the Sheraton Move. His appointment as Minister of MOSTI was during the COVID-19 pandemic in Malaysia. He has signed an agreement with China for Malaysia to be given priority access to COVID-19 vaccines developed in China. In February 2021, Khairy was appointed as the Coordinating Minister for the National COVID-19 Immunisation Program. He led the Special Task Force to manage the implementation of the vaccination process.