Will Khairy S Podcast Be Cancelled

---

 
FOCUS Malaysia certainly seems to believe that that Khairy Jamaluddin might be de-platformed after a police report was lodged against him for pointing the finger at Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department (Law and Institutional Reform) Datuk Seri Azalina Othman Said by “being complicit in concealing details” in the royal addendum saga.
In the article, the portal speculates that Khairy might no longer be able to voice out his opinions in his Keluar Sekejap podcast due to Azalina’s police report.
With all due respect however, I beg to differ.
In the way I see it, I think the odds that Khairy will de-platformed because of this one lonesome police report is about one in a 100. It is not impossible, but it is certainly unlikely.
For comparison, it took 182 police reports to be lodged against Hannah Yeoh before the police were compelled to call the Youth and Sports Minister to record her statement.
Khairy might not be a sitting minister, but he was a former minister, whose brand name is arguably stronger than Yeoh’s.
If it took over 100 reports to compel the reluctant force to make a move against Hannah, I will estimate that it will need at least a couple of dozen police reports to be made against Khairy before they will do the same to Khairy.
It is also risky for Azalina to up her ante as the subject around which her police report is based, which is the Najib addendum, is a powder keg issue that involves everybody from the palace to Putrajaya, from kings to prime ministers.
If Azalina ups the ante on the subject of Khairy, what if Khairy doesn’t back down and drags Azalina into a situation where she would have to address Khairy’s opinion?
Azalina must certainly be aware that the issue in regards to Najib’s addendum is not an issue that anybody in the country wants to address.
In fact, with the way that things are going, it looks like everybody involved in the Najib Addendum Affair is trying their level best to pass the buck because they all likely suspect that where the buck stops, the person where the buck stops at will be thrown under the bus to put the issue to rest.
If Azalina ups the ante with Khairy and the former minister refuses to back down, which in turns forces Azalina to deal with Khairy’s opinion, what if the buck stops with her?
Also, Khairy has nothing to lose and everything to gain if Azalina up the ante with him.
All that Khairy has to lose is his Keluar Sekejap podcast, which he is not likely to lose as it runs on YouTube and Spotify which are not subject to government regulation.
The Keluar Sekejap podcast is not going to find anyone refusing to be a guest on the show either, out of fear of offending the government, because most of the guests on the Keluar Sekejap podcast are people who have already offended the government anyway.
If Azalina takes on Khairy, it will be Azalina that will be seen to draw first blood, which will put Khairy in the advantageous position of being perceived as an innocent and perhaps brave person, who is forced to take on a government minister, simply to defend himself.
Khairy also has everything to gain from a confrontation with Azalina. If he loses, it won’t affect his standing because he will be seen as fighting against a more powerful government minister.
If he wins on the other hand, it will increase his reputation as a force to be reckoned with, for being able to stand up against a minister even though he is just a private person.
Public opinion is also not with Azalina. If Khairy had said something nasty or uncalled for and Azalina took offense, then the public might sympathise with why she has taken umbrage to Khairy and desire that he is punished.
But point me to someone who thinks that what Khairy has said about Azalina is something nasty or uncalled for, and I will point you towards someone who needs to get professional help.
Politics is a competitive field. If Khairy had offered Azalina a challenge, it is a legitimate challenge made in an arena where people are expected to be competitors who can address challenges.
If Azalina can’t accept the challenge, it will make people wonder why she is the one in the arena, not Khairy.
Rather than be de-platformed, I imagine that having a police report lodged against him by Azalina’s camp will only increase the value of the Khairy Jamaluddin brand while putting Azalina at risk of being the person (or one of the people) that might be turned into a scapegoat to put the matter of the Najib addendum to rest.
Azalina has made a mistake of fighting against someone who has nothing to lose when she has nothing to gain.
The mistake has already been made. Now the only thing that she must do is not reinforce the mistake with further mistakes. Let us see how the cookies will crumble. 
Nehru Sathiamoorthy is a roving tutor who loves politics, philosophy and psychology.
The views expressed are solely of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of  MMKtT.
- Focus Malaysia.

---