The No.2 seat has his name on it
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DATUK Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi turned 65 last Thursday. But as he settled down to chat with
The Star two days before his birthday, he said he is not big on celebrating birthdays.
“Nothing special, 4th of January comes every year,” he said, gesturing with his hand to depict a wave that comes and goes.
But two days later, he was grinning like a delighted schoolboy when his staff wheeled in a yellow pulut cake in the shape of the number 65.
The Deputy Prime Minister sometimes has this coiled up energy about him but he was in quite a light mood throughout the interview, as though he has found a new centre of gravity.
The Umno general assembly last month was arguably one of the most important junctures of his political career – the delegates have mandated him as their next deputy president.
Nothing like this has ever happened before in Umno. There have been numerous occasions where the two top Umno posts have gone uncontested but this is the first time that a sitting vice-president is confirmed for the deputy president post almost a year before the party election is due.
In terms of Umno politics, it is like hitting the jackpot – he does not need to campaign during the Umno election, there will be no sleepless nights and, most of all, he will be saving lots of money.
The Muslim in him insists it is God’s will and, well, his office in the west wing of the government complex does have an amazing view of the Putrajaya mosque with its rose-tinted dome. The Chinese would probably attribute it to good
fengshui because his office also enjoys the water and hill elements – the office is surrounded by a lake with the hills in the distance.
Whichever it is, Dr Ahmad Zahid is in a good place.
Moving up in politics is sometimes about circumstances and a bit of luck or, as they say, being in the right place at the right time.
“He has rightly taken his place in the country and the party,” said KRA strategic director Amir Fareed Rahim.
His Deputy Prime Minister’s office has a tasteful, masculine feel about it – lots of wood panelling, Islamic calligraphy on the walls and it is quite clutter-free. It still smells new and his schedule is so tight that he often ends up doing quite a bit of work in the black Vellfire that he uses to get around.
A large portrait of him and his wife hangs on the wall to the left of his desk and on the right is a picture of them with their grown-up children.
The Star has a great working relationship with him and a framed page of the report on his appointment as Deputy Prime Minister hangs nearby.
“See, it’s near by table,” he said, pointing to The Star report.
On a sidetable is an interesting photograph of him as a student leader in Universiti Malaya. It was
during his years as a rebel with a cause and he was hardly recognisable in a pink shirt and bell-bottoms with hair down to his shoulder. He and his buddies were posing by their motorcycles and one of them, he said, was the late husband of the Bersih chairman Maria Chin.
His love for bikes is still going strong but he said he has been so busy he has not been riding his superbikes the last two years.
Busy or is age catching up with him?
“Are you saying I am too old? Bring the bike, I will show you,” he said.
That is the other thing about him – beneath those big smiles and everybody-is-my-friend demeanour is quite a macho and no-nonsense personality. That side of him has served him well as Home Minister.
A senior Perak politician had dubbed him the “smiling Home Minister” which basically means you mess with him at your own risk.
His persistence in honing his English speaking skills is also to be commended. His English is still far from perfect, but you have to give him “A” for effort and he insists on speaking only English with The Star.
Several months ago, a delegation of captains of industry met him for a roundtable on the issue of foreign workers. Their takeaway from the discussion was his detailed grasp of the problems they faced and the fact that he spoke in English throughout the meeting.
Dr Ahmad Zahid, said Amir, had to move up the hard way, step by step, and even falling back several steps only to climb back again.
“There was no parachute for him to land from the top or a famous family name to open doors. He did not come in with any sense of entitlement. People wrote him off when he was forced to resign as Umno Youth chief after Anwar (Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim) was sacked. But he believed in Umno and not once did he think of leaving Umno,” said Amir.
His comeback began in 2004 when he was made a deputy minister by Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi.
But his star shone brightly when Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak, whom he calls “my boss, my friend and my brother,” became Prime Minister.
Well, the boss, friend and brother elevated him to Defence Minister in 2009, Home Minister in 2013 and Deputy Prime Minister in 2015.
He was quite a belligerent Defence Minister and during the Lahat Datu incursions, he had gone over to Sabah for a first-hand grasp of the situation. After eight policemen were killed, he flew back to Kuala Lumpur, arriving at Najib’s doorstep at 1.30am.
“My view was that there is no point negotiating with intruders and terrorists but I needed to brief the PM in person. He asked so many questions, how many bombs, how many aircraft and APC (armoured personnel carriers) before he gave me the greenlight,” he said as he looked back on those critical months.
Under his watch, Malaysia’s ranking in the US Trafficking in Persons watchlist improved from Tier 3 to Tier 2 and he aims to take the country to Tier 1 by 2020.
Dr Ahmad Zahid served as Najib’s political secretary from 1986 to 1995 and helped build the latter’s political infrastructure.
“He knows the nuts and bolts of Umno. Add to that his people skills and you have the best operator of his generation,” said Amir.
No one was more thrilled than Datuk Seri Dr Zambry Abdul Kadir when his fellow Perakian was named Deputy Prime Minister.
“It means a lot to us. He can plan with the PM to bring development to our state,” said the Perak Mentri Besar.
Both of them were from the same batch of Umno Youth leaders. They were also arrested on the same day in the ISA dragnet following Anwar’s sacking. Solitary confinement was a terrible experience but years later the pair would joke that Dr Ahmad Zahid was released nine days earlier than Dr Zambry because he was better at subduing his interrogators.
Politics is like a big revolving door because the former ISA detainee is now the Home Minister while his former captor Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, 92, is trying to become the Prime Minister again.
“I don’t want to be personal, it is not about how old you are, but a recycled leader will not be accepted by voters,” he said.
On Dr Mahathir’s intention to bring about press freedom and judicial reform, he said: “He should have done it earlier if he really believed in it. My advice is: don’t trust him.”
According to Gerakan politician Ivanpal S. Grewal, having a Perakian in the second highest office has brought the X-factor to south Perak which has been a traditional anchor for the state Barisan Nasional.
“He has a strong personality, he’s good with names and gives everyone a bear hug when he’s on the ground. Since he became the DPM, more than RM1bil of projects and infrastructure has flowed into this end of Perak. The spillover effect will be enormous for the state,” said Ivanpal.
Being the No.2 in the government carries enormous clout and Bagan Datuk was upgraded to a full district in 2016 and there’s more administrative focus for the area.
His old family home is located in a coconut grove next to a Chinese temple. Anyone who has moved around with Dr Ahmad Zahid in Bagan Datuk can see that he knows every inch of his constituency, often pointing out projects he had done and Chinese schools to which he allocated funds from his own pocket.
He is still working at wooing the non-Malay vote in his constituency.
“I don’t have problems with those who live there. They know me, they can see the Government has delivered and taken care of the area. I need to convince those who live outside but are registered to vote in Bagan Datuk,” he said.
He has been sending letters to these non-resident voters carrying a special postage stamp of him and his wife. Despite that macho side of him, he is quite open to delegating responsibilities to women. His press secretary is Mej-Jen Datuk Fadzlette Othman Merican who joined him when he was in the Defence Ministry.
You could say he has helped crack the glass ceiling by appointing the first woman political secretary in the Deputy Prime Minister’s office – Datuk Rosni Zahari is a lawyer and Wanita Umno information chief.
But all the above would not mean much if Barisan does not do well in the general election.
Asked whether Barisan was confident of holding on to power, the tough guy in him suddenly reappeared and he sort of punched his fist in the air and said: “We have to win, we have to work hard.”