Cover Khairy Jamaluddin hosting ‘Keluar Sekejap’ live at the inaugural KL PodFest 2024 (Photo: KL PodFest)
Khairy Jamaluddin hosting ‘Keluar Sekejap’ live at the inaugural KL PodFest 2024 (Photo: KL PodFest)
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Former minister Khairy Jamaluddin on starting over and how he wants to continue contributing to Malaysia’s future through his podcast
Known for his dynamic leadership and dedication to public service, Khairy Jamaluddin rose to prominence as a politician as a member of the United Malays National Organisation (UMNO). Throughout his tenure, he served in various ministerial positions, notably as the Minister of Youth and Sports and later, the Minister of Health.
Read more: Covid-19 Vaccines: How Malaysia is ramping up vaccination efforts
As health minister, he was a driving force, inspiring respect for his extraordinary race to steer the country out of Covid-19 and blitzing through the recovery pains of a nation held hostage by the pandemic. It was through his steadfast commitment and leadership, and rollout strategies that Malaysia had one of the fastest vaccination programs in the world.
Speaking to Tatler at the inaugural KL PodFest, the Asia’s Most Influential honouree recalls, “It was challenging because I have no medical background and I’m not a scientist, but I knew what had to be done. So I didn’t say, ‘I’m not a doctor, I can’t do this.’ I did what I thought I should do as a minister which was not to decide on medical things but rather to manage the whole process and to make sure that resources were directed in the right places so that we could get out of the pandemic as quickly as possible.”
“I’m glad we worked well together—the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Science, and everyone involved in the vaccination program.”
Above Khairy announcing that Covid-19 will be used as an endemic during a press conference in Putrajaya on September 1, 2021 (Photo: Getty Images)
Khairy announcing that Covid-19 will be used as an endemic during a press conference in Putrajaya on September 1, 2021 (Photo: Getty Images)
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In 2022, Khairy lost his bid to capture the parliamentary seat in the Sungai Buloh constituency during the 15th General Election (GE15). However, not one to rest on his laurels, he continued to use his influence first as a radio announcer before starting his podcast, Keluar Sekejap (which means “out for a while”), in March 2023.
Khairy is upfront and honest about the decisions he made post-politics: “I had to earn a living. I lost my job and income. Contrary to what people may think of politicians, I can’t not work, I have to work. I have young kids who go to school and bills to pay. So you know, that’s why I went into radio, and then we started making money off the podcast and our personal endorsements. That has also allowed me to raise some money to do a bit of other business ventures as well. So it’s personal survival, really.”
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“You know, it’s not easy to transition from one world to another when you’ve lost everything.”
Revealing what he misses and doesn’t miss about politics, he says, “I don’t miss… dealing with a lot of negativity. I’m happy that I don’t have to deal with all of that. But I miss contributing to the government and being involved in daily governing, but that’s to be expected because I was doing that for almost two decades.”
Keluar Sekejap is now one of the nation’s most popular podcasts, which sees Khairy and his co-host and fellow politician Shahril Hamdan tackling topics surrounding news and current affairs. “I contribute to nation-building in other ways now through my podcast, through educating people on current affairs, news, politics, and economics,” he shares.
It has also featured guests such as Tun Mahathir Mohammad, Azmin Ali, Rafidah Aziz, Ong Kian Ming, Syed Saddiq, and even the Crown Prince of Johor Tunku Ismail Sultan Ibrahim.
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On the process of selecting their guests, he says, “We want guests who have a story to tell. Of course, there’s the commercial value of the guests as well, and guests like Tun Mahathir Mohammad or the Crown Prince of Johor will attract a lot of views. I’ve known the Crown Prince of Johor for many, many years, and I regard him as a friend. People have a certain view of him as a royal, but I know he has a lot of ideas and a mind of his own. I told him, ‘Look, I think it’d be really interesting for people to hear what I know about you.’ and that was a great episode.”
“We were able to bring out different sides of people, like when we interviewed Azmin Ali. He’s very much seen as this villainous character, what with the Sheraton move and all that. It was one of our top episodes because a certain side of him came out that people weren’t able to extract before. So it’s about getting people who have a story to tell, but Shahril and I have to draw that story out,” Khairy explains.
I didn’t know if I could survive outside of politics but now I’m happy that I’ve demonstrated that we could do it.
Thankful for all the support Keluar Sekejap has received, Khairy says he has big plans ahead: “We created this from nothing. It’s essentially a startup which is all about leveraging our ability to present ideas and news to people. We started as a very hard-edged political show, but we’ve since evolved into a platform where you can tell the Malaysian story, and we want to do some regional coverage as well. We want Keluar Sekejap to be known as the podcast where we invite people to think with us about issues of the day.”
Read more: Front & Female picks the podcasts to listen to now
“We want to contribute to the history of Malaysia, to document that history orally and visually so that when people want to know what happened in Malaysia in the 2020s, they can watch a bunch of episodes and go, ‘Okay, this was what was happening in Malaysia’. From this small podcast, we’re also thinking of creating more content and becoming a real digital content company.”
Life after politics means that there’s no typical day at work. Aside from juggling working on the podcast and the radio show, Khairy has other things on his plate. “I do a lot of side projects like projects to develop more media content, which we hope to deliver this year. There’s no ordinary day now which is good and exciting, and the flexibility to do things which I couldn’t do before, such as exploring commercial ventures with friends, so I’m quite happy to do that now,” he says, adding that he’s also planning to write a book.
“It just depends on discipline. Although I like writing, I find it to be the biggest challenge right now because of so many different things that I’ve to juggle. But I hope that I can have the discipline this year to get something out. It could be about personal reflections plus some reflections on the future of this part of the world. So… that’s the plan,” he smiles.
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Lainey was the Digital Director of Tatler Malaysia. When not whiling away the hours watching documentaries, the latest K-drama, or reruns of Friends, she can be found indulging her wanderlust by stalking travel platforms or feeding her obsession with music. She loves animals, running, all things social media, a good conversation over coffee or soju or wine (often rambling on if nobody pulls the brakes on her), and is an avid fan of bursting-at-the-seams laughter.
