Khairy regrets not telling Najib the truth
Khairy Jamaluddin wishes that he had told former premier Najib Abdul Razak about how the grassroots had rejected Umno following the sacking of Muhyiddin Yassin and Mohd Shafie Apdal.
"We didn't want to bell the cat,” the Umno Youth chief told Channel News Asia.
“Nobody, after Muhyiddin was purged, after Shafie was purged... Nobody wanted to acknowledge we have a problem. That was a terrible mistake on our part.
"Was there a signal? Yes, there were clear signals but we became oblivious to the signals.
"This must not happen again, we must not ever allow our leaders in Umno to be detached from reality and not ask tough questions. If we continue with our feudal mindset of protecting the leader from the truth, Umno will go extinct,” he warned.
Both Muhyiddin and Shafie were dropped from Najib's cabinet line-up after they publicly criticised him over the 1MDB scandal.
Muhyiddin made a comeback by becoming the president of Umno-splinter party Bersatu while Shafie helmed Parti Warisan Sabah.
Harapan is now the federal government, with Muhyiddin holding the post of the home minister-designate while Shafie is the Sabah chief minister.
With PKR de facto leader Anwar Ibrahim set to be released from prison tomorrow, Khairy acknowledged that BN - now the opposition - must be prepared to face him and Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad in the "political wilderness".
"We have to be ready. We are up against two giants, to big beasts in the political world. We have to make sure we are ready.
"Malaysians have chosen two giants to lead us; our challenge is to make sure we can play the role of checks and balances against the government.
"I am an ant against the two giants, and I have to make sure I can think quickly and move quickly in the next five years," he added.