KUALA LUMPUR: A deflated Khairy Jamaluddin said he now looked forward to watching the World Cup on television after having lost the fight for Sungai Buloh in the general election (GE15).
The 46-year old, who had a tumultuous campaign right from the start after being forced to look for a seat when he was ostracised by his own party, said one of the most harrowing things about being a politician was to be publicly validated every five years.
He said elections are a basis for any functioning democracy but it is also something that tells the politician if they are good enough or otherwise.
"If people like you enough or not, those are the rules and you have to accept it when people don't think you're good enough to represent them.
"I think I tried my best. But I wasn't good enough. A loss is a loss, no matter how close you came or how many people express disappointment at your loss," he said in his Instagram posting
Khairy went on to state that he did not think that the defeat was the end of the road for him and that he wanted to reflect on what to do next.
"Is this the end of the road? I'm quite certain it isn't. But I want to reflect on this before I think about what I do next.
"The truth is, I'm exhausted. I haven't really had time to rest since I was asked to manage the Covid-19 pandemic. It's been a tough two years for me steering the country out of Covid," he said.
Khiary said it had been a privilege for him to serve the nation at such a critical time and he was glad Malaysia had recovered better than many other countries.
"There remains tremendous uncertainty in the country.
"I hope the people who have been elected act with wisdom and compassion. The country needs stability and leadership more than ever. I wish you all the very best," he said, before ending his posting by saying that he was looking forward to watching the World Cup on television.
Khary had ended up in Sungai Buloh after being booted out of Rembau in Negeri Sembilan by his boss, Umno president Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi.
Khairy was the Rembau member of parliament for three terms and political watchers believed he could have easily returned as its MP had he contested there.
However, he lost in a seven cornered fight in Sungai Buloh after a keenly contested battled which saw Pakatan Harapan's R Ramanan edging past the finishing line in a neck to neck battle.
Khairy managed to poll 48, 250 votes compared to Ramanan's 50,943.