KUALA LUMPUR: Despite his presence at the 79th Umno General Assembly recently, Khairy Jamaluddin stressed that he has yet to make any decision about rejoining the party.

“Even my mother asked me, ‘Can you tell me which Umno branch you have joined?'” he said.

“I had to tell her that I am still not an Umno member. Nothing has happened yet. I told the media (during the Umno assembly), let’s take it one step at a time,” Khairy said on the Keluar Sekejap podcast.

While Umno remains his first choice, Khairy said any move to rejoin the party would require due process and mutual trust between him and Umno president Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi.

“I have said repeatedly on Keluar Sekejap that, of course, my first choice is still Umno.

“But I think there must be a process. There has to be trust on both sides — the president and me.

“If this is the way forward, it must be done with decorum and mutual trust.”

Khairy also said that all is well between him and Umno.

“Umno and I are both in a good place right now. However, that does not mean I will refrain from offering fair comments (against the party).”

He also cleared the air surrounding his presence at the Umno Youth assembly. Khairy said he received an invitation from Umno Youth chief Datuk Dr Muhammad Akmal Saleh in his capacity as former Umno Youth chief.

“Two weeks before the assembly, I received a message from Akmal inviting all former Umno Youth chiefs to attend the wing’s assembly and listen to his policy speech.

“I said it was fine. If the invitation is extended to everyone, it won’t seem awkward.

“But if I were the only one to go, some might misinterpret it as having an agenda to bring KJ back (to Umno), and so on.”

Although he had doubts at first, Khairy said his encounter with Zahid during a tahlil ceremony for the late Tun Abdul Razak Hussein helped him make his decision.

“As usual, I shook his hand and asked him, ‘President, I have received an invitation from the Umno Youth chief to attend the wing’s assembly.’

“I added, ‘If Datuk Seri does not want me to attend the assembly, then I will not attend. I will only go if you allow me to.’

“Then he replied, ‘Please come.’

“Whatever doubts I had about going, they were all settled,” Khairy said.