The 42-year-old has impressed many constituents while he makes his campaign rounds as the Pakatan Harapan candidate from PPBM for Bertam.
His movie-star looks aside, Khaliq has managed to win over the Chinese community in the Malay-majority seat with his fluent Hokkien, sometimes even better than that of other Chinese politicians.
The lawyer has his parents to thank for both his looks and multi-lingual abilities.
His Chinese mother is from Green Lane, Penang Island, while his late father, a Malay, was a stenographer at the Drainage and Irrigation Department in Alor Setar, Kedah.
“Being able to speak the Hokkien dialect is an advantage for me as I am able to connect with my Chinese voters and understand them better,” he said in an interview with FMT.
At a walkabout in town, Khaliq was warmly greeted, with many calling him handsome, and wanting to take photos with him.
A Chinese medical hall operator hollered “I will vote for you” while a few shoppers leaving a supermarket rushed to shake his hands, recognising him from the posters hanging on the street lamps in town.
Khaliq, a criminal lawyer for the past 18 years, said he had not had any interest in politics before and was never an Umno man although his sister, Azlina Mehtab, was once head of Penang Puteri Umno.
However, he decided to join PPBM in October 2016. “It was the ‘Dr M’ factor that moved me (referring to Pakatan Harapan chairman Dr Mahathir Mohamaed). I had always looked up to him as a role model.
“I felt like I had to do something to save Malaysia. That motivated me to join PPBM,” the father of three said.
Khaliq has another connection to Mahathir, they are both old boys of Sultan Abdul Hamid College in Alor Star.
He said he was surprised on being chosen as the Bertam candidate as he had been merely helping out the Pakatan Harapan election team in the Kepala Batas parliamentary constituency.
He is aware that he is the underdog in Bertam, hometown of former prime minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, and a BN stronghold. In addition, Khaliq also has a challenger from PAS.
“Ultimately, the uniting factor in Kepala Batas and Bertam is the GST issue. Despite it being semi-rural, the cost of living issue is understood by all,” he said.
Khaliq said as part of his manifesto, he pledged to help restore the heritage buildings in the old town of Kepala Batas and also to help those in need start their own businesses and market their products.
BN’s Shariful Azhar Othman, who won with a 1,642-vote majority in 2013, seeks re-election. PAS will field Mokhtar Ramly.
The seat has 16,621 voters, of whom 68% are Malays, 23% Chinese and 9% Indians.
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