Communications and Multimedia Commission's blocking of the popular and often anti-government website Malaysia Today, citing that the move was a "blatant and crude employment of state power" and "is inconsistent with the widening roads of democratic highways." He also called for an end to the Mahathir-era policy of teaching science and maths in English. In September 2008, Khairy called for the reversal of the policy, citing that the policy had failed and only caused burden to students. He regularly debated non-government and opposition figures in public, including Ambiga Sreenevasan on the transparency of the Election Commission of Malaysia (EC), and senior Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) leader, and close Anwar Ibrahim ally, Rafizi Ramli on higher education loans. Ministerial career After retaining his parliamentary seat in the 2013 general election, Prime Minister Najib Razak elevated Khairy to the Cabinet as Minister for Youth and Sports. Later in 2013, he was re-elected to the presidency of UMNO Youth. During his ministerial post, Malaysia successfully hosted the 2017 SEA Games and emerged as the overall gold medals tally winner. Just before the 2018 general election (GE14), Khairy and his ministry was put in charge of Najib's launched Transformasi Nasional 2050 (TN50) concept but it had somehow fallen through due to the GE14 results, which saw the downfall of the BN federal government. Khairy also lost his cabinet position despite retaining his parliamentary seat. Return to cabinet Khairy returned to Cabinet in March 2020 to serve as Minister of Science, Technology, and Innovation under new Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin's administration led by Perikatan Nasional (PN) following the Sheraton Move. His appointment as Minister of MOSTI was during the COVID-19 pandemic in Malaysia. He has signed an agreement with China for Malaysia to be given priority access to COVID-19 vaccines developed in China. In February 2021, Khairy was appointed as the Coordinating Minister for the National COVID-19 Immunisation Program. He led the Special Task Force to manage the implementation of the vaccination process. During the 2022 Malaysian general election, Khairy was sent by his UMNO party leaders to contest Sungai Buloh parliamentary seat, he lost to Parti Keadilan Rakyat candidate Ramanan Ramakrishnan by a narrow margin. Expulsion from UMNO In the aftermath of the 2022 Malaysian general election, Khairy and several UMNO leaders called for party leader, deputy prime minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi to resign. On 27 January 2023, he was sacked from the party