The moon in the two east-coast states
KOTA BHARU – With a flip of the switch, the wings of his masterpiece begin to spin – mimicking that which it replicates – and the pensive look on Poksu Li face fades into a satisfied smile.
Evidently, the 57-year-old Kelantanese man was content with his mechanical creation which was dyed in the iconic green hue of Pas; bedecked with the white moon emblem of the Islamist party.
“I thought of including PN’s (Perikatan Nasional) logo too at first but decided against it even though we are now on the same team.
“I think the moon is beautiful as it is,” Poksu Li reasoned.
The life-sized helicopter replica he built was the personification of his zeal for Pas; attesting the decade-old passion entrenched in the hearts of many in Kelantan.
“This helicopter symbolises the kampung’s collective desire to ferry Pas to Putrajaya. Insyallah, we will win the election,” he said, with utmost confidence.
In Malaysia, the politics in the Malay heartlands has always been a tug-of-war between Pas and Umno with the latter often having the upper hand against the former.
But in Kelantan, it is the opposite.
Pas is undeniably formidable here in Kelantan with clout, influence, and grip so powerful that it eclipsed the history of Umno’s stint in governing the state for 16 years in a row; starting from September 15, 1974, to October 19, 1990.
Through the Barisan Nasional (BN), Umno first rule in Kelantan was when Pas became a member of the coalition following the May 13 racial riot that came about after the 1969 General Elections.
However, because Pas has the greatest number of seats in the 1974 General Elections – which was 22 or 61.11 per cent compares to Umno’s and MCA’s 14 seats – the Menteri Besar (MB) came from Pas.
“But the then-MB, Datuk Mohamad Nasir’s tenure was not smooth sailing. Pas assemblymen accused him of being a puppet to Umno; that he was playing favourites,” said Mohd Iqram Rosli, a journalist based in Kelantan.
The dissatisfaction against Mohamad Nasir continued to brew to the point that a no-confidence motion was tabled in the state assembly, with 20 Pas assemblymen supporting and those from Umno and MCA walking out in protest.
Mohamad Nasir refused to resign and requested the Regent of Kelantan –who was the head of state because his father was the then-Agong – to dissolve the state assembly to make way for an election but was refused.
This resulted in an impasse.
“Eventually, the situation worsened, it triggered a rowdy street demonstration in the heart of Kota Bharu orchestrated by Mohamad Nasir’s supporters which quickly blossomed into an all-out violent protest,” Iqram continued.
The riot forced the then-Agong to issue Malaysia’s fifth and declaration of emergency on November 8, 1977.
Apparently, what happened back then cost Pas dearly in the following year’s polls, when it managed to win only two state seats or 5.56 per cent as compared to BN’s 63.89 per cent.
And it was not until in the 1990 General Elections that Pas was able to wrest the state from BN, with the latter wiped out after the Islamist party allied itself with Umno’s splinter party, Semangat 46 (S46).
“Ku Li was – and still is -- really powerful in Kelantan. He carried S46 to victory all by himself back then. His rule in the Gua Musang [parliamentary constituency] has been undefeated since 1986,” recounted retired policeman, Mohd Rosly Mohd Ishak.
Ku Li or Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah – Malaysia’s former finance minister – founded S46 after leaving Umno following the infamous Team A-Team B leadership tussle.
“Although it was likely that Pas would have still been able to recapture Kelantan back then, Umno and BN would not have been completely crippled if it wasn’t for Ku Li,” Rosly added.
Eventually, Ku Li disbanded S46 and returned to Umno in 1996 but the damage dealt to BN and Umno was already severe so much so that the coalition never recovered any substantial grounds in Kelantan.
While they are often labelled by critics as fanatics whom Pas has successfully indoctrinated, the more erudite locals argued that the Kelantanese’ zeal for Pas was inadvertently made stronger by BN.
“One must understand that in the 90s, the state was hardly given any allocation from the Federal Government, and whatever news regarding Kelantan that are carried by the media will always be an unsavoury one,” said a Pas party worker in Kuala Krai.
“The Kelantanese understand that politics played a huge part in this because we saw how well Pahang has been taken care of by the Federal Government. So, the more they smear us; the more they deprive us of development, the more we distrust them,” he added.
The only trouble Pas encountered was in the 2004 General Elections when it secured a narrow victory of 24 state seats against BN’s 21.
“Many felt that Umno was going to change for the better after Mahathir retired from politics and passed the torch to Pak Lah (former prime minister Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi), after all, he quite a religious man, unlike Mahathir,” recounted Syukri Zamani, an Imam in Pasir Puteh.
Contrary to its formidable influence in Kelantan, the only aspect that Pas has in common in Terengganu is the Islamist party’s conspicuous presence; the political similarity however ends there.
The scenario in Terengganu is the complete opposite as BN was never under serious threat since the state had its first pre-Merdeka election in 1954.
“The people of Terengganu are more laid back and experimental. Sandwiched between Kelantan and Pahang, they saw and acknowledge the benefits of BN’s administration,” said Fitri Nizam, a journalist who covered the state for 8 years.
“Even Hadi Awang (Pas president) had once suffered defeat at his own turf (Marang) twice in the 1986 and 2004 general elections against Datuk Seri Abdul Rahman Bakar. It shows that in Terengganu, while Pas is strong, BN isn’t weak at all,” added Fitri.
At state level, the only three defeats BN ever suffered in Terengganu were in the 1959, 1999 and the 2018.
Some said that the 1999 lost was due to the Reformasi Movement that ensued after the sacking of then Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, but senior Terengganu Umno members pointed out another contributing factor.
“Wan Mokhtar had overstayed his welcome,” said an old Umno member who was hanging out a BN tent in Kemaman, several of his aged peers also nodded in agreement.
He was referring to Terengganu’s longest serving MB Tan Sri Wan Mokhtar Wan Ahmad who stayed in office for 25 years from September 1, 1974, to December 2, 1999.
“I heard that he was hospitalised when he saw the 1999 election results,” quipped another in group.
The PAS victory in Terengganu however was short lived as they were voted out in the following election, with BN regaining the 28 state seats it had lost in 1999.
The swing, said Kemamam Umno division secretary Rosli Ahmad, was due to Pas’ uncouth and inconsiderate governance throughout its five-year stint.
Rosli said the most influential factor that broke the proverbial back of many Terengganites was the state-wide closure of almost all federal government-funded kindergartens.
“Most of these kindergartens were housed within buildings owned by the state government and back then Pas could not stomach the idea of allowing anything related to BN to operate in state-owned buildings
“PAS had also disbanded all JKKs (state government-funded welfare and safety committee in villages) and created a similar outfit called JSR with positions taken up by their people,” Rosli recalled.
However, the results from the 2013 elections in which BN secured a hair’s breadth victory of 17 seats against PAS’ 14 seats coupled with the Islamist party’s resounding victory in 2018 at both parliament and state levels indicated that many had buried the hatchet against it.
In the previous 2018 national polls, BN had only won two of the eight parliamentary seats in Terengganu, and this was its second worst defeat since the 1959 General Elections where it only won a single parliamentary constituency.
“We’ll recapture Setiu and Kemaman; these have been our traditional seats. And we’ll defend Besut and Hulu Terengganu, these are our forts,” said Terengganu BN chairman Datuk Seri Ahmad Said.
“These four seats, at the very least, we’ll win them back; by hook or by crook,” he stressed, confidently.
