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BN plays waiting game while PAS bickers Hawkeye | March 10, 2011 BN can afford to wait while PAS grapples with internal disputes that can threaten its hold on Kelantan. COMMENT KOTA BARU: Just over three years ago, then Kelantan Umno chairman Annuar Musa remarked that “PAS won big in the state not because it was strong but that Umno was greatly weakened by national issues”. The occasion was Umno’s initial reaction to the severe losses that Barisan Nasional (BN) suffered in Kelantan at the general election on March 8, 2008. Kelantan is a state ruled longest by an opposition party and had logically become a symbol of inspiration to voters in Kedah, Penang, Perak and Selangor on March 8, three years ago. Annuar also said the “(political) tsunami waves originated from the west coast and swept aside Umno in the east coast”. For the BN, a defeat is a norm here as time and again, the national coalition had lost in the state since 1990. BN has been out of power close to two decades now in the land of religious clerics where the highly popular yet dogmatic cleric Nik Abdul Aziz Nik Mat is the menteri besar. However, seven years ago it was short of only two seats of ousting PAS in the 2004 general election and that defeat is still a bitter pill to swallow. Annuar, who is now enjoying a resurgence of support after leading the Kelantan football team to glory in last year’s prestigious Malaysia Cup, believed that Umno was confident in 2008 as it believed that Nik Aziz might have overstayed his welcome. The PAS spiritual leader has been menteri besar for over 20 years and despite his ailing health, he continues to stay on, fighting to preserve his vision of Malaysia where Islam can offer solutions to many of its governance and morality woes. He is highly respected by all communities for his pious lifestyle and enjoys an almost saint-like stature in Kelantan, but he has yet to earn credentials as a good technocrat since the state continues to lag behind others in socio-economic development. Nik Aziz’s tenure is the second longest in the country after Sarawak Chief Minister Taib Mahmud. Glossing over internal problems In the 2008 national polls, according to Annuar, Umno was hoping that Nik Aziz would lose his grip because he had stayed for too long, and had inadvertedly caused factionalism to emerge within the state PAS circles. Each faction claimed to be close to Nik Aziz and each one is predicting that it had a chance to succeed the 79-year-old leader. PAS is good at shielding its internal differences, particularly in Kelantan, state opposition leader Alwi Che Ahmad from Umno said. In recent interviews, Alwi claimed PAS can gloss over its internal problems, but the fact remains that Kelantan PAS has factions and the longer Nik Aziz stays on, the wider will the gap grow between the camps. However, instead of basking in the success of the 2008 general election, Kelantan PAS has become a pale shadow of its former self as the state leaders got caught up with a rather vague proposal of national or Malay unity pacts, as espoused by Umno since 2008. One year later, the state leadership took a beating in the PAS national elections (muktamar) when Nik Aziz’s supposed protege Husam Musa lost in his bid to become a deputy president to the incumbent Nasharuddin Isa. Husam has since kept a low profile except to champion his pet project – claiming oil royalty from Petronas for drilling off Kelantan shores. Incidentally, his former strategic partner and blogger Syed Azizi Aziz, known online as “kickdefella”, was the individual who helped Husam produce the evidence to seek a stake in Petronas’ revenue. Now, Syed Azizi has become a staunch critic of Nik Aziz after he was apparently removed from a post in a state subsidiary. Lottery sales ban The fact that Syed Azizi was part of the state PAS think-tank who helped sweep away Umno in the 2008 election had party leaders here worried over whether he has indeed defected to the “enemy” after becoming disillusioned with Nik Aziz. Meanwhile, Husam’s relationship with Syed Azizi is also said to have caused uneasiness in some factions of Kelantan PAS. Then last week in the midst of the dual by-elections in Pahang and Malacca, with a sizeable number of non-Muslim voters in the two constituencies of Kerdau and Merlimau, Kelantan was taken to task by almost every party, including its partner DAP, for clamping down on the sale of lottery tickets. Defending the move, State Local Government Committee chairman Takiyuddin Hassan said it was a form of gambling and the local authorities had the right to ban it. Sale of alcohol is strictly restricted in Kelantan while gambling is banned under the state local government ordinance since 1995. However, PAS is under heavy fire for imposing the ban as it has denied non-Muslims their right to sell lottery tickets. MCA is also threatening to take the state government to court over the matter. It is learnt that enforcement officers raided the outlets here selling the lottery tickets after Syed Azizi had apparently exposed in his blogsite last month the presence of gambling and vice activities in the town, which is supposed to project an exemplary form of Islamic governance. A Kelantan political pundit, Yusoff Ismail, said that the party must close ranks and defend its bastion against criticisms, particularly in view of its growing support from the non-Muslim communities in urban constituencies. He said that Nik Aziz remains a revered figure in Kelantan politics but, citing the political turmoil in the Middle East, the latter should be careful not to overstay. To be fair to Nik Aziz, he had offered to step down as menteri besar after 2008, but was convinced particularly by Husam to stay on. With the PAS’ elections again emerging on the horizon, the party has many issues to address, including the proposed Malay unity talks, Yusoff said. He reminded that in the two state by-elections here – in Manek Urai and Galas respectively – the issue (unity talks) was debated widely. The first salvo fired by PAS in last year’s by-election in Galas was that Umno should stay out from contesting if it was serious about Malay unity, Yusoff said. He added that Barisan Nasional (BN) may not be able to wrest the state yet as the Kelantanese are still loyal to Nik Aziz. However, he said PAS has to admit that it has internal issues to resolve and in the age of transparency, it is simply counter-productive to hide its problems for too long. PAS should work sincerely and harder than ever to solve its internal problems, particularly in the bastion of Kelantan, he said. But it appears the BN is in no hurry to unseat PAS. “Whatever happens, time is on our side. If we have waited for 20 years, I am sure we can continue to wait. Patience is a virtue and soon, time would tell if Kelantan is willing to change and give BN a chance,” said Alwi. FROM...http://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/2011/03/10/bn-plays-waiting-game-while-pas-bickers/