Malaysia: Tug-of-war over
Terengganu By Ioannis Gatsiounis
KUALA TERENGGANU, Malaysia - Passing along
Peninsular Malaysia's east coast, with its white-sand
beaches, airy, variegated A-frame houses, and old men in
sarongs pedaling gingerly to kampong (village)
mosques on rusty bicycles, there's little trace of the
election fervor that gripped the country a few short
weeks ago.
For evidence of that, one has to
enter the oil-rich state of Terengganu. Here, the logos
of the hardline Islamic Pan-Malaysia Islamic Party
(Parti Islam SeMalaysia, or PAS) and the moderate
Muslim-leaning ruling coalition Barisan Nasional (BN)
still do battle - with mottos spray painted on to rocks,
and party flags flapping from treetops and splintery
porches and pinned on to cafe walls.
This
climate doesn't materialize on paper, which says that
the BN, promising development and a more moderate form
of Islamic rule, crushed PAS, handily winning back
Terengganu and taking 90 percent of the parliamentary
seats nationwide.
It is apparent at the central
market, however, where incoming Chief Minister Idris
Jusoh was booed during his first visit. And in the
kampongs, where some family members reportedly
ceased talking with each other or were booted from their
homes for supporting the "wrong" party.
PAS and
its supporters know that the future of the party and its
dream of imposing an Islamic state on Malaysia's
multi-ethnic society may well hinge on first winning
back Terengganu. During its five years in power here,
PAS banned gambling, unisex hair salons, traditional
female dancing and the sale of alcohol at most
restaurants and hotels.
The BN won the state on
the perceived character and vision of new Prime Minister
Abdullah Badawi. Painting himself as a progressive
Muslim, he has vowed to tackle corruption, inefficiency
and rural poverty.
But not everyone is buying.
"We vote for PAS for religious reasons," said
Shukri bin Long, 35, as he whittled down the handle of a
traditional Islamic blade, a keris, while sitting
next to a rusty refrigerator adjacent to his tin-roofed
house. For 19 years he has cut about three blades a day
for which he'll earn about US$200 (RM760) a month. "[The
BN] is promising an airport and a highway, but this
isn't important to our welfare. There is no greater
investment in our future generations than religion."
Shukri said that when PAS president Abdul Hadi
Awang was chief minister here, he would hold spiritual
town gatherings on Wednesday nights. "Now we ask
ourselves about what [Idris Jusoh] will do on Wednesday
night. Can he teach us, can he teach our children the
values we need to be good people?"
The BN, led
by Abdullah's United Malays National Organization
(UMNO), promises change, Shukri said, "But why should we
believe that?" UMNO, he pointed out, ruled Terengganu
for 40 years before PAS wrested it away in 1999, buoyed
by voter disgust with rampant corruption and
inefficiency within the BN, rural neglect (Terengganu
remains one of the poorest states despite the fact that
it is home to 60 percent of Malaysia's crude oil), and
with former iron-fisted prime minister Mahathir
Mohamad's sacking and jailing of his popular
fundamentalist deputy Anwar Ibrahim.
Pundits say
the Abdullah Badawi factor has quelled these
indignities; the huge margin of victory proves that. But
new ones are taking their place. There have been
persistent allegations of voter fraud, a charge UMNO
officials unequivocally dismiss. "Some people just
cannot take reality" of defeat, said Haji Din bin Adam,
the new culture and youth executive commissioner from
UMNO.
That does little to account for the
suspiciously high voter turnout in some hotly contested
districts - 98 percent in one instance. Or widespread
gerrymandering and allegations of phantom voters. Or why
some polling booths remained open past official hours,
while at others people were reportedly prevented from
entering.
Stacks of used voter cards were found
in a trash heap. And one election result was overturned
by a 33-vote majority when it was discovered that a
candidate's 10-stacks, by which votes were to be
tallied, actually contained 11. The Election Commission
says it is investigating the allegations, but the body
itself is widely thought to be a puppet of UMNO.
In the present, these things hurt, said Syed
Azman, head of international affairs for PAS. But, he
added, they're something to build from. "People still
cannot accept the results, and I predict a lot of change
in the next few years."
He conceded, though,
that in order for that to happen the approach and tone
of PAS's message might need to change, as indeed it has
alienated more than a few voters.
In the
meantime, UMNO officials say they are hard at work
trying to integrate people here into Abdullah's brand of
moderate Islam, called Hadhari, which calls on
Malaysians to embrace the information age and attend
secular rather than religious schools. Most of the work
to be found in Terengganu is in handicrafts, fishing and
palm oil.
UMNO has already lifted the ban on
traditional female dancing and unisex hair salons. And
there's talk of reopening some legal gaming centers,
karaoke pubs and even nightclubs - though there's a need
to tread carefully, said Haji Din.
"If we move
too quick we run the risk of pushing people away," he
said.
Although for some, it's already too late.
"It makes me stand behind PAS more," said Haji
Wan Ngah, father of five, husband of two, from a seat at
his 21-year-old family-run restaurant, 007, famous
around the state for its keropok, a kind of
flour-based fish sausage. "There's a sense now among
people that they are free. But that's not what was
intended for us."
PAS also may be gaining
momentum from Abdullah's early moves. Or lack thereof.
His new cabinet is filled with leftovers from the
Mahathir years, some of whom are widely reported to be
corrupt. He's clamped down hard on the already
clamped-down press, and he has pledged his allegiance to
the Internal Securities Act, which reserves the right to
jail dissidents without trial. To some people he's
becoming indistinguishable from the old guard he's
worked so carefully to distance himself from.
It's not a feeling shared by all, particularly
among the younger generation.
Johari Mohamad,
19, said, "PAS is always accusing people of being
non-Muslim and not praying. But religion is an
individual thing." He added that there was little
development under PAS, which PAS officials, with some
validity, say is because Mahathir usurped the party's
right to petroleum royalties that could have been used
to make changes in the state. That doesn't matter to
Johari. Work does. And upon UMNO's election victory,
Johari said, UMNO gave him and 15 of his friends jobs
packing chickens for about $80 a month.
That may
be really close to the poverty line, Johari said, but
it's something all of PAS's calls for prayer and
devotion hadn't brought.
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