Islamist party PAS aiming for clean sweep in Terengganu state polls

KUALA TERENGGANU – The federal opposition Perikatan Nasional (PN) coalition led by the fundamentalist Parti Islam SeMalaysia (PAS) is eyeing a clean sweep of all 32 seats in the conservative east coast state of Terengganu at the

Aug 12 state elections.

Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim’s unity government – comprising Pakatan Harapan (PH) and Barisan Nasional (BN) – is fighting against seemingly insurmountable odds. In the November 2022 General Election, Datuk Seri Anwar’s coalition did not win a single federal parliamentary seat in Terengganu.

PAS is Terengganu’s incumbent ruling party.

“PAS is strong here. If you look at the last election, PAS took all the seats. Everyone says Umno has no chance,” said a 49-year-old food trucker who wanted to be known only as Pak Lan. Umno is BN’s lynchpin party.

Pak Lan’s food truck is located at a park near the massive Terengganu drawbridge, built at a cost of nearly RM250 million (S$73.6 million) and an iconic symbol of the state that is one of the poorest in Malaysia, yet rich with oil.

Terengganu PAS election director Ariffin Deraman told The Straits Times: “Our target is 32 seats. It is not just rhetoric, we have the data (to support this).”

During the November general election, PAS won all eight parliamentary constituencies in the state.

“If you break down the (November) results by state constituencies, we lost in only one state seat, and by a very thin margin,” said Mr Ariffin, adding that the party hopes to win the seat this time.

“The PN wave is still strong. We don’t see any major changes so far,” he noted, referring to a surge of support for PAS in November, making it the biggest bloc of MPs in Parliament.

He is confident, despite the lack of any major rallies by PAS here. It is opting instead to hold smaller-scale events in villages and live-streams on social media.

Campaigning has also been muted while the state observed a five-day mourning period for Terengganu Sultan Mizan Zainal Abidin’s mother, who died on Aug 3.

“We are focusing on campaigning in the state seat areas. We have nightly events in every seat, but on a small scale,” said Mr Ariffin.

For both sides of the political divide, campaigning has been quiet and low-key in Terengganu, a swing state that has switched several times between PAS and BN in the past few years.

In the 2018 election, PAS won 22 state assembly seats in Terengganu, while BN won 10.

It could prove to be a challenge for Umno to win seats in Malay-majority areas because it has aligned itself with Mr Anwar’s PH coalition, which counts the Chinese-led Democratic Action Party (DAP) as an ally. DAP is often used as a bogeyman to whip up Malay support.

A voter from Besut district, who wanted to be known only as Syaza, told ST: “I want a leader who prioritises Islam because we are Muslims.”

One of the issues plaguing the state government is the legacy of white elephant projects left behind by previous Umno administrations. Terengganu is one of four Malaysian states with oil and gas deposits offshore.

The federal government channels back to Terengganu so-called “oil royalty” funds that were used by the previous state administrations to build “mega” projects.

Along with each new Umno chief minister came a new “mega” project. But every time a new project was announced, the last one would end up becoming a white elephant.

Before the current PAS chief minister, Terengganu saw a change of chief minister three times between 2004 and 2018 due to Umno infighting, which also caused it to lose control of the state in 2018.

PAS has been working on reviving some of the abandoned projects, including building a bridge at Poh island near Kenyir Lake, which was officially opened in June. A hotel is expected to be completed there in September.

Terengganu receives royalty funds amounting to RM1.5 billion annually, which is a huge boost to its state coffers.

Mr Ariffin said the federal government under Mr Anwar has been paying the state the oil royalty in monthly instalments. He did not disclose the amount paid each month.

“We hope that starting from September, the government will give the state the money in full,” he said.

He said the PAS state government had fulfilled all of its promises under the 2018 election manifesto, and hence there should be no reason for voters to switch. These include providing free water for the poor, building more religious schools, and increasing Malay reserve land.

As part of its manifesto for the upcoming state elections, PAS has promised to provide interest-free motorcycle loans for those earning less than RM4,000, grants for youth entrepreneurs, and cash aid for farmers and fishermen.

“We have a good Menteri Besar who runs an excellent administration. He is educated and takes measures to help the people, not for personal gain. So we don’t have any problems with the state government. I am satisfied with it,” said 44-year-old financial officer Sumayyah Ibrahim.