This article first appeared in The Edge Malaysia Weekly on August 7, 2023 - August 13, 2023

PAS remains strong and seemingly unassailable in Kelantan, despite its failure to manage water supply issues, provide more job opportunities and spur economic and infrastructure development in the state.

There is no doubt that the Islamist party — which will contest 39 seats in the state legislative assembly — will secure a clean sweep on Aug 12, based on the results of the 15th general election (GE15). Its partner in the Perikatan Nasional (PN) coalition, Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia (Bersatu), will vie for the other six seats.

In GE15, PN captured all 14 parliamentary seats in Kelantan, including Gua Musang, a stronghold of Barisan Nasional (BN), although it was by a narrow margin of 0.3%. In the 2018 state election, PAS won 37 seats compared with BN’s eight.

Despite PAS’s firm hold on the state, the BN-Pakatan Harapan (BN-PH) alliance did not throw in the towel. BN will contest 31 seats in the upcoming polls while PH will vie for 14.

The voters in Kelantan, the majority of whom are Malays, seem to have few grouses about the PAS administration that has ruled the state for 33 years, even though the income level of ordinary folk isn’t high and economic matters, such as job creation and investments, are not quite a priority.

Kelantan’s median household expenditure-to-median income ratio is the highest in the country at 84.3% — above the national average of 67.6% — according to the Department of Statistics Malaysia (DOSM). This indicates that people in the state have to spend more than 80% of their monthly income on living expenses, despite the cost of living being considerably lower there compared with other parts of the country.

BN president Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, in his speech at Bangunan Umno Kelantan on nomination day on July 29, stressed that Kelantan is a state that is very bigoted for a party that promises “heaven”. He added that economic and infrastructure development must be brought to the state. Such narratives may be effective on the west coast of Peninsular Malaysia, but it remains to be seen if this approach will win votes here.

“I am comfortable with PAS. We do not need much development here,” Suzila Yaakob (not her real name), a teacher in Wakaf Bharu, tells The Edge at the Tumpat railway station. “Outsiders who do not know why we are still holding on to PAS should live in Kelantan, then they can make a judgement.”

PAS was heavily criticised for failing to resolve the water supply issues that resulted from the mismanagement of Air Kelantan Sdn Bhd. Households there do not have clean tap water supply — a basic necessity that many have taken for granted in other states.

Suzila says she has been using tube wells for the past month after experiencing a lack of clean water supply. “Water supply is not a problem here right now because most of us rely on air boring (tube wells) and not Air Kelantan.”

For more than three decades, PAS has successfully instilled religious and fundamentalist ideology in the society. It is observed that Kelantan voters who work in other states remain supportive of the party.

Arash, an employee at a convenience store in Bunut Payong, near Kota Baru, says: “PAS is about community support, which makes me feel that we are all part of a bigger family in this state. I feel PAS has done a lot to get the youth here involved in community events, like organising football games, the favourite sport in our area.”

Kelantan is part of the Malay heartland as more than 90% of the population are Malays. In the upcoming state polls, there are roughly 70,500 non-Malay voters in the state compared with the 1.33 million Malay voters.

“Our vote does not matter because we already know who will win,” says Janice Wong (not her real name), a 50-year-old who lives in Kota Baru. She tells The Edge that even after the death of former menteri besar Tan Sri Nik Abdul Aziz Nik Mat, there was no support or cash assistance from the state government to help the community, especially the needy. For that reason, she hopes for a change in the state government.

Gross domestic product per capita in Kelantan was the lowest in the country in 2022 at RM16,567, followed by Perlis (RM23,126) and Kedah (RM25,967). Kelantan’s 1.8% contribution to the country’s GDP was also the smallest.

The business community generally finds that the state is not that investor-friendly and the infrastructure is poor. Since there is no port nearby, companies that export products need to go to Port Klang. 

Furthermore, the state government does not provide any incentives or funding to drive business activity in Kelantan. Due to a lack of infrastructure development, in some circumstances, companies need to fork out their own money to build roads and street lamps.

PN Kelantan has unveiled its state election manifesto, which has solving water issues as its top priority. Themed “Kelantan Maju, Rakyat Sejahtera”, it has 18 priorities, including the rebranding of Air Kelantan, developing new towns to create more jobs and boost the state’s economy, as well as implementing programmes for education, women, families and youth.

Dr Mazlan Ali, a political analyst at the Perdana Centre of Science, Technology and Innovation Policy, at the Razak Faculty of Technology and Informatics at Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, says it would be difficult for PAS to fulfil its promises even if it wins by a landslide because of governance issues and a lack of ideas. “The level of professionalism in PAS’s management is low and incompetent.”

Meanwhile, Universiti Malaya senior lecturer Mohammad Tawfik Yaakub notes that the water supply and infrastructure issues in Kelantan cannot be resolved overnight. “Both the state and federal governments need to set aside their political differences to resolve this basic issue involving the allocation of funds and political will.”

The folks in Kelantan have lived with potholes in the roads and fresh water from tube wells for years. Yet, PAS has won every state election since 1990.

BN-PH, which is part of the federal government, is in a position to provide more financial allocation to build basic infrastructure in Kelantan. Will that help it to wrest a few seats away from the incumbents?

By Izzul Ikram and Syafiqah Salim

OF all the states controlled by the opposition, PAS’s stronghold of Kelantan has always been perceived as the hardest in which to make a dent. Nevertheless, the unity government will attempt to create a foothold in it during the upcoming state election — one of its strategies being to leave out DAP altogether.

The unity government is concerned that fears instilled in Kelantan’s electorate by the playing of the bogeyman card by PAS, and previously Barisan Nasional — over DAP allegedly being a racist and anti-Islamic party — will hamper efforts to gain Malay votes in the state.

DAP had eyed the Kota Lama state seat in view of Chinese voters making up over 30% of the constituency’s voter base. However, the seat went to Parti Amanah Negara’s (Amanah) Dr Hafidzah Mustakim (pictured).

Amanah Kelantan election director Datuk Wan Rahim Wan Abdullah tells The Edge that BN component party Umno requested that DAP not contest in Kelantan due to fears votes for the unity government would be negatively affected.

“During initial discussions, it was agreed that Umno would take the lead in Kelantan. Pakatan Harapan had agreed to give one seat to DAP, but Umno raised issues of the Kelantan Muslim community’s sensitivity towards DAP,” Wan Rahim says. “So, Umno requested that DAP not contest in Kelantan.”

Universiti Teknologi Mara Rembau (UiTM-Rembau) Administrative Science and Policy Studies senior lecturer Dr Che Hamdan Che Mohd Razali also sees giving DAP a chance to stand in any seat in Kelantan as a misstep. He suggests that it will enable PAS to leverage DAP’s sensitive image in the state to undermine PH and BN’s chances in the state election.

“If DAP contested in Kelantan, PAS would certainly stir the sentiment that PH and BN are leading the way for DAP to establish its ideology [in Kelantan], which for [the Malay-Muslim community] is seen as a threat to Malays and Islam,” he says.

Che Hamdan believes this is compounded by the majority of Kelantanese still regarding DAP as being a racially based party. He notes, however, that even Amanah and Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) have only small segments of the Kelantan state constituency electorates supporting them.

With not even one of Kelantan’s 45 state seats allocated to DAP, the party’s state leadership feels sidelined by the unity government, as if a mere afterthought.

DAP Kelantan chairman Datuk Azaha Abdul Rani (pictured) says DAP was previously asked by the unity government component parties not to participate in the state election campaign over fears of voter sentiment being affected.

“DAP was told not to participate [in campaigning] until nomination day. But right after nomination day was over, they [PH and BN component parties] began asking for DAP’s help [in campaigning] — pegang dan cium kaki kami (“holding and kissing our feet” — begging).”

Using some choice words, Azaha told them to campaign on their own.

Amanah’s Wan Rahim says the party has the highest chance of winning in Kota Lama when comparing the seven state seats in which the party is fielding candidates.

Meanwhile, Azaha says PAS’s Datuk Zamri Ismail will win the seat if Parti Rakyat Malaysia candidate Andy Tan splits the Chinese vote.

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