Mahathir eyeing Kelantan

Mahathir eyeing Kelantan

By Barani Krishnan

KUALA LUMPUR (AFP): Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad is out to recapture Malaysia's only opposition ruled state in polls later this month, but Moslem fundamentalists in control of Kelantan say they will deny him the prize.

Home to some of Malaysia's most religious but poorest voters, Kelantan in the far northeast has been an enigma for Mahathir since the Parti Islam (PAS) wrested control of the state from the federal National Front coalition in 1990.

Five years on, Mahathir is trying to persuade voters in the rural backwater to change their minds about his National Front when they vote in Malaysia's ninth general election on April 24- 25.

Mahathir is arguing that only his 14-party coalition can ensure Kelantan catches up with fast-paced development elsewhere in Malaysia.

But few Kelantanese, who in 1990 denied Mahathir a single seat in the state legislature, are listening.

"The problem, or I should say good thing, about we Kelantanese is that we are generally God-fearing, contented people with little needs," said Wan Izat Wan Zahid, a 38-year-old hotel employee in the state capital Kota Baru.

"If Mahathir and his government had understood this, they would be more humble, simple and appealing like PAS," Wan Izat said.

The prime minister launched his Kelantan reelection bid in the state capital last Thursday.

PAS, whose turbaned campaigners are noted for their fiery oratory, will attack the National Front for alleged extravagance, religious ignorance and abuse of power.

This strategy helped the party score more points in 1990 than the National Front which attacked PAS for being racially extremist and religiously deviant.

PAS officials said that they were not too worried by Mahathir's claim that only the National Front can bring development to the region.

"We are just as capable of developing the state," said Husham Musa, political secretary to Kelantan Chief Minister Nik Aziz Nik Mat.

"We created 24 new factories with investments of more than 300 million ringgit (96 million dollars) since coming to power," Husham said.

"That compares against 25 factories with investments of 240 million ringgit that the National Front created between 1968 and 1990."

Mahathir, in Kota Baru last Thursday, told a rally of mostly fishermen and farmers that he knew they had problems understanding and visualizing the National Front's plans.

"And it doesn't help that some people walk around with earplugs and closed eyes while others are stopped by their spiritual leaders from watching, hearing or reading about us," the premier said.

Mahathir said he was ready to build a strong industrial base and foster a conducive climate for trade in Kelantan. The National Front would open a university in the state to improve education if it won, he added.

He also offered to work with arch-rival Razaleigh Hamzah, a 58-year-old Kelantan prince, who enjoys wide support in the state.

Razaleigh, a one-time finance minister who nearly ousted Mahathir from office in the mid 1980s, teamed up with PAS to wreck the National Front's campaign in Kelantan in 1990.

National Front officials however acknowledge that without Razaleigh they are unlikely to make much headway in a parochial state whose voters remain intensely loyal to their prince.

"The way I look at it, a couple of seats for us in Kelantan is good enough this time," a National Front official said.