Quiet religious revolution in Malaysian state

By Nelson Graves

KOTA BHARU, Malaysia (Reuters): Britney Spears belts out a pop hit while men and women check out groceries in separate lanes. A woman with a Muslim headscarf, crash helmet and trousers races by on a motorcycle.

Welcome to the capital of Malaysia's Islamic stronghold, where McDonald's and Pizza Hut restaurants -- but no night clubs -- are cheek by jowl with mosques.

Bucolic Kelantan state in the northeastern reaches of Peninsular Malaysia is the only province ruled by the Islamic fundamentalist Parti Islam se-Malaysia (PAS). For a decade the rice bowl next to Thailand has been PAS's political greenhouse.

With state and federal elections looming on Nov. 29, PAS sees Kelantan as a springboard for an assault on neighboring states where Muslim Malays and a rural way of life predominate.

"Islam is the way of Life. Vote PAS for peace, prosperity and harmony," reads a road sign outside Kampung Pulau Melaka village where Kelantan chief minister Nik Aziz Nik Mat lives in a moderately sized bungalow, eschewing the official residence.

Over the years, PAS's gains have been capped by the awesome strength of Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad's 14-party Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition and difficulty in finding partners who are comfortable with PAS's goal of establishing an Islamic state.

But Mahathir's dismissal of his former deputy Anwar Ibrahim -- who once was a firebrand Islamic youth leader and school chum of several PAS leaders -- has fanned dissatisfaction and driven the disparate opposition parties together, giving them the best chance in decades to chip away at the ruling alliance.

In the opposition's joint manifesto, no mention is made of an Islamic state. But PAS says it has not repudiated the goal.

The pragmatism that drove PAS to link arms with the Chinese- based Democratic Action Party (DAP) characterizes Nik Aziz's nine-year tenure at the helm of Kelantan.

The goateed cleric, known as Tok Guru, has not renounced the ideal of instituting hudud criminal laws that prescribe death by stoning for adulterers and amputation of hands for thieves.

But he has made compromises along the way.

Since reclaiming power in Kelantan in 1990 after more than a decade in the wilderness, the PAS government has ordered Muslim women to cover their heads while banning betting, night clubs and public consumption of alcohol.

But the separate-sex check-out counters are largely ignored, and some Muslim women choose not to wear headscarves.

Wan Abdul Rahim Wan Abdullah, speaker in Kelantan's state assembly, said many rules are loosely enforced and only apply to Muslims.

"The chief minister's approach is moderate and open," Rahim told Reuters over a mug of barley, sugar and water. "The British were here twisting our minds for 400 years. We need another 100."

As for the implementation of "hudud" laws, banned by the federal government in 1993, PAS can wait.

"That is not a top priority," he said. "The chief minister likes to persuade people to enforce the laws and make people understand Islam. So the implementation is very gradual."

A chat with merchants in Kota Bharu's central market, bedecked with flags bearing PAS's emblem of a white moon against green, suggests Nik Aziz's moderate brand of Islam goes down well.

"PAS good. BN no good," says Kahnah, a 50-year-old mother of six who has been selling rice for 20 years.

"PAS is no problem for business. Everyone here wants PAS because they do not take bribes."

Others are less committed. "Women have no problem with PAS," said Kahmi, 37, who works at a food stall. "But if the BN knows how to manage the economy, my children can go to school."

For Mohammad Nawawi Yaacob, executive secretary of Mahathir's coalition in Kelantan, the economy is the critical issue.

"People need jobs. There are very few factories in Kelantan and people have to go out of the state for work," he said, arguing that many Chinese had been let down by PAS.

Mahathir, Nawawi said, had vowed to build a university and spend more on highways and the airport if his coalition wins the state polls, held at the same time as the parliamentary polls.

Nawawi said PAS and the BN were neck and neck, with each dominating about 18 of 43 state assembly constituencies and the rest undecided. In 1995, PAS took 26 and the BN 17.

Chiding Nik Aziz for mixing religion and power, Nawawi said the chief minister had made a "stupid comment" when he recently said women who are less beautiful should be given more jobs because more attractive women could find husbands more easily.

Rahim dismissed the controversy over Nik Aziz's remark, saying it was a joke blown out of proportion, and said economic development was not the critical issue. "If Kelantan had wanted development it would not have rejected the BN in 1990," he said.

"The main issue is balanced development between the physical and spiritual," he said. "Any party which does not talk about religion is not able to control the people."

Although Rahim foresees PAS taking at least 11 of 14 parliamentary seats and 32 of 43 state seats, he acknowledges it will be tougher in other states including those in the Malay heartland where PAS is strongest.

"PAS cannot win alone. We don't ever dream to be in the majority. We know our position. We are being realistic."