What will Pak Lah bring to Kelantan? Part 1

I believe that Pak Lah's next visit - will be Kelantan, what will he bring to Kelantan?

The people of the State of Kelantan have been unique, with a unique political history since Independence. If I am not mistaken Perikatan (the Alliance) failed to rule Kelantan, after the1969 racial riot Perikatan "kautim" PAS into a "Malay Unity" front to form a bigger front or alliance under a new entity called Barisan National (BN), which includes many other "racial based parties", Then PAS was driven out of BN after Tun Razak. Riots were instigated in Kelantan for political motives and the BN manged to take over Kelantan. said to be due to the ingenuity of Ku Li . Then, in a twist of history, with Ku Li new party the Semangat 46 (S46), assistance and cooperation PAS-S46 coalition wiped out then whole Kelantan's DUN, yes UMNO or BN = 0 !

Then BN says PAS would survived only 3 months. Initially there was an attempt, to ‘play around’ the Federation agreement. The Federal government, initially delayed their obligatory disbursement to the state coffers. The BN Federal government formed the Federal Development Department or JPP (Jabatan Pembangunan Persekutuan).The BN Federal government banned Harakah too - then approved it but reducing it from a daily publication for the public, to one with a limited circulation to members only and to be published only once every forth-night.

Lets us view one by one, the BN moves above, whatever the motives were is not our concerned, we will only critically viewed it from the end results that materialized as a result of such a move.

1) The 3 months survival ultimatum.

PAS did not only survived running the state government more than 3 months or for more than 18 years to date. Over and above that, PAS introduces a rakyat friendly measures, what the Federal government initially called, 'moves that will bring economic harm to the state (Kelantan)'. Firstly, PAS did not only transfer their accounts to Bank Islam but abolished interest for state government loans to their civil servants. PAS government introduces, a five days work per week and a sixty days maternity leave. Which were later copy-cat by BN. Insurance for OAP (Old age pensioners).

Despite all the "kerenah" or problems created by the Federal government, the state government emerged even stronger, with the PAS Chief Minister (MB) , leading by example. In Kelantan then, in a straight fight, generally, either party would only win with a margin of around a 1,000 for a Parliamentary seat. Today, the sway or margin had gone in favour of PAS though S 46 left the coalition, dissolved the party and asked their members to join UMNO en masse. PAS state government still managed to win enough seats to have a control over the state.

The only explanations that this can take place is because the Chief Minister had won the battle of the heart and minds of the people without much extra financial promises, for the people knew that Kelantan is not a rich state. This is rear in the Malaysian political history, where the promise of development and ‘bringing in projects’ been the bulwark of UMNO or BN modus operandi.

2) Islamic Bank accounts. – the domino effect.

Before the transfer, the state had had an account with Bank Bumiputra – a conventional banking bank form by UMNO after a Malay economic congress, that foresee having a bank is a necessity, to assist the Malay to be more vibrant in the economic sphere.

After the transfer, Bank Bumiputra opened an Islamic Banking subsidiary call Bank Muamalat. Bank Muamalat still keep a branch in Kota Bharu near Kota Darulnaim, the State government administrative center complex.

Other banks followed suit, including foreign banks like HSBC, start up their own Islamic banking alternative within their own banking set-up.

Part 2, insyaAllah – will continue with JPP and Harakah,(stop here to avoid long readings).