Terengganu: where the one-eyed man is king

Raja Petra Kamarudin

The late Dato Andika who recently died at a ripe old age of 100 once told me that when he first arrived in Terengganu in the pre-war days (Second World War that is) the locals did not even know how to wear trousers yet. “They would wear two sarongs,” said Dato Andika, “One tied around the waist and another thrown over the shoulder. And the ladies would have a third piece of cloth to cover their heads.”

Just to digress a bit, when I lived in Terengganu from 1974 to 1994, I used to cruise the Terengganu River with my speedboat and you could see the local lasses bathing in the river wearing nothing but a one-piece sarong to cover their modesty. Well, that was the only form of entertainment in Terengganu then, in the days before the introduction of the Internet — so one would have to cruise the rivers instead of websites for excitement. And these anak dara (virgins) would be covered with a sarong that was tied above the breast to just below the knees while bathing — definitely a big turn-on for the young, hot-blooded males who would park themselves along the river bank absorbing the panorama while pampering their fantasies, not to mention ‘dirty old men’ in speedboats.

That was why I never took my wife on my speedboat jaunts lest she discover what it was that attracted me to the Terengganu River. Anyway, one day my wife sold off my speedboat and I came home from an outstation trip and found it gone. Someone must have told her what delicacies the Terengganu River had to offer. After that I just stuck to motorcycling.

Anyway, back to Dato Andika; “Understandably, you could not find any locals to serve the state government then as most did not receive any formal education,” Dato Andika reminisced. “So the British brought in the Malays from the other states, like Perak and Kedah, that already had an established civil service, to work as clerks.”

Terengganu, however, had one idiosyncrasy: the locals did not like outsiders, so there was much animosity between the locals and the orang luar (outsiders). Dato Aziz Ibrahim, the General Manager of the Terengganu State Economic Development Corporation (SEDC), was one case in point. He was from Kedah, so the locals despised him. Umno Youth was always going for his jugular and they even passed a resolution once calling for his removal. It was not that he was not doing a good job; he was; but they just did not like outsiders. The fact that Dato Aziz would demonstrate independence and professionalism and would not kowtow to the small-time politicians made it worse. Umno, somehow, had this notion that the SEDC chief was there to serve Umno and not the state.

Dato Aziz eventually left and the post passed into the hands of a politically appointed local and the SEDC just went downhill thereafter.

Even Chief Ministers (Menteri Besar) were not spared. When Dato Nik Hassan, who originated from Kelantan, was the Terengganu Chief Minister, he too was constantly at war with the locals. Once he had to seek refuge in the toilet when the brother of the then Sultan came looking for him with a pistol. The Sultan eventually banished his brother to the state of Pahang and he was not able to step foot in Terengganu again until the day he came back to attend the Sultan’s funeral when he died in the mid-1970s.

And there were many other orang luar who faced this same dilemma and who eventually threw their hands up in disgust and told the state to be damned. And be damned the state was, until today.

Now, the state is in the hands of a local, Idris Jusoh, and the entire government is run by locals and, in the process, the state is being run into the ground. The outsiders, not withstanding how brainy they may be, are absolutely not welcome in the state. Only Terengganu-born Malays may hold positions in the state.

I asked one Umno Terengganu Member of Parliament, other than one must be Terengganu-born Malay, what are the criteria for appointment to the post of SEDC General Manager, State Secretary, State Financial Officer, and so on. “Well,” replied the Member of Parliament, “He must be someone we can control.”

I can just imagine the job vacancy advertisement. “Must be Malay, must be born in Terengganu, must kowtow to Umno, and brains not required.”

Well, to be fair, it is not that there are no Malays, or Terengganu-born Malays, with brains. It is just that none of them are in Terengganu. The smart ones would leave the state and make good in the big city, similar to the Kelantanese. The brainy ones would not take any crap from Umno so they would not last very long in Terengganu.

So, to sum up, Terengganu is a classic case of the blind leading the blind. Therefore, in the world of the blind, the one-eyed man is king. And, today, this one-eyed man leading the blind is its Chief Minister, Idris Jusoh.

But Idris Jusoh is not having a field day in Terengganu. Umno Terengganu is currently going through a crisis of sorts. There are those within Umno who feel they are better qualified for the job of running the state and they are trying to oust him. And there is nothing worse than the enemy within. At least with PAS you know who your enemy is. But who are your enemies in Umno? Those who smile at you and pat you on the back and call you “Boss” could be the same people who have a dagger hidden in their ‘James Bond’ bag; what the Terengganu folks call an attaché bag.

Idris Jusoh, in fact, anticipated this, so he made sure that those with any semblance of calibre were given a Parliament seat to contest; and there are eight Parliament seats in all; while the 32 state seats were contested by those lesser mortals who are ‘blur’ (Malaysian slang for one who is confused) most of the time. Idris Jusoh knew he had a lot of shortcomings and that these would surface within months of him taking over the reins. So he did not want anyone more capable than him in the State Assembly because then his performance could be easily measured against his underlings and he would stand out like a sore thumb.

So Idris Jusoh surrounded himself with ‘blind’ people to ensure he would look the best amongst the lot. And now Terengganu is being run by a whole bunch of people without 20-20 vision. Idris Jusoh certainly stands out in this pathetic bunch and is seen as the star performer.

There are of course many capable people who could be in the State Assembly but Idris Jusoh refused to let them in. The high powered individuals from the Wan Mokhtar days were dropped from the list and were not given a seat to contest while the mediocre ones were asked to contest Parliament seats thereby ‘banishing’ them from Terengganu. And he kept the totally hopeless ones in the State Assembly.

Now these Umno kingpins and warlords who have been sidelined are his sworn enemies for life. And the Parliamentarians are not too happy either. They know that as mere Parliamentarians they will not go very far, especially since they are mediocre Parliamentarians. And how to make money as mere Parliamentarians? However, if they were back in the state as State Assemblymen, they would be holding positions in the State EXCO (Executive Committee) — the place where you could make a lot of money. They know the only reason they are Parliamentarians is because Idris Jusoh wants them out off his hair and safely parked in Kuala Lumpur where they will not pose any danger to him.

To add fuel to the fire, there is also a conflict between the Parliamentarians and the State Assemblymen. And this conflict involves money.

Both Parliamentarians and State Assemblymen receive an annual development budget which they can then use, or abuse, to implement small projects in their constituency. Idris Jusoh would of course readily dish out this money to his diehards while those he views with suspicion would find their money slow in coming. This is one way to kill the Wakil Rakyat (citizen’s representative); starve them of development expenditure and the voters will be very upset with them. Then, come the next election, this will be a good excuse to drop them and replace them with new candidates.

Sabotage is not the only problem though. Further to that, there are just not enough projects to go around as there is nothing left to develop. When PAS was in power from November 1999 to March 2004, Umno overdeveloped the state using the oil royalty that they held back from the state. About RM3 billion to RM4 billion was poured into building schools, mosques, rural clinics, and so on, to cater for a state with a population the size of Greater Kuala Lumpur.

Now that Umno is in power there is nothing left to build. The many schools are half empty and the balai raya (community halls) left to rot.

Umno promised the voters and supporters all sorts of things leading to the last election. They promised the moon and the sky; that is one reason they won. Now they cannot deliver even 10% of these promises. And the many contractors waiting with open palms and arms outstretched are still waiting and their arms are getting stiff.

There are 3,000 ‘class F’ contractors loitering outside the Chief Minister’s office waiting for handouts that were promised during the election campaign. And they are all locals and all Bumiputeras, mind you. But each day they return home disappointed. There are no jobs and they are getting very upset. The Mercedes Benzes and BMWs they bought in anticipation of these millions they were supposed to get once Umno is in power are being repossessed faster than you can say “Idris Jusoh”.

And to lose his Mercedes or BMW is a great embarrassment for any Bumiputera contractor worth his salt. And they can never forgive Idris Jusoh for this.

It is not that there are entirely no jobs at all. There are. But there are also 80 ‘class A’ contractors, personal friends of Idris Jusoh. And Idris Jusoh is obligated to help these friends of his. So these 80 ‘class A’ contractors are getting the jobs instead of the hungry 3,000 ‘class F’ chaps.

But these are small jobs to the tune of only tens of thousands of Ringgit. These are meant for ‘class F’ contractors. ‘Class A’ contractors are in the multi-million job category. How can they qualify for ‘class F’ jobs?

No problem. The ‘class A’ contractors just rent the licences from the ‘class F’ contractors for a small fee and use them as a front. The ‘class F’ contractors have no choice. The jobs are going to the ‘class A’ contractors anyway, friends of Idris Jusoh. Better they rent out their licences for 5% of the job value rather than get nothing at all. After all, there are 3,000 ‘class F’ licence holders. If you will not rent your licence out, there are many others who would be prepared to do so.

This is not Ali-Baba, this is Ali-Ahmad; or Umnoputeras exploiting Bumiputeras.

One Umno veteran said, “This is like the tiger eating the grass. The grass is meant for goats, not tigers.”

Yes, the ‘class A’ tiger may be eating the grass meant for the ‘class F’ goats, and using the goat’s ‘class F’ contractor’s licence on top of that. But if the goat gets in the way of the tiger and refuses to play ball, the tiger would eat both him and the grass at the same time. Goats should never argue with the tiger and should be grateful the tiger is prepared to share the spoils equally, 5% for you and 95% for me.

Many promises were made to entice the voters to kick PAS out of Terengganu. Now that PAS is out and Umno is back in power, they have to make good these election promises. But this is easier said than done. Even quit rent which was abolished during the reign of PAS has been reinstated and the voters are terribly upset. In fact, they were even considering backdating it five years to 2000 but changed their mind when they realised this would be political suicide.

For the locals, if one does not become a small time businessman or contractor, what else is there to do for a living? There are no factories in Terengganu. The ‘industrial parks’ that were built 20 to 30 years ago are overgrown with lalang. For example, in Batu Rakit, the roads, street lights and water supply have been there for more than 20 years now. But not a single factory has set up business there. And the same goes for Gong Badak and Cendering; ghost industrial parks. In the end, the government had to locate its facilities there just to give the place some semblance of activity.

Seeking employment in Terengganu is harder than trying to find a virgin in a brothel. The only employer is the government. But how many university graduates can the government absorb? And they must be well-connected and recommended by Umno first before they can get the job. So they migrate to the other states or to the big city and go home once a year for Hari Raya or to attend a wedding or funeral.

Yes, Idris Jusoh has a huge problem on his hands. But he is a man who cannot handle problems. He just does not have what it takes to fight it out. And his upbringing is one reason for this.

Idris Jusoh comes from a sawmilling family. For Terengganu standards, he is anak orang kaya (rich man’s son). He has never had to fight to earn a living. He was born with a silver spoon in his mouth and has always had things served to him on a silver platter.

His lack of fighting spirit and guts was demonstrated 20 years ago when all the eight divisional Umno Youth heads boycotted the Umno Convention in Kemaman. Idris Jusoh was one of them. Wan Mokhtar was outraged and wanted to sack the entire lot. Idris Jusoh quickly changed sides and all seven except him were sacked.

Idris Jusoh cannot face a challenge. When the going gets tough, the tough gets going. In Idris Jusoh’s case, when the going gets tough, he changes side.